Glenfarclas Bicentenary of John Grant’s Birth 1805-2005 50 Years Old 1955

A 50 year old Glenfarclas, a distillery bottling, from 1955, at 44.4%, 110 bottles in all. Glenfarclas is a Speyside single malt, the house behind the pioneering 105 cask strength. It draws on that deep inventory for the Family Casks, single vintages reaching back to the 1950s. Direct firing chars the wash a little, lending the rich, nutty depth Glenfarclas is known for. It holds some sixty eight thousand casks on site in dunnage warehouses, with stock from every year since 1953.

Worked unhurried through the stillhouse, the direct fired stills lending a nutty depth. A bourbon barrel held it, the wood adding a soft honey over the fruit. At a great, fragile age oxidation rules, sotolon lending maple and dried fig as beeswax and old leather linger. Long ageing turns the fresh notes towards date, prune and a dark, bittersweet chocolate. The full bodied spirit takes active sherry wood well, carrying its dark sugars through the years.

At its natural 44.4% it is rich and chewy. Fig, walnut and a bittersweet chocolate, lifted by a sweet oak. It is full and fruity, the spirit carrying the cask. The close is rich and dark, fruit over a warm spice. This is a richly sherried Speyside single malt.