Glenfarclas 11 Year Old 2000 SMWS Single 1st Fill Bourbon Barrel 1.159 Lively and Explosive Speyside Single Malt Scotch Whisky (2011) 75cl

Glenfarclas 11 Year Old 2000 SMWS Single 1st Fill Bourbon Barrel 1.159 Lively and Explosive Speyside Single Malt Scotch Whisky (2011) 75cl

1 of 211 bottles produced

The oldest label format from the Scotch Malt Whisky Society which ran from 1983 until 2006.

This was only released in USA so a little more whisky at 75cl instead of 70cl.
It is such a delight to see some of the really early editions of the SMWS single cask bottlings. Even better to drink them!

The Scotch Malt Whisky Society was founded in Edinburgh in 1983 by Phillip 'Pip' Hills who, while travelling around Scotland in the 1970s, fell in love with whiskies drawn straight from the cask. After he expanded his syndicate the Society was purchased by Glenmorangie PLC in 2004. In 2015, the Society was sold back to private investors. In June 2021, the private owners floated the holding company The Artisanal Spirits Company plc on the Alternative Investment Market of the London Stock Exchange.

It has a unique code system where the first number refers to the distillery and the second refers to the cask from which the bottle comes. SMWS also offers the largest range of distilleries of any independent bottler. These curiously named drams really do have something for every whisky lover!

The SMWS are one of the Britain's most revered independent bottlers with a worldwide network of partner bars with one mission of getting as much whisky at natural cask strength without water to different nations including USA, Canada, Switzerland, UK, Austria, Germany and many others.

These older labels from the first runs are mostly with distillation methods that include direct heat which was replaced with steam for many distilleries for environmental reasons changing the taste of whisky forever. It'll get real interesting when nuclear fusion is used to distil whisky. We might glow green for a few weeks after we drink the stuff. Who knows.... but all we know is that the old stuff has a musky taste that is VERY welcomed by people nowadays trying to time travel through whisky's past.

TASTING NOTES

An unusual and intriguing wee dram on the nose – hard peaches, wood sap, nutty notes, quince, juniper, flint, Evo-Stik and green ginger – quite clean but was it floral or soapy? The palate was fizzy, lively and tooth-stripping, with explosive ginger heat, granny smith apples, vanilla and mint humbugs. The nose seemed smoother and sweeter with water – cocoa butter, sherbet fountains (with liquorice), ginger beer and lime – quite summery in character. The reduced palate became well-rounded and easy-drinking with some of the deeper botanical ingredients of gin coming through – liquorice, aniseed, angelica and cassia. The distillery sits north of Ben Rinnes.

About J & G Grant, Glenfarclas Distillery

Glenfarclas means "The Valley of the Green Grass" in Gaelic, and the skilled Scots obtain the water used in the distillation from a small spring that rises from the beautiful and dramatic Ben Rinnes. The distillery is located at the foot of the heather-covered mountain, where the water spurts out from the underlying granite when the winter snow melts. The combination of the very pure, soft water and the unique shape of the pot stills that Glenfarclas uses contributes to the distillery's unique Highland Single Malts .

Glenfarclas Distillery has been family-owned since 1865, and it is the Grant family who have established the Scotch whisky distillery as one of the best in the world. Glenfarclas is one of the few remaining Scottish distilleries that are still family-owned. Since 1865, the distillery has been in the hands of the same family: The Grants. John Grant was actually a cattle farmer when he bought Recherlich Farm and Glenfarclas Distillery in 1865 for £511. It is six generations of whisky knowledge that benefits us consumers today. This continuity has made it possible for Glenfarclas to still use older ways of making whisky. Not because of romance and a longing for history. Glenfarclas is a success, and rightly so.

As George Grant, the sixth generation of the family, puts it: "We've lived through 22 recessions. We make the whisky we can afford to make and never borrow money to make it." During the 1980s, when the whisky industry itself was cutting back on production, Glenfarclas's was on the rise. Glenfarclas has larger volumes in stock than most distilleries. A reluctance to independent bottlers using the distillery's name on their (rare) offerings has also helped maintain a strong identity for the Glenfarclas brand itself. Glenfarclas also insists on maturing its whiskies in ex- sherry casks . This helps the whisky achieve greater body, complexity and sweetness. It's no small operation, and today they have 80,000 casks for ageing. Since 1989 they have come from Spain, specifically Huelva near Jerez - and they do so almost every month.

56.2% ABV

75cl