Glenfarclas 40 Years Old (2016 Edition)

Glenfarclas from the distillery, a 40 year old, at 43.3%. 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.

Worked unhurried through the stillhouse, for the rich, sherried make Glenfarclas is known for. It rested in ex-Bourbon oak, oak lactones lending a creamy vanilla. In its ethereal years the malt turns waxy and oxidative, faded esters and a whisper of sotolon over dark fruit. Long ageing turns the fresh notes towards date, prune and a dark, bittersweet chocolate. The wood frames the spirit without ever stripping the full Speyside body. The full bodied spirit takes active sherry wood well, carrying its dark sugars through the years.

At an approachable 43.3% it is soft and fruity. A rich orchard sweetness and dark sugar, lifted by a sweet oak. Fig, honey and a dark chocolate fill the middle. It finishes long, full and fruity. This is a deep, sherried Speyside single malt.