Glenfarclas 10 Years Old 2012 Cask #2504 (LMDW)

La Maison du Whisky bottled this Glenfarclas, a 10 year old, distilled in 2012, from cask 2504, at 60.9%, one of the festival bottlings. Glenfarclas is a Speyside single malt matured almost wholly in sherry casks from Jerez. It has been run by six generations of the Grant family, one of Scotch whisky's last truly independent houses. It holds some sixty eight thousand casks on site in dunnage warehouses, with stock from every year since 1953.

Run slowly off the spirit still, for a weighty, nutty spirit the sherry then deepens. It was matured in an Oloroso sherry cask, the wood working deep into the malt. Through integration spirit and wood marry, vanillin rounding out as esters lend riper orchard fruit and a chocolate depth. The full spirit deepens with time, the cask drawing out its darker register. Years in oak deepen the spirit to a darker gold, the body growing rounder and more resinous with time.

At a natural 60.9% it is full and rich. Raisin, chocolate and a warm spice, with dried fruit, fig and walnut from the cask. Fig, honey and a dark chocolate fill the middle. A long finish carries raisin, chocolate and a treacle. This is a rich Speyside malt of dried fruit and nut.