Glenfarclas Christmas Single Highland Malt 14 Years Old 1990

Glenfarclas from the distillery, a 14 year old, from 1990, cask 12181-12183 + 12188, at 46%, 1200 bottles in all. Glenfarclas is a Speyside single malt from Ballindalloch, in the heart of Speyside. 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. Its slow, cool dunnage maturation loses very little to the angels each year.

It was distilled in copper pot stills, for the rich, sherried make Glenfarclas is known for. It was matured in refill ex-Bourbon oak, a soft vanilla beneath the fruit. Through integration spirit and wood marry, vanillin rounding out as esters lend riper orchard fruit and a chocolate depth. Active wood drives the maturation, the cask deep in the malt. The wood frames the spirit without ever stripping the full Speyside body.

Bottled at 46%, it is rounded and full. Date, fig and a warm cinnamon, lifted by a sweet oak. It is full and fruity, the spirit carrying the cask. Dried fruit, spice and a soft oak see it out. This is a richly sherried Speyside single malt.