Operating continually for over 180 years, Glenfarclas is one of the big players in Speyside, its six stills (3 wash, 3 spirit) are the largest in the region with a capacity of 3.5 million liters per year. Even more impressive is, in a time of proliferating No Age Statement malts, this distillery has an extremely wide range of age statement whiskies in constant production. While they have a few older bottlings like a 25, 30 and 40 year, they also have many younger offerings like 10, 12, 15, 17 and 21 year whiskies that are, relatively speaking, very affordable. This expression, like many Glenfarclas malts, is aged exclusively in ex-sherry casks.
Ardbeg “Dark Cove”
Taking a page from the illicit beginnings of whisky production in a long ago Scotland, the 2016 Committee Release by Ardbeg is called the Dark Cove. This hearkens back to before the official founding of the distillery in 1815, specifically to a time when excise men from the government found and raided the secret cove from whence the smugglers had long been using as a base of operations. With that illegal arm of whisky distribution disbanded, the site was soon occupied by the McDougall family, who were the founders of Ardbeg. Legend has it John McDougall’s own sons, Alexander and Alan, were arrested for smuggling years before the distillery was born. Ardbeg held many events under the cover of night upon this release, along with aging the spirit in dark sherry casks.
Tamdhu 10 Year
Tamdhu makes no bones about tapping into the Scottish ingenuity found prominently in the Enlightenment. Built in 1898 by a consortium of Scottish whisky traders, the distillery lays along the River Spey with the stated aim of producing the finest whisky possible. At least until it closed in 2010. With a resurgence of whisky in full swing, however, the site didn’t remain stagnant for long and was purchased in 2011 by Ian Macleod Distillers to be reborn in 2013 with the same Can-Dhu spirit (trust us, they make use of this wordplay too). Being so new, in a sense, the distillery only has three main offerings, with this 10 year being the flagship.