Glenfarclas Limited Rare Bottling 8 Years Old 2003

This official Glenfarclas, an 8 year old, from 2003, cask 1493-1495, at 56.2%, 804 bottles in all. Glenfarclas is a Speyside single malt, the house behind the pioneering 105 cask strength. Its whiskies are bottled at their natural colour, without chill filtration.

The spirit was distilled in copper pot stills, for the rich, sherried make Glenfarclas is known for. Maturation came in an Oloroso sherry cask, layered over the full Glenfarclas make. Young and extractive, the cask sheds vanillin and toasted sugars over the full, fruity spirit. The full bodied spirit takes active sherry wood well, carrying its dark sugars through the years. Active wood drives the maturation, the cask deep in the malt. The full spirit deepens with time, the cask drawing out its darker register. The cool, slow dunnage ageing loses little to evaporation, the spirit holding its depth.

At 56.2%, undiluted, it is dark and full. Baked apple, honey and a dark chocolate, with dried fruit, fig and walnut from the cask. The body is full and rich, the fruit deep and dark. The finish runs long, full and warming. This is Glenfarclas's deep, fruity Speyside style.