Glenfarclas 10 Years Old 2011 Cask #1173 (LMDW)

A Glenfarclas of a 10 year old chosen by La Maison du Whisky, distilled in 2011, from cask 1173, at 59.8%, one of 304 bottles. Glenfarclas is a Speyside single malt, the house behind the pioneering 105 cask strength. 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. It holds some sixty eight thousand casks on site in dunnage warehouses, with stock from every year since 1953.

It was distilled in copper pot stills, shaping a rich Speyside body with real weight. It was matured in an Oloroso sherry cask, the wood working deep into the malt. By the integrating teens the raw notes fade and esters build, the rich spirit growing rounder and darker. Active wood drives the maturation, the cask deep in the malt. The full bodied spirit takes active sherry wood well, carrying its dark sugars through the years.

At a natural 59.8% it is full and rich. Orange, raisin and a treacle edge, with dried fruit, fig and walnut from the cask. The body is full and rich, the fruit deep and dark. A long finish carries raisin, chocolate and a treacle. This is a richly sherried Speyside single malt.