Glenburgie 30 Years Old 1989 Cask #11600201

This Glenburgie comes from Gordon and MacPhail, the Elgin grocer laying down casks on South Street since 1895, a 30 year old, distilled in 1989, from cask 11600201, at 49.9%, one of 175 bottles. Glenburgie is a Speyside single malt, long the fruity heart of the Ballantine's blend. It was expanded to six stills after the rebuild, one of the bigger distilleries in the group. Most of its make goes quietly to blends; single malt Glenburgie is rare, and largely from independents.

The spirit was run slowly off the spirit still, shaping a fine, clean malt with a floral lift. It was matured in an Oloroso cask, the wood working into the fruity malt. Ethereal and fragile, the decades draw it to a honeyed, waxy delicacy of tropical fruit and old oak. The spirit deepens with time, the cask drawing out a soft beeswax. First fill wood drives the maturation, the cask clear in the spirit.

At a hearty 49.9% it carries real weight. Apple, pear and a soft honey, with dried fruit, fig and walnut from the cask. Pear, grass and a creamy oak fill the middle. The close is light and clean, fruit over a gentle oak. This is a light, fruity Speyside single malt.