Glenfarclas The Family Casks 45 Years Old 1977

This official Glenfarclas, a 45 year old, from 1977, cask 6173, at 45.9%, 206 bottles in all. Glenfarclas is a Speyside single malt from Ballindalloch, in the heart of Speyside. It draws on that deep inventory for the Family Casks, single vintages reaching back to the 1950s. Its slow, cool dunnage maturation loses very little to the angels each year.

Distilled in copper pot stills, building a deep malt of dried fruit and dark sugar. It rested in ex-Bourbon oak, oak lactones lending a creamy vanilla. In its ethereal years the malt turns waxy and oxidative, faded esters and a whisper of sotolon over dark fruit. Long ageing turns the fresh notes towards date, prune and a dark, bittersweet chocolate. Years in oak deepen the spirit to a darker gold, the body growing rounder and more resinous with time. Active wood drives the maturation, the cask deep in the malt.

At its natural 45.9% it is rich and chewy. Orange, raisin and a treacle edge, lifted by a sweet oak. A dark chocolate and a soft oak give it weight. A deep finish ends on dried fruit and a dark chocolate. This is the family sherry malt of Ballindalloch.