Glenfarclas The Family Casks 33 Years Old 1989

Glenfarclas from the distillery, a 33 year old, from 1989, cask 13031, at 52.3%, 602 bottles in all. Glenfarclas is a Speyside single malt from Ballindalloch, in the heart of Speyside. Its whiskies are bottled at their natural colour, without chill filtration.

Drawn from a thick, heavy wash, building a deep malt of dried fruit and dark sugar. An Oloroso sherry cask held it, drawing the rich spirit on over the years. At a great, fragile age oxidation rules, sotolon lending maple and dried fig as beeswax and old leather linger. Active wood drives the maturation, the cask deep in the malt. Years in oak deepen the spirit to a darker gold, the body growing rounder and more resinous with time. The full bodied spirit takes active sherry wood well, carrying its dark sugars through the years. Maturation runs slow and even in the dunnage warehouses at Ballindalloch.

At a hearty 52.3% it carries real weight. A rich orchard sweetness and dark sugar, with dried fruit, fig and walnut from the cask. Dried fruit and a treacle sit behind the spice. The finish runs long, full and warming. This is a deep, sherried Speyside single malt.