Glenfarclas Distillery Tour Review – Speyside/Scotland [photos] – About Access,visitor centre, Tasting
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Glenfarclas was the last distillery of our two-month trip.
While many distilleries are run by large companies, Glenfarclas is one that has stayed family-owned.
Here’s a look at our visit.
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目次
Features of the Distillery
Located on the middle reaches of the River Spey, halfway between Craigellachie and Grantown-on-Spey.
The name means “valley of the green grassland” in Gaelic.
It was founded in 1836, but really got going in the 1870s once John Grant became involved.
Today it is owned by George Grant (the 6th generation) and remains family-run.
The mashing water comes from springwater on Ben Rinnes, and the casks are Spanish oak sherry casks.
The pot stills are ball-shaped, with six in total — among the largest in Speyside.
Heating is done entirely by direct gas fire; the only other distillery to do this is Glenfiddich.
Its signature whiskies are the 10, 12, 30, and 40 Year Old, and the 105 (proof).
In addition, the Family Casks lineup covers every vintage from 1952 to 2005, bottled from single casks.
The visitor center is built using reclaimed materials from the officers’ mess of the ship Empress of Australia.
Glenfarclas’s washbacks are made of stainless steel.
Access /Map
You can get there by bus from Aberlour, though there’s only about one bus a day.
We were running out of time, so we took a taxi.
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The Distillery’s Exterior
We forgot to take a photo of the visitor center (unusually, all we had were photos of ourselves), but it was the building with a slightly Japanese- or Chinese-style roof.
There were still monuments dotted around it.
The Tour We Joined
Since this was already our 50th distillery, and it happened to be just the two of us on the tour, the guide kindly offered to skip the parts about how whisky is made that we’d already know.
But we said “Tell us everything!” and got the full, standard tour.
Inside, the distillery had a cohesive look, all done up in Glenfarclas’s signature red.
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The Final Tasting
We did the tasting in a lovely room at the back of the shop.
If I remember right, this tasting room was themed around a ship.
It had a really luxurious atmosphere.
The Shop
The shop had whiskies and other items arranged around the till.
To the left there’s a corridor, where the whiskies from across the years were lined up, so you could enjoy the collection.
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Summary
There’s a bar called Mash Tun in the town of Aberlour, and it too had Glenfarclas whiskies from across the years on display.
Stopping by there is also worth it.
This was a place where you could really feel the design, flavor, and history that come from being one of the rare family-run distilleries.