Glenfarclas Single Cask #2017 30 Years Old 1970 (Oloroso)

This official Glenfarclas, a 30 year old, from 1970, cask 2017, at 51%, 278 bottles in all. Glenfarclas is a Speyside single malt, the house behind the pioneering 105 cask strength. It was licensed in 1836 under Robert Hay and bought in 1865 by John Grant for 511 pounds. It draws on that deep inventory for the Family Casks, single vintages reaching back to the 1950s.

It was worked unhurried through the stillhouse, for a weighty, nutty spirit the sherry then deepens. Maturation came in an Oloroso sherry cask, layered over the full Glenfarclas make. At a great, fragile age oxidation rules, sotolon lending maple and dried fig as beeswax and old leather linger. The wood frames the spirit without ever stripping the full Speyside body. Long ageing turns the fresh notes towards date, prune and a dark, bittersweet chocolate. Vanillin and oak lactones from the wood lend vanilla and a soft coconut over the fruit.

At its natural 51% it is rich and chewy. Orange, raisin and a treacle edge, with dried fruit, fig and walnut from the cask. A dark chocolate and a soft oak give it weight. A long finish carries raisin, chocolate and a treacle. This is a deep, sherried Speyside single malt.