Glenfarclas The Family Casks 50 Years Old 1961

A distillery release of Glenfarclas, a 50 year old, from 1961, cask 1325, at 47%, 108 bottles in all. Glenfarclas is a Speyside single malt drawn from the largest, direct fired stills in Speyside. It was licensed in 1836 under Robert Hay and bought in 1865 by John Grant for 511 pounds. Its slow, cool dunnage maturation loses very little to the angels each year.

It was run slowly off the spirit still, 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 full spirit deepens with time, the cask drawing out its darker register. Maturation runs slow and even in the dunnage warehouses at Ballindalloch. Active wood drives the maturation, the cask deep in the malt.

At a natural 47% it is full and rich. Orange, raisin and a treacle edge, with dried fruit, fig and walnut from the cask. The mouthfeel is full and coating, the fruit dark and sweet. A deep finish ends on dried fruit and a dark chocolate. This is Glenfarclas's deep, fruity Speyside style.