Glenfarclas The Family Casks 26 Years Old 1994

This official Glenfarclas, a 26 year old, from 1994, cask 4337, at 50.5%, 562 bottles in all. Glenfarclas is a deep, dark Speyside malt of dried fruit, nut and spice. Its slow, cool dunnage maturation loses very little to the angels each year. It has been run by six generations of the Grant family, one of Scotch whisky's last truly independent houses. It holds some sixty eight thousand casks on site in dunnage warehouses, with stock from every year since 1953.

Distilled in copper pot stills, for a weighty, nutty spirit the sherry then deepens. 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. Active wood drives the maturation, the cask deep in the malt. 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 a natural 50.5% it is full and rich. A rich, sherried sweetness, lifted by a sweet oak. It is full and fruity, the spirit carrying the cask. A long finish carries raisin, chocolate and a treacle. This is a deep, sherried Speyside single malt.