Glenfarclas The Family Casks 17 Years Old 1996

A distillery release of Glenfarclas, a 17 year old, from 1996, cask 518, at 58.6%, 588 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. Its slow, cool dunnage maturation loses very little to the angels each year. It draws on that deep inventory for the Family Casks, single vintages reaching back to the 1950s.

Drawn from a thick, heavy wash, the direct fired stills lending a nutty depth. It was fully matured in an Oloroso sherry cask, the wood deep in the rich spirit. Into oxidative maturity, slow air builds ripe esters and a darker chocolate, fig and date depth. Long ageing turns the fresh notes towards date, prune and a dark, bittersweet chocolate. The full bodied spirit takes active sherry wood well, carrying its dark sugars through the years.

At a hearty 58.6% it carries real weight. A rich orchard sweetness and dark sugar, with dried fruit, fig and walnut from the cask. The body is full and rich, the fruit deep and dark. A deep finish ends on dried fruit and a dark chocolate. This is a Speyside single malt of real standing.