Glenfarclas New Make Spirit

Nose: Cereal, banana, slightly beer-like but delicately floral (distant rose and jonquil). Palate: Semi-sweet, malty, oily and lip-puckering at cask strength but without any sulphurous flavours. Sweeter, softer and oilier when diluted. Finish: Medium. Cereal fading to malt. Not as sweet as some other Scottish new-make I have tasted and with a slightly ale-like flavour. Tasted at cask-filling strength this was a little “hard” but when reduced it gained softness. Like all barley spirit it reminds me of genever, but not one I would particularly want to enjoy neat. The fragrant notes on the nose of this new-make are quintessentially Glenfarclas and they show up in every expression, even the very old caskings. I rate new-make spirit according to how well I think it works as a mixing base, which seems the only valid way to me. “Good” : 83/100 (3.5 stars)