Glenfarclas The Family Casks 39 Years Old 1974

A distillery release of Glenfarclas, a 39 year old, from 1974, cask 8579, at 57.2%, 437 bottles in all. Glenfarclas is a Speyside single malt, one of the last great family owned distilleries in Scotch. Its whiskies are bottled at their natural colour, without chill filtration. It draws on that deep inventory for the Family Casks, single vintages reaching back to the 1950s.

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. Ethereal and fragile, the decades draw it to a resinous, waxy depth of dried fruit, treacle and old oak. Active wood drives the maturation, the cask deep in the malt. The full bodied spirit takes active sherry wood well, carrying its dark sugars through the years. The cool, slow dunnage ageing loses little to evaporation, the spirit holding its depth.

At 57.2%, undiluted, it is dark and full. Raisin, chocolate and a warm spice, with dried fruit, fig and walnut from the cask. Fig, honey and a dark chocolate fill the middle. It finishes long, full and fruity. This is Glenfarclas's deep, fruity Speyside style.