Glenfarclas The Family Casks 20 Years Old 1996

Glenfarclas from the distillery, a 20 year old, from 1996, cask 1067, at 57.6%, 580 bottles in all. Glenfarclas is a richly sherried Speyside single malt, run by the Grant family since 1865. Its water rises from the granite of Ben Rinnes, above the distillery at Ballindalloch. It holds some sixty eight thousand casks on site in dunnage warehouses, with stock from every year since 1953. Its whiskies are bottled at their natural colour, without chill filtration.

Taken gently through wash and spirit stills, for the rich, sherried make Glenfarclas is known for. 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. Active wood drives the maturation, the cask deep in the malt.

At its natural 57.6% it is rich and chewy. Raisin, chocolate and a warm spice, with dried fruit, fig and walnut from the cask. The mouthfeel is full and coating, the fruit dark and sweet. The finish runs long, full and warming. This is the family sherry malt of Ballindalloch.