Glenfarclas The Potstill Reserve 10 Years Old 2005

A 10 year old Glenfarclas, a distillery bottling, from 2005, cask 2884, at 60.7%, a festival cask. Glenfarclas is a Speyside single malt drawn from the largest, direct fired stills in Speyside. It draws on that deep inventory for the Family Casks, single vintages reaching back to the 1950s.

Distilled in copper pot stills, for the rich, sherried make Glenfarclas is known for. It was fully matured in an Oloroso sherry cask, the wood deep in the rich spirit. By the integrating teens the raw notes fade and esters build, the rich spirit growing rounder and darker. Long ageing turns the fresh notes towards date, prune and a dark, bittersweet chocolate. The cool, slow dunnage ageing loses little to evaporation, the spirit holding its depth. The full spirit deepens with time, the cask drawing out its darker register. Active wood drives the maturation, the cask deep in the malt.

At 60.7%, undiluted, it is dark and full. A rich, sherried sweetness, with dried fruit, fig and walnut from the cask. Dried fruit and a treacle sit behind the spice. Dried fruit, spice and a soft oak see it out. This is the family sherry malt of Ballindalloch.