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Release Notes
When George Grant offered us the opportunity to take multiple casks for a special exclusive bottling, we were over the moon. The creative juices began flowing. We talked about doing an ultra-aged expression, but we didn't feel we could match the outrageous cask from the 1970 vintage, which we'd acquired a couple of years back. Instead, we decided to focus on a NAS (no age statement) mixture of casks from earlier vintages. The goal was to create a high proof, heavily sherried 'Farclas that we could sell for around $100. After tasting multiple vintages from 8 to 15 years of age, we settled on three of our favorite casks in the 9-10 year range. At no other distillery is vintage so important and the importance of their vessel was clear when tasting these younger expressions. We've ended up with a mixture of young casks that surpass even our own high expectations. This is full fledged and powerful, yet tempered by the strong influence of that special wine of Andalucía. If you love sherry, if you love high proof single malt, if you love powerful flavors and massively textural whisky, then this bottling is for you. Even better, if you love not spending a ton for a bespoke offering from one of the world's best distilleries, don't wait to order. We'll have more than the standard single barrel, but this bottling is still highly limited.
K&L
The Distillery: Glenfarclas
| Established: 1836 |
| Silent since: False |
| Address: Ballindalloch, Speyside, Banffshire AB37 9BD, United Kingdom |
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The Glenfarclas distillery is one of the last "family" distilleries in Speyside. Glenfarclas was licensed in 1836 by farm tenant Robert Hay. For a while around 1850 Glenfarclas was also known under the name "Glenlivet" - but we all know who won the battle for that name... Nowadays, only Glenlivet distillery can use that name.
A local newspaper of the time wrote about the Pattisons: "Advertising was resorted to on a scale previously undreamt of." In 1897 the Pattisons spent 20.000 pounds on a world wide advertising campaign. In those days one could still buy or build a distillery for that amount of money. In 1898 they even spent 60.000 pounds on advertising for brands like "The Doctor" and "The Gordon".
Banks and investers swarmed around the brothers like flies around a dung heap. For years the Pattisons had no problems with attracting the necessary funding for their various schemes. They lived the good life and built opulent houses in Edinburgh and the Lowlands.
The flamboyant Pattison brothers were inventive pioneers in advertising. They were not discouraged by the fact that mass media like radio and television were not invented yet. The Pattisons just used the "tools" available to them at the time. At one time these tools even included parrots... The brothers distributed no less than 500 grey parrots amongst grocers. And these were no ordinary parrots; they were carefully trained to continuously shout "Buy Pattisons" at the top of their little bird lungs. Surprisingly enough, many people followed the advice of these "bird brains".
Thanks to stunts like these (and massive sums of borrowed money) the Pattison"s whisky empiregrew rapidly and they soon owned half of Glenfarclas and large chunks of Oban and Aultmore.
In 1865 Glenfarclas was obtained from Robert Hay"s executors by John Grant who then let it to John Smith until 1870. By that time, John (the "Smith" one) had built Cragganmore for himself, so after 1870 Glenfarclas was run by J. & G. Grant. In 1895 the Glenfarclas-Glenlivet Distillery Co Ltd formed, half of which was owned by Pattison, Elder & Co and the other half by the Grant family.
Glenfarclas was rebuilt in 1896, shortly before Pattison, Elder & Co were bankrupted in 1898. This bankruptcy sent shockwaves through the Scotch whisky industry; its effects were so profound that more than a century later the story of "The Pattison Crisis" is still being told in the whisky world as a cautionary tale. Given its relevance to the history of Glenfarclas, I"ll include some "headlines" on this page. The brothers Robert & Walter Pattison started out as dairy traders in Edinburgh. When demand for Scotch whisky exploded in the 1880"s and 1890"s the Pattisons smelled an opportunity and started a blending & retailing company in 1887. In 1889 they collected 100.000 pounds at the stock exchange.
Like every bubble, this one had to burst some time. When it did, it turned out that some business practices of the Pattisons were illegal - so they ended up in prison...
After "The Pattison Crisis" the Grant family took over full control of the distillery again.
2002 - Glenfarclas chairman George S. Grant passes away and his son John L. S. Grant succeeds him.
2006 - The first Glenfarclas "Family Casks" are released. New bottlings in de range are released in 2007, 2008 & 2009. (Scroll down for a handful tasting notes.)
In the year 1900 they decided to change the name of the company back to J. & G. Grant - and the operation has continued to operate under that very same name until the present day.
After the commotion caused by the Pattison crisis, Glenfarclas enjoyed a few peaceful and quiet decades. It wasn"t until 1960 that the next big event in the history of Glenfarclas took place; the number of stills was doubled from two to four.
The production capacity of the distillery was expanded again soon afterwards; in 1976 the number of stills was extended to six.
In the new Millenium
from Malt Maniacs
The Owner: J & G Grant
| Established: 1865 |
| Silent since: False |
| Address: Ballindalloch, Speyside, Banffshire AB37 9BD, United Kingdom |
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J & G Grant is a familiy owned corporation which owns and operates Glenfarclas distillery. Grant originally purchased Glenfarclas in 1865, J & G Grant was incorporated in 1947.
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