Glenfarclas 1978 Edition N°1

An 18 year old Glenfarclas, a distillery bottling, from 1978, at 51.7%, 1200 bottles in all. Glenfarclas is a richly sherried Speyside single malt, run by the Grant family since 1865. It holds some sixty eight thousand casks on site in dunnage warehouses, with stock from every year since 1953. Its spirit is matured almost wholly in sherry butts brought up from Jerez. Direct firing chars the wash a little, lending the rich, nutty depth Glenfarclas is known for.

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. Through oxidative maturity the esters concentrate, the orchard notes turning to raisin, fig and a dark chocolate. The full bodied spirit takes active sherry wood well, carrying its dark sugars through the years. The full spirit deepens with time, the cask drawing out its darker register.

At a natural 51.7% it is full and rich. Baked apple, honey and a dark chocolate, 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 rich Speyside malt of dried fruit and nut.