Glenfarclas The Coronation 1953-2013 60 Years Old 1953

A 60 year old Glenfarclas, a distillery bottling, from 1953, cask 1669, at 51.1%, 60 bottles in all. Glenfarclas is a richly sherried Speyside single malt, run by the Grant family since 1865. Its water rises from the granite of Ben Rinnes, above the distillery at Ballindalloch. It holds some sixty eight thousand casks on site in dunnage warehouses, with stock from every year since 1953. Its spirit is matured almost wholly in sherry butts brought up from Jerez. 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, for a weighty, nutty spirit the sherry then deepens. An ex-Bourbon barrel shaped it, vanillin and a soft coconut under the malt. Ethereal and fragile, the decades draw it to a resinous, waxy depth of dried fruit, treacle and old oak. The full spirit deepens with time, the cask drawing out its darker register.

At a hearty 51.1% it carries real weight. Fig, walnut and a bittersweet chocolate, lifted by a sweet oak. It is full and fruity, the spirit carrying the cask. The finish is long, rich and spiced. This is a Speyside single malt of real standing.