Glenfarclas The Family Casks 16 Years Old 2009

Glenfarclas from the distillery, a 16 year old, from 2009, cask 1118, at 60.3%, 639 bottles in all. Glenfarclas is a Speyside single malt matured almost wholly in sherry casks from Jerez. It holds some sixty eight thousand casks on site in dunnage warehouses, with stock from every year since 1953. Its whiskies are bottled at their natural colour, without chill filtration. Direct firing chars the wash a little, lending the rich, nutty depth Glenfarclas is known for.

It was distilled to a rich, generous cut, giving a deep, full bodied Speyside spirit. It was fully matured in an Oloroso sherry cask, the wood deep in the rich spirit. 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. The cool, slow dunnage ageing loses little to evaporation, the spirit holding its depth.

At its natural 60.3% it is rich and chewy. Orange, raisin and a treacle edge, with dried fruit, fig and walnut from the cask. Dried fruit and a treacle sit behind the spice. The finish is rounded, dark and spiced. This is a Speyside single malt of real standing.