Glenfarclas The Family Casks 34 Years Old 1988

A 34 year old Glenfarclas, a distillery bottling, from 1988, cask 6862, at 49.5%. Glenfarclas is a Speyside single malt from Ballindalloch, in the heart of Speyside. Its slow, cool dunnage maturation loses very little to the angels each year. Direct firing chars the wash a little, lending the rich, nutty depth Glenfarclas is known for. Its water rises from the granite of Ben Rinnes, above the distillery at Ballindalloch.

The spirit was run slowly off the spirit still, giving a deep, full bodied Speyside spirit. It was matured in an Oloroso sherry cask, the wood working deep into the malt. Ethereal and fragile, the decades draw it to a resinous, waxy depth of dried fruit, treacle and old oak. The wood frames the spirit without ever stripping the full Speyside body. Years in oak deepen the spirit to a darker gold, the body growing rounder and more resinous with time.

At a hearty 49.5% it carries real weight. Raisin, chocolate and a warm spice, with dried fruit, fig and walnut from the cask. Fig, honey and a dark chocolate fill the middle. The close is rich and dark, fruit over a warm spice. This is the family sherry malt of Ballindalloch.