Glenfarclas Chapter #13 22 Years Old 1999

Glenfarclas from the distillery, a 22 year old, from 1999, cask 7500, at 52.9%, 306 bottles in all. Glenfarclas is a Speyside single malt matured almost wholly in sherry casks from Jerez. It launched the 105 in 1968, one of the first cask strength single malts sold to the public. It holds some sixty eight thousand casks on site in dunnage warehouses, with stock from every year since 1953.

Taken gently through wash and spirit stills, for a weighty, nutty spirit the sherry then deepens. It was matured in an Oloroso sherry cask, the wood working deep into the malt. Through the evaporative decades the esters fold into raisin, fig, beeswax and a bittersweet chocolate. The full bodied spirit takes active sherry wood well, carrying its dark sugars through the years. Vanillin and oak lactones from the wood lend vanilla and a soft coconut over the fruit.

At a natural 52.9% it is full and rich. Orange, raisin and a treacle edge, with dried fruit, fig and walnut from the cask. Dried fruit and a treacle sit behind the spice. The finish runs long, full and warming. This is a full bodied Speyside single malt of real richness.