Glenfarclas Distillery
Glenfarclas Distillery
Speyside
Banffshire
Glenfarclas meaning – The Valley of the Green Grass. After tasting this fine dram in the Mash Tun public house in Aberlour, Catherine and I decided that this was a visit that had to be made while on this trip. So we went, up the long straight avenue towards the visitors centre and distillery. The view comprised of rolling hills and farmland. This proximity to the fields conjures up thoughts of years gone by when it was a working farm, the barley would have come from these fields straight to the maltings shed. The local water would have been added from the Green Burn and – Hey Presto Whisky on tap – but I am getting carried away here.
As we had arrived on a Saturday, a non-working day, we had the opportunity to see operations not normally available, the stone removing apparatus was static and we could see where the heavier stones rose up the plates to be collected at the top while the lighter barley tricked down to the grinding rollers of the mill (stones getting between the finely adjusted rollers would destroy them) The grist coming from those rollers on a working day would have ended up in the huge mash tun but as it was Saturday the tun was empty and spotlessly clean giving us the opportunity to see the finely sieved floor plates in gleaming stainless steel which helped us to understand how the 15 tons of grist processes the wort simply by
Donna led us from the tun/washback room through to the still room to show us the 3 pairs of stills, 1 pair kept in reserve. These stills are amongst the largest in Speyside, the Wash Still alone capable of housing almost 30,000 litres. We then left the stills behind to walk back to the visitors centre passing the Filling Room and Warehouses where Glenfarclas still mature their own spirit in first fill or refill Olorosso Sherry casks where they lie before being bottled at 10 years old or at 12, 15, 17, 21, 25, 30, 40 and a staggering 50 years old. Also a cask strength “105” at 10 years (sounds like a breath taker).
ps. I tasted one for you too Jim !!
Cheers Dougie