Glenfarclas The Family Casks 47 Years Old 1964

A 47 year old Glenfarclas, a distillery bottling, from 1964, cask 4719, at 48.5%, 377 bottles in all. Glenfarclas, the glen of green grass, is a richly sherried Speyside single malt. It launched the 105 in 1968, one of the first cask strength single malts sold to the public. Its water rises from the granite of Ben Rinnes, above the distillery at Ballindalloch.

Worked unhurried through the stillhouse, the direct fired stills lending a nutty depth. It was matured in an Oloroso sherry cask, the wood working deep into the malt. Ethereal and fragile, the decades draw it to a resinous, waxy depth of dried fruit, treacle and old oak. Active wood drives the maturation, the cask deep in the malt. The full spirit deepens with time, the cask drawing out its darker register. 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 48.5% it carries real weight. A deep, dark sweetness, with dried fruit, fig and walnut from the cask. A baked apple and a warm cinnamon lift the middle. The close is rich and dark, fruit over a warm spice. This is the family sherry malt of Ballindalloch.