Glenfarclas 40 Years Old 1965 (SMWS 1.129)

This Glenfarclas was bottled by the Scotch Malt Whisky Society, a 40 year old, distilled in 1965, from cask 1.129, at 55.1%. Glenfarclas is a Speyside single malt, the house behind the pioneering 105 cask strength. It holds some sixty eight thousand casks on site in dunnage warehouses, with stock from every year since 1953. It draws on that deep inventory for the Family Casks, single vintages reaching back to the 1950s. Its whiskies are bottled at their natural colour, without chill filtration.

Run slowly off the spirit still, shaping a rich Speyside body with real weight. Maturation came in ex-Bourbon wood, the oak gentle behind the spirit. Ethereal and fragile, the decades draw it to a resinous, waxy depth of dried fruit, treacle and old oak. The cool, slow dunnage ageing loses little to evaporation, the spirit holding its depth. The wood frames the spirit without ever stripping the full Speyside body.

Bottled at a cask strength 55.1%, it is deep and concentrated. A rich orchard sweetness and dark sugar, lifted by a sweet oak. A baked apple and a warm cinnamon lift the middle. It finishes long, full and fruity. This is a full bodied Speyside single malt of real richness.