Glenfarclas The Family Casks 41 Years Old 1965

A distillery release of Glenfarclas, a 41 year old, from 1965, cask 3861, at 60%, 417 bottles in all. Glenfarclas is a Speyside single malt matured almost wholly in sherry casks from Jerez. It has been run by six generations of the Grant family, one of Scotch whisky's last truly independent houses. It draws on that deep inventory for the Family Casks, single vintages reaching back to the 1950s.

Run slowly off the spirit still, for a weighty, nutty spirit the sherry then deepens. 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. The wood frames the spirit without ever stripping the full Speyside body. Maturation runs slow and even in the dunnage warehouses at Ballindalloch. Active wood drives the maturation, the cask deep in the malt.

At a hearty 60% it carries real weight. Baked apple, honey and a dark chocolate, with dried fruit, fig and walnut from the cask. Fig, honey and a dark chocolate fill the middle. A deep finish ends on dried fruit and a dark chocolate. This is Glenfarclas's deep, fruity Speyside style.