Glenfarclas The Family Casks 27 Years Old 1997

A 27 year old Glenfarclas, a distillery bottling, from 1997, cask 4005, at 55.4%, 185 bottles in all. Glenfarclas is a Speyside single malt, the house behind the pioneering 105 cask strength. Direct firing chars the wash a little, lending the rich, nutty depth Glenfarclas is known for. Its slow, cool dunnage maturation loses very little to the angels each year.

Worked unhurried through the stillhouse, giving a deep, full bodied Speyside spirit. An Oloroso sherry cask held it, drawing the rich spirit on over the years. Through the evaporative decades the esters fold into raisin, fig, beeswax and a bittersweet chocolate. Maturation runs slow and even in the dunnage warehouses at Ballindalloch. Active wood drives the maturation, the cask deep in the malt. Vanillin and oak lactones from the wood lend vanilla and a soft coconut over the fruit. Long ageing turns the fresh notes towards date, prune and a dark, bittersweet chocolate.

At a natural 55.4% it is full and rich. Orange, raisin and a treacle edge, 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 a deep, sherried Speyside single malt.