Glenfarclas 1953 58 Year Old Mini 5cl & Karuizawa 1964 48 Year Old Mini 5cl

Packaged together by Wealth Solutions, this set includes some of the finest whisky that Scotland and Japan have to offer.

Glenfarclas

It was the year Edmund Hillary became the first man to climb Everest. Glenfarclas laid down a bottle of whisky that year, too. The 58-year-old whisky was the oldest spirit ever to leave its walls. Only 400 numbered single cask bottles were put on the market.

The privilege of exclusive access to the distillery's rarest and oldest stock, the remaining 4 casks distilled in 1953, were given by George Grant, of Glenfarclas to a panel comprised of Serge Valentin, a whisky connoisseur and a key member of the internationally renowned Malt Maniacs, Ben Ellefsen, Sales Director for Master of Malt (Whisky Magazine's 'Global Online Retailer of the Year' 2012), Michał Kowalski of Wealth Solutions and George Grant himself. The panel was unanimous in its selection, and cask #1674 was selected to be bottled.

The chosen cask began its life in Spain, where it was used to mature and then transport fine sherry to Scotland.

It was bought by Glenfarclas and filled with whisky on 20 November 1953. After 58 years of slow maturation in Glenfarclas' traditional Highland Dunnage warehouses, the 1953 cask yielded only 400 full 70cl bottles.

The whisky was bottled at cask strength of 47.2% ABV and, of course, is naturally coloured and non-chill filtered.

Distilled: 20.11.1953

Bottled: 13.02.2012

Age: 58 Years Old

Cask Type: 1st Fill Sherry Butt

Cask Number: 1674

47.2% ABV / 5cl

Set Number: 14 / 30

Karuizawa

The mountain town of Karuizawa is situated on a high plain at the base of active volcano, Mount Asama, in the heart of Japan’s mainland. In 1956, the wine and spirits giant, Daikoku Budoshu, expanded their already established empire there by building a distillery with the onus of producing a single malt to be utilised in the company’s blends. They christened it ‘Ocean’. 1958 saw a freer importation channel opening up for malt, and barley flowed into Japan from the UK. Karuizawa Factory, as it was then known, worked with Golden Promise barley (also famously used by Macallan), and matured their signature spirit in sherry casks, yet very little actually left the country, which in future would lend hugely to its collectability.

During the 1980s and 90s Japan's economy was truly booming, but with this prosperity came a generation of young, trendy and affluent consumers who began to turn their backs on companies they deemed “old fashioned”. Instead, their attentions turned to wines, with only low grade, neutral tasting whiskies managing to find any favour as mixing fodder. The relatively small Karuizawa distillery, with its robust and characterful style, never stood a chance, and in the year 2000 it was sadly mothballed (and completely demolished in 2016).

Jumping ahead to 2007, independent bottler Number One Drinks acquired the distillery's remaining stocks, and imported Ocean Karuizawa Distillery whisky (as it was re-branded to in 1977) for the European market. The rarity of official expressions, and the now finite supply made for an explosive combination in the world of rare whisky, with die-hard collectors clamouring to get hold of any releases, and driving a buoyant second hand market. The rest, as they say, is history.

Distilled: 01.09.1964

Bottled: 24.12.2012

Age: 48 Years Old

Cask Number: 3603

57.7% ABV / 5cl

Set Number: 14 / 30

Please note fill levels and wear to Glenfarclas cap

Please examine all images of the lot, any packaging and labels carefully and satisfy yourself as to their condition before making a bid.