Aberfeldy Single Cask Hand Filled 23 Years Old 2001

Distilled at Aberfeldy in 2001 and matured 23 years through a combined ex Bourbon and Oloroso cask programme, bottled at the distillery in 2024 at cask strength 50.2% under the Single Cask Hand Filled programme for the Dutch specialist trade. Cask number 500060 sits in a newer high range numbering format used by the distillery from the 2020s onwards. The Single Cask Hand Filled label distinguishes the re cask format (ex Bourbon ageing transferred to a sherry cask for finishing) from the standard Hand Filled and Hand Bottled programmes which work from a single cask type throughout.

Long fermentation Aberfeldy wash from the four still configuration, distilled in 2001 under John Dewar & Sons (Bacardi) ownership. Initial maturation in ex Bourbon American oak followed by transfer to an Oloroso sherry cask for the finishing stretch, totalling 23 years before bottling on site at 50.2% with no chill filtering and no caramel adjustment.

A two stage maturation programme combines the early American oak primary signature (vanillin from lignin, cis whisky lactones for coconut and dill, hemicellulose breakdown for caramel) with the Oloroso finish layer (melanoidins from prior sherry reduction giving walnut and dried fig, ellagitannins and gallic acid from European oak for tannin grip, oxidative acetals for baked fruit). Aberfeldy's house esters (ethyl laurate, ethyl myristate, heavier alcohols) hold the heather honey base across both phases, with 50.2% sitting at the natural strength reached after 23 years and the sherry frame leading on the palate without smothering the underlying honey signature.