Glenfarclas The Family Casks 19 Years Old 1998

This official Glenfarclas, a 19 year old, from 1998, cask 1695, at 49.4%, 511 bottles in all. Glenfarclas is a Speyside single malt, the house behind the pioneering 105 cask strength. 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.

The spirit was 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. Through oxidative maturity the esters concentrate, the orchard notes turning to raisin, fig and a dark chocolate. The wood frames the spirit without ever stripping the full Speyside body. The full bodied spirit takes active sherry wood well, carrying its dark sugars through the years.

At its natural 49.4% it is rich and chewy. Baked apple, honey and a dark chocolate, with dried fruit, fig and walnut from the cask. The mouthfeel is full and coating, the fruit dark and sweet. The close is rich and dark, fruit over a warm spice. This is a dark, fruity Speyside single malt.