Glenfarclas 105 & Wild Water – Whisky & Wild Review 1

We recently spent an afternoon in the company of Corey and Louis (Picture below) from The Hideout Bar in Bath. It’s a hidden gem with a whisky collection to rival any in the country. They’ve recently started stocking Larkfire so we went down and had an informal tasting with them.

The back bar has whisky from Boutique-y, Springbank and many of the ‘hard to find’ recent releases such as Ardnamurchan. The choice was a little bewildering but we are not expecting any sympathy. It’s not exactly a hardship as a job is it?

They are awesome… (Corey on left, Celia in middle and Louis on the right)

We spent some considerable time checking Bath tap water against Larkfire within the drams. It’s safe to say Bath tap water, like London tap water, has very few fans. No new members of this odd fan club were found and we stopped adding the hard, chemical water to our lovely drams. Larkfire’s soft, pure water won the day rather easily.

Glenfarclas 105 was chosen as the final dram of the afternoon. This is a sherry dominant, cask strength NAS (No Age Statement) whisky that so many of us have tasted but is often forgotten. The rise of other cask strength whiskies means that this classic tends to drift to the back of the shelf.

And this was our revelation.

We need to bring it further forward on the shelf and make it a Larkfire staple, something we offer at our bars and hotel stockists. You see, Glenfarclas is a traditionally made whisky that reveals itself with water. Added to this Larkfire, being a Hebridean community brand, fits very well with the simplicity of Glenfarclas.

This revelation did come after a full measure of 105 + Wild Water in a quirky bar in Bath, so let’s check our notes on the day.

Nose:

As with many cask strength whiskies there is a ‘tight’ nature to the nose. An astringent, citrus, damp wood that is pleasant and intriguing. The big sherry notes are there as well as dark sugars and bonfire toffee (remember that?).

It is with the addition of Larkfire that the fruits and sugars open up. The nose becomes less of a detective game and more of an enjoyable experience. The maturation or wood becomes soft rather than astringent, the harsher lemon moves to sweeter citrus. All of the dark fruit that was promised is now revealed. It’s an absolute cracker of a dram on the nose.

Palate:

Without Larkfire it’s a punchy number. This is a Wily Coyote TNT sherry bomb and you might expect your palate to take time to recover. Meep Meep indeed.

After the initial attack and the 60% ABV dies a little in the mouth you can find the dark fruit, dates, syrup you would expect from a Sherry cask. This reviewer often gets a blackcurrant jam note mid palate which is a real joy to discover. But a soft, pure water like Larkfire will reveal the complexities here.

As the excellent whisky writer Matt the Dramble notes, water actually adds a viscosity and even a spice. This is an unusual effect as water often emulsifies and softens. Not so with Glenfarclas 105.

The dark fruits freshen up, you begin to understand how the sherry cask and the robust Glenfarclas spirit combine. Everything becomes easier to understand and the dangerous stacks of TNT fade away to reveal a wonderful honeyed, Speyside classic.

Finish:

Glenfarclas 105 is a 100-metre race of a dram. It’s fun, full of action and pace but the finish is not long. A musty, forgotten sloe jam with some acidity. This is a fruity, pepper end that could be the robust Glenfarclas spirit coming forward. Like many other sherry dominant distilleries, the new make has to be built to withstand such active casks.

The actual session at The Hideout was not this tidy…

In the current market we have a proliferation of cask strength whiskies, often from single casks and this has put 105 further down the buyers list. But consider this, Glenfarclas 105 can generally be found around the £50 mark. By all accounts there is no chill filtering. It’s colouring (and batch consistency) comes from the addition of very old whiskies* and frankly, it’s gorgeous.

The market obsession with age statements is, in our opinion, restricting creativity in blended malts and pushing prices above the mainstream. We got a nod from Corey and Louis at The Hideout on this new NAS crusade, but we were all several drams in. I think we need another 105 + Wild Water to make sure…

*Told to us by Distillery Manager Callum Fraser