Glenfarclas The Family Casks 36 Years Old 1979

Glenfarclas from the distillery, a 36 year old, from 1979, cask 11018, at 41.1%, 300 bottles in all. Glenfarclas is a deep, dark Speyside malt of dried fruit, nut and spice. Its whiskies are bottled at their natural colour, without chill filtration. It holds some sixty eight thousand casks on site in dunnage warehouses, with stock from every year since 1953. It draws on that deep inventory for the Family Casks, single vintages reaching back to the 1950s.

It was distilled in copper pot stills, the direct fired stills lending a nutty depth. A bourbon barrel held it, the wood adding a soft honey over the fruit. At a great, fragile age oxidation rules, sotolon lending maple and dried fig as beeswax and old leather linger. 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.

At its natural 41.1% it is rich and chewy. A deep, dark sweetness, lifted by a sweet oak. Beneath it run dried fruit, dark sugar and a warm spice. The finish is long, rich and spiced. This is a deep, sherried Speyside single malt.