Glenfarclas The Family Casks 38 Years Old 1969 Cask #3185

A 38 year old Glenfarclas, a distillery bottling, from 1969, cask 3185, at 56.5%, 121 bottles in all. Glenfarclas is a deep, dark Speyside malt of dried fruit, nut and spice. Its spirit is matured almost wholly in sherry butts brought up from Jerez. It holds some sixty eight thousand casks on site in dunnage warehouses, with stock from every year since 1953.

The spirit was run slowly off the spirit still, shaping a rich Speyside body with real weight. It was matured in an Oloroso sherry cask, the wood working deep into the malt. In its ethereal years the malt turns waxy and oxidative, faded esters and a whisper of sotolon over dark fruit. The full spirit deepens with time, the cask drawing out its darker register. Years in oak deepen the spirit to a darker gold, the body growing rounder and more resinous with time. The wood frames the spirit without ever stripping the full Speyside body.

At a hearty 56.5% it carries real weight. A deep, dark sweetness, with dried fruit, fig and walnut from the cask. Beneath it run dried fruit, dark sugar and a warm spice. It finishes long, full and fruity. This is a deep, sherried Speyside single malt.