🥃 Glenfarclas

Glenfarclas is a distillery and brand of single malt Scotch whisky in Ballindalloch, in Speyside. It is still owned and run by the Grant family, through the company J & G Grant. According to sources, the licence to distil here was granted to tenant Robert Hay in 1836, and the Grants bought the distillery in 1865.

History. Claims about the founding year vary, because distilling on the farm, according to Difford's Guide, may have happened before the official licence. John Grant bought the distillery on 8 June 1865, and six generations of the family have run it since. It is one of the few independent family-owned distilleries in Scotland.

How it is made. The distillery keeps direct-fired copper stills, which are now rare: Difford's Guide adds that an attempt to switch to indirect heating in 1980 was reversed after three weeks. The whisky matures mainly in former sherry casks in damp, low dunnage warehouses. The brand has plain packaging and is aimed at people who drink whisky rather than collect it.

Range. Ages run from 8 to 40 years. The 105 is a strong cask-strength version, and the Family Cask series, launched in 2007, offers single casks from individual years from 1952 to 1994, but the oldest have already sold out.

Why it matters to you. Single malt means whisky from one distillery made from malted barley, and the age on the label is the age of the youngest whisky in the bottle. The 105 and Family Cask versions have a different strength from the standard bottlings, so read the label. The WHO reminds us that there is no safe level of alcohol consumption.