Glenfarclas Old Stock Reserve 33 Years Old 1968

Glenfarclas from the distillery, a 33 year old, from 1968, cask 1366, at 49.38%, 190 bottles in all. Glenfarclas is a Speyside single malt, the house behind the pioneering 105 cask strength. It was licensed in 1836 under Robert Hay and bought in 1865 by John Grant for 511 pounds. Its spirit is matured almost wholly in sherry butts brought up from Jerez. Its whiskies are bottled at their natural colour, without chill filtration. Its six stills are the largest in Speyside and among the very few still fired directly, now by gas.

The spirit was run slowly off the spirit still, shaping a rich Speyside body with real weight. It was fully matured in an Oloroso sherry cask, the wood deep in the rich spirit. In its ethereal years the malt turns waxy and oxidative, faded esters and a whisper of sotolon over dark fruit. Active wood drives the maturation, the cask deep in the malt. The full spirit deepens with time, the cask drawing out its darker register.

At a natural 49.38% it is full and rich. A rich, sherried sweetness, with dried fruit, fig and walnut from the cask. A baked apple and a warm cinnamon lift the middle. It finishes long, full and fruity. This is a richly sherried Speyside single malt.