Glenfarclas The Potstill Reserve 9 Years Old 2008

A distillery release of Glenfarclas, a 9 year old, from 2008, cask 2430 + 2599, at 50%, a festival cask. Glenfarclas is a richly sherried Speyside single malt, run by the Grant family since 1865. It draws on that deep inventory for the Family Casks, single vintages reaching back to the 1950s. Its whiskies are bottled at their natural colour, without chill filtration.

Distilled to a rich, generous cut, for a weighty, nutty spirit the sherry then deepens. It was fully matured in an Oloroso sherry cask, the wood deep in the rich spirit. Young and extractive, the cask sheds vanillin and toasted sugars over the full, fruity spirit. The wood frames the spirit without ever stripping the full Speyside body. The full bodied spirit takes active sherry wood well, carrying its dark sugars through the years. Maturation runs slow and even in the dunnage warehouses at Ballindalloch.

At a hearty 50% it carries real weight. A rich, sherried sweetness, with dried fruit, fig and walnut from the cask. A baked apple and a warm cinnamon lift the middle. The finish is rounded, dark and spiced. This is a full bodied Speyside single malt of real richness.