Glenfarclas The Family Casks 26 Years Old 1981

A distillery release of Glenfarclas, a 26 year old, from 1981, cask 29, at 52.4%, 234 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 spirit is matured almost wholly in sherry butts brought up from Jerez.

It was taken gently through wash and spirit stills, building a deep malt of dried fruit and dark sugar. It was matured in an Oloroso sherry cask, the wood working deep into the malt. Through the evaporative decades the esters fold into raisin, fig, beeswax and a bittersweet chocolate. The wood frames the spirit without ever stripping the full Speyside body. The cool, slow dunnage ageing loses little to evaporation, the spirit holding its depth. Active wood drives the maturation, the cask deep in the malt.

At its natural 52.4% it is rich and chewy. Baked apple, honey and a dark chocolate, with dried fruit, fig and walnut from the cask. Dried fruit and a treacle sit behind the spice. A long finish carries raisin, chocolate and a treacle. This is a dark, fruity Speyside single malt.