The elegant flavours of our whisky will be perceived differently by different people as they allow the complex character of our dram to unfold in their glass over time.

So, we won’t issue any ‘official’ tasting notes and instead encourage folk to explore the scents and sensory experience of The Hearach single malt from a more personal point of view.

Instead, each batch will come with some simple words written by someone from our local community as they enjoy a glass and delve a little deeper into their island memories and imagination, to help things along.

The personal tasting notes for Batch HE0000123 were provided by Shona Macleod from Carragreich, who is also our distillery blender…

“I get a gentle peat smoke on the first sip which reminds me of island home fires burning when I was growing up. It comes along with a toasted maltiness. I can also taste homemade apple sauce and smell machair flowers, particularly white clover which springs up on our west coast every summer. Mixed spices appear, and an old-fashioned sweetness from things like candied ginger, vanilla, and honeycomb. Finally, there’s a long, clotted-cream note, mixed with a lasting sense of new leather.”

We’d love to hear your personal tasting notes too. Learn more about our whisky and submit your sensory stories via the button below.

OUR WHISKY

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM

GLENFARCLAS DISTILLERY

!It has been a very busy year here at Glenfarclas with time flying by so quickly we can’t believe its nearly Christmas already! It has been an exciting 12 months for us with lots of new additions and releases. Before we finish for Christmas to enjoy a lovely festive break we wanted to share the highlights of our year. We hope you will join us in enjoying a dram of Glenfarclas whilst you read all about 2023!

2023 Icons of Whisky Scottish Distiller of the Year

We were delighted and honoured to start 2023 being named as Icons of Whisky’s Scottish Distiller of the Year.

During the annual Icons dinner in Edinburgh Douglas Belford, Managing Director and Callum Fraser, Distillery Manager had the honour of accepting the award. It is proudly on display here at the Visitor Centre in recognition of the whole team’s hard work and dedication.

Launch of our 50 Year Old Limited Edition

At the end of last year we announced the global launch of our 50 Year Old Glenfarclas which was released at the beginning of this year. The limited release of 836 bottles at 50% abv coincides with our Chairman John Grant’s 50th year in the Scotch Whisky Industry. These specially selected casks, which have been housed here at Glenfarclas for half a century, have been beautifully presented inside a gold-engraved decanter. It is a stunning dram which has made it’s way around the world with launch events in Switzerland, Canada and Taiwan.Proudly photographed above is our Distillery Manager, Callum (left) with our Chairman John (right) holding our limited release decanter.

Introducing our 35 Year Old Red Warehouse Door Edition

To complete our Red Warehouse Door Collection we have introduced a 35 Year Old Glenfarclas which sits beautifully between our 30 and 40 Year Old expressions. This bottling will be released in limited quantities globally each year. It has already made its way around the world and we are looking forward to the next release in 2024.

For anyone who is curious about the tasting notes of the 35 year old, Callum has created his own set of very enticing tasting notes:

Colour: Beautiful coppery amber.
Nose: Sweet floral toffee notes with hints of leather and waxy green apples.
Taste: Treacle toffee and boiled sweets give way to cocoa powder, soft cinnamon spice, and even a touch of peach.
Finish: Long lasting with a buttery/silky effect deep on the palate.

Lifetime Achievement Award Honour for John Grant

This year’s Spirit of Speyside Whisky Festival saw our Chairman John Grant receive the Lifetime Achievement Award during the opening dinner in recognition of more than 50 years of dedication to the Scotch Whisky industry in Speyside.

Since John could not attend the dinner in person, Callum Fraser accepted the award on his behalf and later presented it to John here at Glenfarclas, who said he was “honoured and surprised” by the recognition.

50 Years of the Glenfarclas Visitor Centre

This year marks the 50th anniversary of our Visitor Centre here at Glenfarclas. In 1973 we opened our doors to the public for the first time and have been welcoming visitors from all corners of the world ever since. In honour of this special occasion our Visitor Centre team hosted a dinner in the Ship’s Room during the Spirit of Speyside Whisky Festival where guests were lucky enough to sample our new 50 year old release and hear all about Glenfarclas through the years.

Photographed above (top) is the Glenfarclas Visitor Centre in the 1970s and on the bottom is the Visitor Centre today.

This month we also released a 2014 Distillery Exclusive bottled at 58.1% abv, which aptly holds cask number 1973. This single cask was specially selected by our Visitor Centre team with only 319 bottles being sold exclusively from our Visitor Centre at £150 per bottle.

One of One Auction

We were delighted to participate in the One of One Auction in support of the Distiller’s Venture. Glenfarclas developed and donated a twin set set of stunning decanters housing single casks from 1967 and 1968 which were presented in a bespoke solid wood ash cabinet. With Sotheby’s estimating the value between £20,000 and £30,000 we were thrilled to see this unique pair make the top end.

Aberdeen Staysure PGA Legends Tour

August was an extremely busy and exciting month for all of us here at Glenfarclas. We were thrilled to be the official Scotch whisky sponsors of the Aberdeen Staysure PGA Legends Tournament. Our entire team got involved throughout the week and we had a lot of fun introducing lots of new people to Glenfarclas!

During the event we offered tastings and the opportunity to test your skills with our brand new whisky inspired mini golf game which was designed specially by our production team.

It was a fantastic week all around from the Celebrity Pro-Am to seeing our very own Murray Drummond represent Glenfarclas in the Alliance Individuals. Throughout the week we had the pleasure of meeting golfing legends and seeing them play the course.

To mark the occasion we bottled a limited PGA 12yo edition. We still have a small number available at our Visitor Centre priced at £60.

As you can see it is has been quite the year for the team here. We are looking forward to many exciting new projects and releases in 2024.

We would like to take this opportunity to wish you and yours a Merry Christmas and all the very best for the New Year!

Season’s Greetings from The Macallan

From our home to yours, The Macallan wishes you a peaceful and joyous festive season

It’s amazing what you notice when you are not in a hurry. When you lift your head and catch your breath, what you find is joy. So here’s to taking the time and getting lost in the moments that matter the most this Christmas.

Share the festive joy of slow

From the Glengoyne family to yours, we wish you a very merry Christmas and we look forward to the year ahead with exclusive bottlings and special events created just for you.

Slàinte Mhath,

The Glengoyne Team

Who else is heading for a half century celebration in 2033? That’s the year The Scotch Malt Whisky Society turns 50 and we’re already getting organised. What about you?

If 2033 is going to be a landmark year for you as well – maybe with a big birthday, a wedding anniversary or a group or society celebration of your own – then you could mark the occasion with your very own personal bottling of a whisky from The Scotch Malt Whisky Society, by signing up to be part of our exclusive 50th Anniversary Cask Club programme.

The idea is simple – sign up now to share in the experience of selecting a cask of new-make spirit from one of two prestigious Scottish whisky distilleries. You can monitor the cask’s maturation over the next 10 years, and then in 2033, on the Society’s 50th anniversary, you’ll be able to bottle your own whisky with a specially customised label and share the delights of your 10-year-old dram.

The 50th Anniversary Cask Club experience starts from £4,000, depending on what cask type you choose. The up-front price covers the contents of the cask, as well as storage and insurance for the next 10 years. Additional costs such as the bottling fee, duty, and VAT will be payable at the time of bottling.

Don’t miss out – we have a limited number of casks available and they are being snapped up quickly. Grab your chance to own a part of The Scotch Malt Whisky Society’s story over the next 10 years, with a once-in-a-lifetime bottling to share as part of your celebrations in 2033!

Visit the website now to discover everything you need to know about the 50th Anniversary Cask Club.

BE PART OF OUR WHISKY HISTORY

NOTICE TO EU & INTERNATIONAL MEMBERS

Online ordering is only available for UK Members. If you would like a front row seat for our next decade and live outside UK, please visit the website via the link below to find out more. You can then contact our DRAM-cierge team if you have any questions or are ready to place an order.

Email DRAM-Cierge: dram-cierge@smws.com

The Scotch Malt Whisky Society, The Vaults, 87 Giles Street, Leith EH6 6BZ

Contact: sales@smws.com or call 0131 555 2929 (Mon-Fri 9am-4.45pm). Visit the Society at here for membership information

This is your chance to join and to take advantage of their great offers!

Spot the SMWS bottles in this amusing You Tube video

When someone reminds me each year that we only have minutes to go until Christmas – I am a bit like a deer in headlights – a little startled! But I’m mostly dumbfounded that another year has rolled by in the blink of an eye. So many questions emerge… have we achieved what we wanted to this year? What else could we have done? Who do I owe a drink to for all the work and seemingly unrecognised support they have given us this year?

2023 at the distillery has been a fun year. The team are all fantastic and cheerful. They get on and are good at their jobs, making it a lovely place to arrive each day. The distillers have had one of the busiest years ever, with our largest output ever achieved in a year and a growing contract storage business for other companies’ casks – they have not had much spare time on their hands. We have said goodbye to Stuart, who has decided to try a career in farming, and we wish him well. To try and speed some jobs up, we have invested in a very hi-tech new labelling machine, which should result in straighter labels and more bottles filled per day, which in turn should free up a  bit of time for the most important task of looking after the maturing whisky casks.

I am delighted to see 2023 exports continue to thrive, especially in Belgium, the Czech Republic and Singapore, which have shown significant growth this year. My usual reminder to you all reading – if you have a favourite booze shop or restaurant/hotel that doesn’t stock our whisky, let me know, and we will do our best to get it into stock – no matter where you live. Many thanks to all our distributors, wholesalers, exporters and the teams that work for them for continuing to look after us so well; it is noticed and appreciated.

The distillery has taken on the wonderful Becky to fill our event spaces. These have been a bit of an unintentional secret for many years as we simply didn’t have anyone to shout about them. Becky has arrived all guns blazing and has already shown what is possible – so if you need somewhere for a meeting, conference, event, etc, we are now ready for you.

The events are made even better by the re-opening of the distillery restaurant. The building has been taken on by Lucy and Grant, who formerly ran the Kings Arms at Haugley, a very smart and wonderful award-winning pub in Suffolk. They are a very welcome addition to the distillery site and one you should find time to come and sample – the food is amazing.

We also have a new website, and a reinvigorated distillery shop, which I am told makes online shopping easier. The website, newsletters and all things online have hugely improved this year, and I hope you are now getting lots of newsletters that are more interesting and useful to you than before and a few more discount codes (this makes me scowl, but apparently it makes you all happy, so will continue whilst my scowl becomes even more locked in place)

I think 2024 may be a difficult time for all businesses, and indeed, in the distilling world, the belief is it may be a tricky year, with reports in from fellow distillers of reductions in distilling and cutbacks in staffing – it feels as though the industry is hunkering down for a bit. I am refusing to moan, though, as I am reminded how lovely our life is compared to the poor souls in Ukraine, Israel, Gaza & Yemen and lots of other places not as wonderfully secure as our green and lovely island.

My political bit for the year – the chancellor needs to leave alcohol duty alone! Did you know that today, on a bottle of our Original single malt, which retails at £47.50, the chancellor takes £17.44 in tax? I think that’s quite enough…

On a personal note, thank you to my lovely wife Katy for being there, working twice as hard as I did, and then coming home to work another few hours looking after our two children. The kids have entertained us all year and seem to love school, but back to my initial point, it is Sofie’s 10^th Birthday next week. How is that another year gone rushing by?

Merry Christmas to you all, and thank you for continuing to support us. If you can, make time to come and try out the Grain Kitchen in 2024.

Yours Sincerely,

Andrew Nelstrop

Chairman

Last minute Xmas Gifts?

Still struggling with Christmas gift ideas? Our shop beside Whiski Rooms is open right up till Xmas Eve with an array of delightfully Scottish gifts and treats.

Our gift vouchers make great gifts, so versatile and can be used in all three of our Whiski Venues so take your pick from Whiski Bar on the Royal Mile with its live music every night tor the romantic Whiski Rooms or indulge in a delicious whisky tasting in our shop or just buy a bottle of something tasty with your gift voucher – we ‘ve got it covered.

Our Whisky tastings run daily and cover our Introduction to Whisky, Whisky and Chocolate and Whisky and Cheese tastings and also for the more experienced whisky drinker we can do our Premium Whisky Tastings – something for everyone and fun guaranteed, no experience necessary !

The best thing is you can schedule your gift voucher to arrive when you want it to – all easy convenient and order online from the comfort of home.

Buy Gift Vouchers Now

George Dickel 15 Year Old (16 Years Old) “K&L Exclusive 104.6 Proof” Barrel #06E05-17310 Single Barrel Tennessee Whisky (750ml) $54.99 View

The famous Dickel 15 Year Old continues to deliver the absolute best value in old American whisky. This barrel distilled on May 5th 2006 and bottled on June 22nd of 2022 is one of the highest proof expression we’ve yet to come across. The high corn style whisky is sometimes compared to some of the wheated whisky from Kentucky offering deep rich caramel and complex oak flavors. Few out there can boast stocks as old, but absolutely no one is CRAZY enough to sell 16+ year old whisky for $55. Only 108 bottles at cask strength were produced from this special barrel.

Elijah Craig Barrel Proof “Magnum Thief” K&L Exclusive Single Barrel #6694812 Kentucky Straight Bourbon (750ml) $84.99 View

This rich single barrel of Elijah Craig comes in at 9 years old and 117.8 proof. Aed in Rickhouse K on the 3rd floor it is one of those sweet spot center cut of the warehouse barrels.

Email: wine@klwines.com
Phone: (877) KL-WINES (Toll Free 877.559.4637)
K&L Wine Merchants 3005 El Camino Real Redwood City, CA 94061 USA
San Francisco, Redwood City, Hollywood CA

THE PERFECT PAIRING FOR
YOUR FAVOURITE WHISKIES

Want to know if your favourite dram pairs best with blue cheese, cured meats or Christmas turkey? We’ve partnered with the whisky experts at Diageo to create a range of tasty food pairings to go with a selection of classic whiskies, from smoky Talisker to waxy Clynelish.

Our wine expert, head buyer and experienced sommelier Dawn Davies MW has matched up which snacks, dishes or desserts pair best with more than 100 whiskies. Simply click on your favourite whiskies to find out our recommended food pairings.

  DISCOVER NOW