Glenfarclas 1990 Edition N°24

A 30 year old Glenfarclas, a distillery bottling, from 1990, at 46%, 3600 bottles in all. Glenfarclas is a deep, dark Speyside malt of dried fruit, nut and spice. Its six stills are the largest in Speyside and among the very few still fired directly, now by gas. Direct firing chars the wash a little, lending the rich, nutty depth Glenfarclas is known for.

Run slowly off the spirit still, 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. In its ethereal years the malt turns waxy and oxidative, faded esters and a whisper of sotolon over dark fruit. The full spirit deepens with time, the cask drawing out its darker register. Maturation runs slow and even in the dunnage warehouses at Ballindalloch. The full bodied spirit takes active sherry wood well, carrying its dark sugars through the years.

Bottled at 46%, it is rounded and full. Orange, raisin and a treacle edge, with dried fruit, fig and walnut from the cask. It is full and fruity, the spirit carrying the cask. The close is rich and dark, fruit over a warm spice. This is a dark, fruity Speyside single malt.