Glenfarclas The Family Casks 35 Years Old 1982 Cask #4565

Glenfarclas from the distillery, a 35 year old, from 1982, cask 4565, at 52.4%, 225 bottles in all. Glenfarclas is a Speyside single malt from Ballindalloch, in the heart of Speyside. It launched the 105 in 1968, one of the first cask strength single malts sold to the public. Its whiskies are bottled at their natural colour, without chill filtration. 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 the rich, sherried make Glenfarclas is known for. A bourbon barrel held it, the wood adding a soft honey over the fruit. In its ethereal years the malt turns waxy and oxidative, faded esters and a whisper of sotolon over dark fruit. 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 its natural 52.4% it is rich and chewy. Fig, walnut and a bittersweet chocolate, lifted by a sweet oak. Dried fruit and a treacle sit behind the spice. It finishes long, full and fruity. This is a deep, sherried Speyside single malt.