Glenfarclas The Family Casks 22 Years Old 1992

A distillery release of Glenfarclas, a 22 year old, from 1992, cask 5850, at 50.9%, 587 bottles in all. Glenfarclas is a Speyside single malt, one of the last great family owned distilleries in Scotch. It draws on that deep inventory for the Family Casks, single vintages reaching back to the 1950s. Its water rises from the granite of Ben Rinnes, above the distillery at Ballindalloch.

Worked unhurried through the stillhouse, building a deep malt of dried fruit and dark sugar. Ex-Bourbon casks held it, the American oak lending vanilla and a light honey. Through the evaporative decades the esters fold into raisin, fig, beeswax and a bittersweet chocolate. Vanillin and oak lactones from the wood lend vanilla and a soft coconut over the fruit. Active wood drives the maturation, the cask deep in the malt. The cool, slow dunnage ageing loses little to evaporation, the spirit holding its depth.

Bottled at a cask strength 50.9%, it is deep and concentrated. Orange, raisin and a treacle edge, lifted by a sweet oak. Beneath it run dried fruit, dark sugar and a warm spice. The close is rich and dark, fruit over a warm spice. This is a deep, sherried Speyside single malt.