Glenfarclas 40 Years Old (2014 Edition)

A distillery release of Glenfarclas, a 40 year old, at 46.1%. Glenfarclas is a richly sherried Speyside single malt, run by the Grant family since 1865. It holds some sixty eight thousand casks on site in dunnage warehouses, with stock from every year since 1953. 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 distilled to a rich, generous cut, for a weighty, nutty spirit the sherry then deepens. A refill bourbon hogshead held it, keeping the full character to the fore. Ethereal and fragile, the decades draw it to a resinous, waxy depth of dried fruit, treacle and old oak. The full spirit deepens with time, the cask drawing out its darker register. Vanillin and oak lactones from the wood lend vanilla and a soft coconut over the fruit.

Reduced to 46.1%, it is mellow and sweet. Fig, walnut and a bittersweet chocolate, lifted by a sweet oak. The mouthfeel is full and coating, the fruit dark and sweet. A long finish carries raisin, chocolate and a treacle. This is a Speyside single malt of real standing.