Glenfarclas The Family Casks 33 Years Old 1985 Cask #2784

A 33 year old Glenfarclas, a distillery bottling, from 1985, cask 2784, at 41.6%, 169 bottles in all. Glenfarclas is a Speyside single malt matured almost wholly in sherry casks from Jerez. It draws on that deep inventory for the Family Casks, single vintages reaching back to the 1950s. It was licensed in 1836 under Robert Hay and bought in 1865 by John Grant for 511 pounds. Its whiskies are bottled at their natural colour, without chill filtration. Its six stills are the largest in Speyside and among the very few still fired directly, now by gas.

Worked unhurried through the stillhouse, shaping a rich Speyside body with real weight. Maturation came in ex-Bourbon wood, the oak gentle behind the spirit. 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.

At 41.6%, undiluted, it is dark and full. Orange, raisin and a treacle edge, lifted by a sweet oak. A dark chocolate and a soft oak give it weight. The finish is long, rich and spiced. This is a Speyside single malt of real standing.