Glenfarclas Single Cask #748 + 749 38 Years Old 1978 (Oloroso)

This official Glenfarclas, a 38 year old, from 1978, cask 748 + 749, at 43%, 333 bottles in all. Glenfarclas is a Speyside single malt drawn from the largest, direct fired stills in Speyside. It was licensed in 1836 under Robert Hay and bought in 1865 by John Grant for 511 pounds. It draws on that deep inventory for the Family Casks, single vintages reaching back to the 1950s.

Worked unhurried through the stillhouse, shaping a rich Speyside body with real weight. It was matured in an Oloroso sherry cask, the wood working deep into 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 cool, slow dunnage ageing loses little to evaporation, the spirit holding its depth. The full spirit deepens with time, the cask drawing out its darker register.

At 43% it is smooth and rich. Raisin, chocolate and a warm spice, 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 a deep, sherried Speyside single malt.