Glenfarclas The Family Malt Collection 9 Years Old 2011

This official Glenfarclas, a 9 year old, from 2011, at 43%. Glenfarclas is a deep, dark Speyside malt of dried fruit, nut and spice. Its slow, cool dunnage maturation loses very little to the angels each year. Its whiskies are bottled at their natural colour, without chill filtration. Direct firing chars the wash a little, lending the rich, nutty depth Glenfarclas is known for. It launched the 105 in 1968, one of the first cask strength single malts sold to the public. 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, for the rich, sherried make Glenfarclas is known for. It was matured in an Oloroso sherry cask, the wood working deep into the malt. Young and extractive, the cask sheds vanillin and toasted sugars over the full, fruity spirit. The full spirit deepens with time, the cask drawing out its darker register.

Reduced to 43%, it is mellow and sweet. A rich, sherried sweetness, with dried fruit, fig and walnut from the cask. The mouthfeel is full and coating, the fruit dark and sweet. The finish is rounded, dark and spiced. This is a full bodied Speyside single malt of real richness.