Glenfarclas For Friends Edition No. 1 36 Years Old 1968

A 36 year old Glenfarclas, a distillery bottling, from 1968, cask 688, at 50.1%, 126 bottles in all. Glenfarclas is a Speyside single malt matured almost wholly in sherry casks from Jerez. It holds some sixty eight thousand casks on site in dunnage warehouses, with stock from every year since 1953. Direct firing chars the wash a little, lending the rich, nutty depth Glenfarclas is known for.

Drawn from a thick, heavy wash, for a weighty, nutty spirit the sherry then deepens. An ex-Bourbon barrel shaped it, vanillin and a soft coconut under the malt. In its ethereal years the malt turns waxy and oxidative, faded esters and a whisper of sotolon over dark fruit. The wood frames the spirit without ever stripping the full Speyside body. The full spirit deepens with time, the cask drawing out its darker register. Long ageing turns the fresh notes towards date, prune and a dark, bittersweet chocolate.

Bottled at a cask strength 50.1%, it is deep and concentrated. A deep, dark sweetness, lifted by a sweet oak. The body is full and rich, the fruit deep and dark. The finish is rounded, dark and spiced. This is a rich Speyside malt of dried fruit and nut.