Glenfarclas The Family Casks 37 Years Old 1981

This official Glenfarclas, a 37 year old, from 1981, cask 1085, at 43.2%, 211 bottles in all. Glenfarclas is a richly sherried Speyside single malt, run by the Grant family since 1865. It launched the 105 in 1968, one of the first cask strength single malts sold to the public. Its slow, cool dunnage maturation loses very little to the angels each year. It draws on that deep inventory for the Family Casks, single vintages reaching back to the 1950s. Its whiskies are bottled at their natural colour, without chill filtration.

Run slowly off the spirit still, shaping a rich Speyside body with real weight. It rested in ex-Bourbon oak, oak lactones lending a creamy vanilla. Ethereal and fragile, the decades draw it to a resinous, waxy depth of dried fruit, treacle and old oak. Maturation runs slow and even in the dunnage warehouses at Ballindalloch.

Bottled at a cask strength 43.2%, it is deep and concentrated. Orange, raisin and a treacle edge, lifted by a sweet oak. Dried fruit and a treacle sit behind the spice. Dried fruit, spice and a soft oak see it out. This is a full bodied Speyside single malt of real richness.