#sherry-butt

Glenfarclas 2015 (Spirit of Speyside)

A few weeks ago German reader Sven contacted me about a new Glenfarclas 2015 bottled for the Spirit of Speyside Festival. He asked me about the definition of a Matusalem cask : is this simply a brand name or also related to the size of the cask?Matusalem is a brand of sherry produced by González Byass. Until 2012 it could be called Amoroso or sweet Oloroso (with 25% PX added to it), but nowadays it's technically a Cream sherry. They use a series of biblical names for their oldest wines — Noé, Apóstoles, and Matusalem. All of them are aged well beyond 30 years in a solera system. While common at Dalmore for instance, the cask came to Glenfarclas as a second fill through a broker. Their normal supplier is José y Miguel Martin.The question about the size of the cask is also interesting. Note that Glefarclas released 803 bottles which equals around 562 litres. Most distilleries claim that a sherry butt only contains around 500 litres. It all depends what you call a 'standard butt'.