Glenfarclas Premium Casks 48 Years Old 1961

This official Glenfarclas, a 48 year old, from 1961, cask 3052 + 53, at 50.5%, 336 bottles in all. Glenfarclas is a Speyside single malt matured almost wholly in sherry casks from Jerez. Its slow, cool dunnage maturation loses very little to the angels each year.

Distilled to a rich, generous cut, for a weighty, nutty spirit the sherry then deepens. An Oloroso sherry cask held it, drawing the rich spirit on over the years. In its ethereal years the malt turns waxy and oxidative, faded esters and a whisper of sotolon over dark fruit. The full bodied spirit takes active sherry wood well, carrying its dark sugars through the years. Years in oak deepen the spirit to a darker gold, the body growing rounder and more resinous with time. Long ageing turns the fresh notes towards date, prune and a dark, bittersweet chocolate. The wood frames the spirit without ever stripping the full Speyside body.

Bottled at a cask strength 50.5%, it is deep and concentrated. A rich orchard sweetness and dark sugar, with dried fruit, fig and walnut from the cask. A baked apple and a warm cinnamon lift the middle. The finish runs long, full and warming. This is the family sherry malt of Ballindalloch.