The Glenfarclas 105 Cask Strength

Tasting notes:
The nose of the Glenfarclas 105 opens with crushed rose petals (yellow, Texas) and nitroglycerin tablets (your grandma’s pillbox in her purse). There’s a deep sherry goodness, not so much infused as imbued or maybe even incarnate. It’s conceptual art peace project in the form of unexploded WWI and WWII artillery munitions wrapped in crushed velvet (red) from an old castle (Versailles).
     The mouth is conflagrationary, a contained forest fire that otherwise rages beyond the control of man. It’s strong and syrupy, like Terms of Endearment. A seared cast iron skillet over heat (high) with vegetable oil sizzling with ghost peppers. The movie that springs to mind is How to Train a Dragon, III: The Glenfarclas. Why, we wondered, is it the “105”? Is it because it’s seven times hotter and more explosive than the Glenfarclas 15? 
     The finish is long and strong, packed with flavor: a sequoia seed-pod sachet with sandalwood shavings. If it were an actor, the finish would Johansson (Scarlett). [Stephen: Bill! Not everything comes back to Scarlett Johansson!] Fine, if the finish were an actor, it’d be sleepy-eyed Robert Mitchum practically smoldering with sexual tension and bad boy violence! Better?
     With water, miracles occur. Fire on the nose becomes burnt peat inside a burnt-out birchbag murse that holds keys to the Batmobile, liquified cinnamon for pranking wannabes vaping e-cigarettes, and flan dusted with carmelized cinnamon. Against all expectations, it also amplifies the syrupy mouthfeel, and oranges burst out like a señorita’s grove in March. The finish becomes lollipoppy, all natural, a market-crushing collaborative project of Burt’s Bees, Henrietta’s Hornets, and Willard’s Wasps. We recommend water.

Rating: