The original Glenfarclas 105 was launched by John Grant in 1968, a Christmas gift to family and friends that grew, almost by accident, into the first commercially bottled cask-strength single malt in Scotland. Its name records the old British proof system rather than the metric one, 105 proof being the equivalent of 60% alcohol by volume, and the whisky has remained at exactly that strength ever since.
The 25 Year Old version is the most senior expression of the 105 line, and effectively a 25 Year Old Glenfarclas married and bottled without the customary reduction to 43%. The same oloroso casks, the same direct-fired stills, the same warehouses below Ben Rinnes, only this time without the diplomatic intervention of the bottling-hall water tank.
What that produces is a whisky of considerable density. Twenty-five summers of oloroso ageing on a fuller new-make spirit, carried into the glass at full strength, gives a sherried weight that is increasingly difficult to find elsewhere as old stocks of properly seasoned Spanish wood thin out across the industry.
It rewards a generous splash of water and an unhurried evening. To approach it otherwise is to mistake the assignment.
