May 2005

SPIRIT OF SPEYSIDE - WHISKY BRUNCH AT GLENFARCLAS

It was one of those glorious, shiny days when we arrived at Glenfarclas. Perhaps not the most attractive distillery from the outside, the venue for our brunch certainly made up for it. We stepped back in time into the magnificent Ships' Room which features panelling from the Empress of Australia Ocean liner's First Class Smoking Lounge.

The Spirit of Speyside festival has been running for several years now. The number of events increases each year - this year a number of food events feature including this brunch and a cookery demonstration from the editor of the French Whisky magazine. Everywhere we went, we bumped into Europeans enjoying the festival. Where were all the visitors from Scotland and the rest of the UK?

I thoroughly enjoyed my porridge laced with 10 year old cask strength malt. We then made our choice from scallops, black pudding, a chive and whisky sauce, smoked salmon, mushrooms and more. Aberdeen butteries and Glenfarclas flavoured marmalade accompanied our further two glasses of malt - the 25 year old particularly smooth and delicious.

It may have been the drams, but what a wonderful, personal tour of the distillery followed. We were allowed to peer into bubbling vats of what would become the malt, peek into huge empty vats with vast paddles and peep into a pot still whose contents would later be made into animal feed.

As Glenfarclas' water supply is peaty, the barley is malted specially with a minimum of peat smoke to ensure the characteristic tast. The grist (malted barley) is ground to give a mixture of coarse, medium and fine grains. Each batch is tested using the box system above.

Interior of the mash tun.

In the tun room, a total of 12 washbacks with a capacity on 58,000 gallons.

Inside one of the tuns pictured above

In the still room, two of the the six traditional direct-fired pot stills, three 'wash' stills for the first distillation and three spirit stills. The paler still was new last year.

Traditional dunnage complete with earth floor. One warehouse might contain 3,500 barrels.

Anyone for a visit to the Speyside festival next May?

The Glenfarclas website.