Review 105 - 26 February 2021

Review 105 looks at the core cask strength release from Glenfarclas, of course it has to be the 105. Getting it's name from the former British way used to measure alcohol proof, in this case 105 proof was 60%, today, 60% would be 120 proof. The 105 was first released in 1968 and was the first instance of a barrel proof single malt whisky being released.

The 105 is a non age statement release, although it is commonly believed that is is somewhere between 8-10 year old. Matured in a combination of ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks, it can't technically be called a sherry bomb, but wait for it, don't let the maturation fool you, a whisky finished for only a few months can still pack a sherry punch, the 105 has been partly matured in sherry casks, however we don't know the ratio to ex-bourbon.

The 105 retails for an average of £49.26 for a regular 700ml bottle, but shop around, as prices can be very different. We gathered our prices on Thursday 11th February , we exclude special discount or promotion prices, however list them for your benefit, the average price was calculated as follow:

Master of Malt £43.35
The Whisky Exchange £53.75
House of Malt £49.95, however at that time was on discount to £44.40
Luvians £48.99

Excluded from our average was the price at The Whisky World, which were selling a 1 litre bottle, like the one from our review, for £53.90, which represents a 700ml price below £40. We bought our bottle before the UK's departure from the EU, when you could pick up a 1 Litre bottle for a little over £40 including delivery.

The 105 is all natural colour, as for chill filtration, they don't say on the bottle, or the tin, nor their website come to think of it. However, it is common knowledge they don't chill filter, but there is speculation they heavily barrier filter. Sticking to our rules, since there is no mention of chill filtration, when it comes to the value score, points are deducted. For the value score then, it achieves a decent 93.83, it really is a shame about the lack of mention on the bottle about chill filtration, because the 105 would have scored very highly indeed. It still does represent great value, expecially if you can pick this up on an offer price.

Before we get into the nosing and tasting, the Glenfarclas 105 was our very first cask strength whisky, in fact, it was our first sherried whisky. A couple of years ago, we were looking for a whisky that had notes of christmas cake, after a google, we came across this article on Flaviar, since we were still new to whisky and on a budget, the 105 was the clear winner, we ordered our first bottle, a 200ml offering from The Whisky Exchange, this was very much our first 'Epiphany' whisky, since then, we have bought and finished a standard 700ml and now are half way through the 1 litre bottle, in fact this whisky is so dear to us, it is used to feed and mature our home made christmas cake.

Announced recently in a review, we mentioned that our full bottle reviews would also include the review from a blind dram sample sent to one of our followers, in this case, a sample of the 105 was sent to our friend Tom better known on Twitter as @Dramofwar(Whisky Shorts).

We sent Tom the blind sample, no indication about what was in the bottle was mentioned. He was as asked to consider several aspects of the whisky and asked to suggest a price, score and if he would buy a bottle.

Hopefully having a blind review as part of our review process will offer more re-assurance to you with less bias and more value.

Onto the review. We asked Tom to cosider what he thought was the ABV, from the nose, he suspected around 47% Alcohol

On the nose, there is a nip of alcohol if you put your nose deep enough into the glass. It very much a subdued sherry, with some sweetness, toffee and caramel. There are spices but they aren't as potent as you would expect. Give it enough time and some bourbon influenced notes appear. After a little more time and there is a distinct concentrated fruit mustiness. 

On the nose Tom got red fruits, toffee or caramel and custard.

On the palate, the first thing you will notice is from start to finish the alcohol makes its presence known, it nips with a burn, suggesting a little youthfulness.
It is very oily and viscous. Only when the dram is diluted with siliva do the dark fruits of cherry, sultana and apricot make themselves known. It starts musty and concentrated. Then dark chocolate and toffee appear with some spices of cinnamon, ginger and tiny note of cream or custard. This has an oaky mouth drying spiced finish. This dram is crying out for a drop or several of water and more time in the glass.

On the palate, Tom suggested that this was a strong whisky, spicy, thick viscous mouthfeel. Diluted toffee appears.

This is not your typical sherry bomb (So its not technically a sherrybomb). But with water you start to experience more fruit like orange and orange peel, cherry and lemon. There is then coffee and more oak.

Tom thought that this was a form of wine maturation and considered it a speyside whisky. On both counts he is pretty accurate and he also considered the price around £45 a bottle, which is very much in the price range of the bottle. When considering if he would buy a bottle he suggests the whisky was too high an ABV but it has an enjoyable nose but it isn't a whisky he would go for. He scored it 80 out of 100.

How do we score it. As we said earlier, we love this dram and it will always be part of our collection and recommend it as one to try, however, that said, this whisky has some failings. The ABV does come across too hot and for the uninitiated is too much to handle, as such, this is very much an intermediate to advanced whisky experience. Emphasising that time and water is very much needed to get the most of this whisky.

Taking on board the review from Tom and our own scoring system, we are meeting Tom halfway and score this whisky 85 out of 100. Considering how much this whisky costs in the UK and what other sherry style whiskies are available in the UK for about the same price, then there are better expressions available.