Glenfarclas Private Reserve (46th Anniversary)

This official Glenfarclas, at 46%, a festival cask. Glenfarclas is a Speyside single malt from Ballindalloch, in the heart of Speyside. Its slow, cool dunnage maturation loses very little to the angels each year. It draws on that deep inventory for the Family Casks, single vintages reaching back to the 1950s.

The spirit was worked unhurried through the stillhouse, for the rich, sherried make Glenfarclas is known for. Ex-Bourbon casks held it, the American oak lending vanilla and a light honey. Without an age statement, a dark sugar and dried fruit point to good years in cask. The full bodied spirit takes active sherry wood well, carrying its dark sugars through the years. Years in oak deepen the spirit to a darker gold, the body growing rounder and more resinous with time. Vanillin and oak lactones from the wood lend vanilla and a soft coconut over the fruit. Maturation runs slow and even in the dunnage warehouses at Ballindalloch.

At 46% it is rich, fruity and deep. Raisin, chocolate and a warm spice, lifted by a sweet oak. Fig, honey and a dark chocolate fill the middle. The finish is long, rich and spiced. This is a deep, sherried Speyside single malt.