Glenfarclas The Family Casks 40 Years Old 1977 Cask #7260

A distillery release of Glenfarclas, a 40 year old, from 1977, cask 7260, at 45.3%, 182 bottles in all. Glenfarclas is a Speyside single malt drawn from the largest, direct fired stills in Speyside. It draws on that deep inventory for the Family Casks, single vintages reaching back to the 1950s. It holds some sixty eight thousand casks on site in dunnage warehouses, with stock from every year since 1953. Direct firing chars the wash a little, lending the rich, nutty depth Glenfarclas is known for.

It was run slowly off the spirit still, building a deep malt of dried fruit and dark sugar. An ex-Bourbon barrel shaped it, vanillin and a soft coconut under the malt. In its ethereal years the malt turns waxy and oxidative, faded esters and a whisper of sotolon over dark fruit. The cool, slow dunnage ageing loses little to evaporation, the spirit holding its depth. Active wood drives the maturation, the cask deep in the malt.

Bottled at 45.3%, it is rounded and full. A rich, sherried sweetness, lifted by a sweet oak. A baked apple and a warm cinnamon lift the middle. The finish is rounded, dark and spiced. This is a rich Speyside malt of dried fruit and nut.