Glenfarclas The Christmas Single Cask 18 Years Old 2007

An 18 year old Glenfarclas, a distillery bottling, from 2007, cask 2671, at 59%, 620 bottles in all. Glenfarclas is a Speyside single malt, the house behind the pioneering 105 cask strength. It draws on that deep inventory for the Family Casks, single vintages reaching back to the 1950s. Its water rises from the granite of Ben Rinnes, above the distillery at Ballindalloch. It has been run by six generations of the Grant family, one of Scotch whisky's last truly independent houses.

Distilled in copper pot stills, building a deep malt of dried fruit and dark sugar. It was matured in an Oloroso sherry cask, the wood working deep into the malt. Into oxidative maturity, slow air builds ripe esters and a darker chocolate, fig and date depth. Years in oak deepen the spirit to a darker gold, the body growing rounder and more resinous with time.

At a hearty 59% it carries real weight. Baked apple, honey and a dark chocolate, with dried fruit, fig and walnut from the cask. The body is full and rich, the fruit deep and dark. A deep finish ends on dried fruit and a dark chocolate. This is a richly sherried Speyside single malt.