Rare Whisky

8/14/15 -

In one of our recent deliveries of vintage Italian wines, we received an extremely rare collection of old whisky. In the current market for Scotch and Bourbon it’s hard to overstate how incredibly difficult it is to track down vintage spirits. We’ve watched old stand-by values rocket to prices that demand a special occasion. The global demand for whisky has depleted many distillery’s warehouses, and all sorts of shortcuts are being taken to rush product to the market. Many brands are losing their age statements (we’re a bit skeptical about Suntory’s new “Harmony” line, and are fearing the inevitable loss of Elijah Craig Bourbon's 12 year-old qualification), and where it used to be commonplace for a Macallan 12 to have some much older malt blended in, we’re fairly certain that they now have a Scotsman with a stopwatch ready to pull the barrels once they reach a dozen years.

For these reasons, a collection like this is an oddity in the current market. Many of these bottles were filled in the 1970s on the eve of the vodka revolution that shifted the nation’s palate to clear spirits. The bottles in this collection were allowed to age gracefully and many of the blended scotches would have contained significantly more malt whisky than grain when compared to today’s standards.

There are a couple of bottles that deserve special attention. The vertical of Macallans from the 30s, 40s, and 50s are not inexpensive, but are not going to be seen again. Ever. Some of the single malts are from closed distilleries like Rosebank, while others are bottled in special edition formats like the beautiful tribute to Prince Charles and Princess Diana by Bruichladdich. Also notable are the large format, special bottlings of Jack Daniels. These were released decades ago when Jack Daniels was not the global commodity that it is today – perhaps your last chance to try Frank Sinatra’s favorite glass! John Rankin