[May, 2018]  Every year since 1997 the german Glenfarclas distributor releases a special bottling named after a historical scottish character and almost all of these bottlings were of high quality.  So I am very curious about this year's release that matured for almost 30 years in refill sherry casks.  I bought bottle no. 2921 for 150 Euro.

The colour is amber and the texture shows fat sticky tears with very slow legs.  The nose is rather shy on a herbal-driven refill sherry profile with floral and grassy aromas.  Not really impressive, I guess these casks were already exhausted when filled back in 1988.  The dram arrives somewhat hot and peppery in the mouth with a nice coating effect (so the spirit was excellent, see the great texture above).  But again the casks did not contribute very much to the taste during the 30 years of maturation.  It is thin and one has to carefully search for the flavours as they do not come across as they should in a decent dram.  Do not get me wrong, the taste is pretty fine but I expect much more from a 30-years old whisky (not to mention Glenfarclas...).  The finish is rather short and of the same (exhausted) quality.  Water is not helpful either what is often with releases from inactive casks - if there are no (rich) flavours and aromas what should the additional water release?

To be honest, this is the worst release of this series that I tasted so far.  It is easy drinkable, for sure, and better than many other drams from other distilleries - but it is way below the usual high Glenfarclas standard.  Even a great spirit cannot compensate for leached casks.  I am sure they never would have bottled this as a single malt release before the whisky boom...

I can accept the review of Hs305 to 99%. Only I have no sharpness or pepper but everything relatively weak. I'm also not a glenfarclass fan but this is a standard that is good drinkable. But not 30 years.

Typical Glenfarclas nose - pure oak wood.

In the taste rather spicy, sweet, old and ripe.

Wonderful.