Glenfarclas The Family Casks 30 Years Old 1991

A distillery release of Glenfarclas, a 30 year old, from 1991, cask 5676, at 55.3%, 558 bottles in all. Glenfarclas is a richly sherried Speyside single malt, run by the Grant family since 1865. Its slow, cool dunnage maturation loses very little to the angels each year. Its whiskies are bottled at their natural colour, without chill filtration.

Run slowly off the spirit still, for a weighty, nutty spirit the sherry then deepens. Maturation came in an Oloroso sherry cask, layered over the full Glenfarclas make. In its ethereal years the malt turns waxy and oxidative, faded esters and a whisper of sotolon over dark fruit. 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. Active wood drives the maturation, the cask deep in the malt.

At its natural 55.3% it is rich and chewy. Raisin, chocolate and a warm spice, with dried fruit, fig and walnut from the cask. Fig, honey and a dark chocolate fill the middle. Dried fruit, spice and a soft oak see it out. This is a full bodied Speyside single malt of real richness.