Glenfarclas The Masters Selection Cask #2777

A 9 year old Glenfarclas, a distillery bottling, from 2009, cask 2777, at 59.6%, 327 bottles in all. Glenfarclas is a richly sherried Speyside single malt, run by the Grant family since 1865. Its six stills are the largest in Speyside and among the very few still fired directly, now by gas.

Distilled in copper pot stills, shaping a rich Speyside body with real weight. A bourbon barrel held it, the wood adding a soft honey over the fruit. In these extractive early years the oak gives vanillin as vanilla and lactones as coconut over orchard fruit and a dark sugar. Maturation runs slow and even in the dunnage warehouses at Ballindalloch. Years in oak deepen the spirit to a darker gold, the body growing rounder and more resinous with time. The cool, slow dunnage ageing loses little to evaporation, the spirit holding its depth. The wood frames the spirit without ever stripping the full Speyside body.

At a hearty 59.6% it carries real weight. Fig, walnut and a bittersweet chocolate, lifted by a sweet oak. Dried fruit and a treacle sit behind the spice. A long finish carries raisin, chocolate and a treacle. This is a richly sherried Speyside single malt.