This Glenfarclas was released to celebrate the 175th anniversary of the distillery a while ago in the Netherlands. It sold out pretty quickly here, but when it was released in other countries more recently it didn’t cause the same hype. Strange.

It is a whisky created with whiskies from the last 6 decades, so there is some fifty year old stuff in there, but also (and probably more of) 3 to 10 year old…

Nose:
Some pretty heavy whisky is there first but there is some influence from old and new too. The woodiness with fruit and spices from older whisky and some fiercer notes and peppery style from younger whisky as well. Its pretty hard to pinpoint some smells because of the complex mixture of styles. I do get some European oak with some leather, and it gets a bit lighter after a while.

Taste:
A lot of sweet tropical fruit and some apple too. Not as much wood as I expected, the older whiskies are less pronounced here. It does taste a bit ‘average’. It does, however, have a typical Glenfarclas ring to it.

Finish:
This is where this whisky lost me. The more typical flavours I would expect after the scents and taste were not really here and it tasted a bit flat. Also I thought it quite short.

This whisky fascinated me more as a gimmick than as a great dram. It has its qualities, but I think its not as good as other Glenfarclases you can get for this kind of money.

Glenfarclas 175th Anniversary, 43%, about 85 euros at Master of Malt.

Nose: 8
Taste: 7
Finish: 4
Overal experience: 6
Price/quality: -1

Total: 24 points