Glenfarclas The Family Casks 32 Years Old 1981

Glenfarclas from the distillery, a 32 year old, from 1981, cask 27, at 51%, released for a whisky festival. Glenfarclas is a Speyside single malt, the house behind the pioneering 105 cask strength. Its six stills are the largest in Speyside and among the very few still fired directly, now by gas.

It was distilled to a rich, generous cut, for the rich, sherried make Glenfarclas is known for. An ex-Bourbon barrel shaped it, vanillin and a soft coconut under the malt. At a great, fragile age oxidation rules, sotolon lending maple and dried fig as beeswax and old leather linger. The cool, slow dunnage ageing loses little to evaporation, the spirit holding its depth. The full spirit deepens with time, the cask drawing out its darker register. Long ageing turns the fresh notes towards date, prune and a dark, bittersweet chocolate. Years in oak deepen the spirit to a darker gold, the body growing rounder and more resinous with time.

At a hearty 51% it carries real weight. Baked apple, honey and a dark chocolate, lifted by a sweet oak. A baked apple and a warm cinnamon lift the middle. It finishes long, full and fruity. This is a full bodied Speyside single malt of real richness.