Glenfarclas 40 Years Old (2017 Edition)

A distillery release of Glenfarclas, a 40 year old, at 43.2%. Glenfarclas is a Speyside single malt, one of the last great family owned distilleries in Scotch. Its six stills are the largest in Speyside and among the very few still fired directly, now by gas. It was licensed in 1836 under Robert Hay and bought in 1865 by John Grant for 511 pounds. It holds some sixty eight thousand casks on site in dunnage warehouses, with stock from every year since 1953.

The spirit was taken gently through wash and spirit stills, building a deep malt of dried fruit and dark sugar. An ex-Bourbon barrel shaped it, vanillin and a soft coconut under the malt. At a great, fragile age oxidation rules, sotolon lending maple and dried fig as beeswax and old leather linger. Active wood drives the maturation, the cask deep in the malt. Long ageing turns the fresh notes towards date, prune and a dark, bittersweet chocolate.

At 43.2% it is smooth and rich. A rich, sherried sweetness, lifted by a sweet oak. Fig, honey and a dark chocolate fill the middle. A deep finish ends on dried fruit and a dark chocolate. This is the family sherry malt of Ballindalloch.