Glenfarclas The Family Casks 48 Years Old 1965

A 48 year old Glenfarclas, a distillery bottling, from 1965, cask 4505, at 49.7%, 400 bottles in all. Glenfarclas is a Speyside single malt drawn from the largest, direct fired stills in Speyside. It holds some sixty eight thousand casks on site in dunnage warehouses, with stock from every year since 1953. Its whiskies are bottled at their natural colour, without chill filtration. Its spirit is matured almost wholly in sherry butts brought up from Jerez.

It was distilled to a rich, generous cut, giving a deep, full bodied Speyside spirit. Maturation came in an Oloroso sherry cask, layered over the full Glenfarclas make. At a great, fragile age oxidation rules, sotolon lending maple and dried fig as beeswax and old leather linger. The cool, slow dunnage ageing loses little to evaporation, the spirit holding its depth.

Bottled at a cask strength 49.7%, it is deep and concentrated. Raisin, chocolate and a warm spice, with dried fruit, fig and walnut from the cask. Fig, honey and a dark chocolate fill the middle. A deep finish ends on dried fruit and a dark chocolate. This is Glenfarclas's deep, fruity Speyside style.