1996 Glenfarclas The Family Casks Cask Strength Single Malt Scotch Whisky (700ml)

An offer that will ultimately be unsustainable, and less and less profound as younger years enter to replace older ones. The Family Casks Collection has become a minor phenomenon that magnetises buyers from the very finest bars and whisky shops around the globe. A second shipment is now in Australia, sans wholesaler. This offer includes three re-stocks (1992, 1994 and 1995 - everything else gone in Europe), the rest new, including (remarkably) six bottles of the most popular year since the Family Casks started: the 1979. Reissued more than a dozen times, and no, it’s not a sherried whisky.

Commencing in 2007 as 43 single casks spanning five decades, George Grant speaks candidly about the collection that came about after a high profile rival (Macallan) released a similar range circa 2005, boasting only they had the inventory to pull it off. With six generations of family pride at stake, Grant launched his own liquid genealogy. An exercise in one-upmanship became an ongoing concern after a single bar in Japan purchased 178 bottles. 380 bottlings later, more than one collector has followed suit securing complete sets. Grant remains emphatic that these are for people who buy and drink whisky but concedes, “Whisky is now deemed as a safe investment. Look at the past 10 years and it outstrips everything – property, oil, you name it.”

Grant also admits this project isn’t sustainable.
Will we be able purchase the Family Casks again? Probably. However this second instalment has already seen six vintages drop off the list. From here on in the whiskies will be younger or the prices higher. Or both. Unless we get lucky. Remember. Direct import prices. Few whisky producers on the planet are able to boast an inventory like this. You can’t say you never get a chance in life.

(Note: these whiskies are vintage, then cask No. specific. More than one cask may be released under the one vintage so refer to cask numbers if you're searching for specific reviews).

Matured in a Sherry Butt, this was distilled in 1996 and drawn from cask No. 1067 at 57.6% in July 2016. 580 bottles available.