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Glenfarclas
1920, the oldest unopened bottle of
Glenfarclas still in existence returns
to the distillery.
J. & G. Grant have revealed that they
have welcomed home what they
believe to be the oldest unopened bottle
of Glenfarclas still in existence, a
bottle of Glenfarclas from 1920. The
distillery has now added the recently
discovered bottle to its archive.
The story behind the bottle is that back
in 1920 on the closure of the grain
whisky distillery, Gartloch Distillery,
at Chryston, Lanarkshire, the Gartloch
Distillery manager, Stephen Dowell, was
presented with this 1920 bottle of
Glenfarclas which would mean that the
whisky was distilled more than 100
years ago.
The bottle was kept by Mr Dowell until
1947, then passed to his daughter. She
then passed it to Mr Hugh Taylor, her
niece’s husband, back in 1988 – after it
was discovered wrapped in a tea towel at
the back of the laundry cupboard! He
kept hold of it until recently, when his
family contacted Glenfarclas.
The bottle came home during a lunch in
April when John Grant was able to
inspect it in person for the first time.
A number of features on the bottle meant
he had absolutely no doubt about it’s
authenticity. In an age when a number of
bottles purportedly from that time are
turning out to be counterfeit, this one
is definitely the real deal. John said:
"I am delighted to bring this bottle
containing whisky from the time of my
grandfather back to it’s spiritual home,
and as such add another chapter to our
archive."
Visitors to the Spirit of Speyside
Whisky Festival will be able to view the
bottle, which will be on display in the
Glenfarclas visitor centre alongside the
new Glenfarclas Speyside Festival
bottling which this year is a 2004
single cask selected by distillery
manager Callum Fraser. From this coming
Thursday, 80 Festival bottles per day
will be available at the distillery on a
first come first served basis.
If you will not be lucky enough to be
heading to the Speyside Festival you will also find the
current Glenfarclas whisky range available from specialist online whisky retailers such as The Whisky Exchange
and
Master of Malt
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