Glenfiddich 40 Year Old 'Cumulative Time Re-imagined Time Series'
At forty years old, this is the elder statesman of Glenfiddich's Time Re:Imagined collection, and it carries a quiet trick in its making. Rather than a straightforward vatting, it uses remnant vatting, a process unique to Glenfiddich in which a portion of each previous batch is carried forward and married with newly selected casks. Every release therefore holds a little of the ones before it, an accumulation of flavour built up over time. It is bottled at 44.6%.
Glenfiddich lies in Dufftown, in the heart of Speyside, and remains family-owned by William Grant & Sons. A whisky of this age is a serious thing, both in price and in character, and it deserves to be approached with a little ceremony. Four decades in oak have taken the spirit a long way from the fresh pear of the younger range into deep, resonant territory.
The nose is layered and brooding: dried fruit, dark chocolate, roasted coffee and ripe black cherry, edged with gentle wood smoke, polished leather and clove. The palate is full and silky, moving from deep dried fruit into rich fruitcake, date, raisin and stewed apple before drying into oak, bitter chocolate and a subtle hint of peat. The finish is complex and exceptionally long. This is old whisky handled with real care, and it needs only a clean glass and an unhurried hour.
A bottle for a landmark occasion, or simply for the pleasure of tasting time itself.
How to Serve
Neat, in a fine tulip glass, and nothing else. A forty year old malt has earned the right to be tasted exactly as bottled; let air, not water, do the opening.
Where to Drink It
The Connaught Bar, for a setting equal to the whisky. Dukes Bar in St James's, for the calm and the focus. American Bar at The Savoy, to raise a glass to the occasion in style.
Food Pairings
It stands alone, but if anything shares the table, keep it savoury and restrained: a little aged Gouda and a few toasted pecans, nothing that shouts over it.
