Scotch Whisky Review: Glenfarclas 25 Cask Strength — Batch 1

Elliott
1 min readMay 3, 2023

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Excellence marred by a huge price increase 😭

Glenfarclas 25 Cask Strength (Batch 1)

Glenfarclas 25 Cask Strength (Batch 1) / 52.2% ABV / ¥37,800

Tasted neat

This bottle is really batch 4 of the (discontinued) CS 21-year-old series for exclusive Japan release, but with the rebranding to blue-and-gold labels, they have dropped the 21 Year and replaced it with a more expensive 25 Year Old.

  • Color: auburn (1.5)
  • Nose: bright sherry, cigar smoke, leather, icing sugar, and honeysuckle
  • Taste: sherry, tobacco, spice, rich oily oakiness, vanilla ice cream, and cantaloupe
  • Finish: rich and long, with meaty barbecue fading into citrus zest

I think the extra four years did something here, this is a bit better than the 21 Year CS, but the price increase (nearly double) means that I will probably not be a regular purchaser.

This seems to be produced in more limited quantities; if you live in Japan, Mukawa still has one bottle.

Rating: 8/10

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Elliott

Personal interests in literature, SF, and whisky/whiskey/scotch, Software Engineer by Trade