Glenfarclas The Family Casks 18 Years Old 1996

A distillery release of Glenfarclas, an 18 year old, from 1996, cask 1493, at 55.6%, 486 bottles in all. Glenfarclas is a richly sherried Speyside single malt, run by the Grant family since 1865. Its six stills are the largest in Speyside and among the very few still fired directly, now by gas. It holds some sixty eight thousand casks on site in dunnage warehouses, with stock from every year since 1953.

It was run slowly off the spirit still, for the rich, sherried make Glenfarclas is known for. Maturation came in an Oloroso sherry cask, layered over the full Glenfarclas make. Into oxidative maturity, slow air builds ripe esters and a darker chocolate, fig and date depth. The cool, slow dunnage ageing loses little to evaporation, the spirit holding its depth. Years in oak deepen the spirit to a darker gold, the body growing rounder and more resinous with time.

Bottled at a cask strength 55.6%, it is deep and concentrated. Orange, raisin and a treacle edge, with dried fruit, fig and walnut from the cask. Fig, honey and a dark chocolate fill the middle. A deep finish ends on dried fruit and a dark chocolate. This is a deep, sherried Speyside single malt.