Comments on: What’s your oldest bottle?

By: Best in Blog #62: A Whisky Rebellion? | Whisky Party

Best in Blog #62: A Whisky Rebellion? | Whisky Party — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 19:39:32 +0000

[...] John Hansell wants to know – what whisky deals are available near you? And what’s your oldest bottle of whisky? [...]

By: Mike

Mike — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 19:19:17 +0000

I have an unopened 1960 Jameson, which would have been distilled in 1953. The back label has a long write up that starts: “Transatlantic travellers come home with glowing reports of a marvelous new drink. Irish Coffee”(!). Wondering what people pay for these, though I’ll probably drink it at the right time.

By: Brian

Brian — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 05:02:18 +0000

Hi Guys, I recently found an unopened bottle of Canadian Club Whiskey bottled in 1920. I thought it was a cool bottle because I believe it was prohibition back then. Anyways… I was wondering if its still good to drink, and if it has any value?

By: Frederik Aweh

Frederik Aweh — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 15:21:50 +0000

My oldest bottle is a 1938 Glenlivet, bottled in 1986 by Gordon & MacPhail and aged for 48 years. Won’t open the bottle but I hope that others will. This Whisky becomes rarer every year. I’m keen on knowing what I get for the bottle in 10 years……

By: MARS

MARS — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 11:15:24 +0000

Turn out that I have a tomatin douglas laing platinum 1963/2003. I think I really have to take a closer look at my collection. Maybe I have an older one somwhere?

MARS

By: Tharkis

Tharkis — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 02:29:23 +0000

My oldest is 100ml sample from a bottle of “very fine old scotch” vatted and bottled in 1908 by the T.F. Donahue Co in Providence RI, still with the inventory sticker on the bottle from the War Revenue Act of 1918. It was opened new years day of 2009. No age statement on it, but it was most likely distilled in 1890s is my guess… and it’s fantastic ! It reminds me most of a nice 25 year old calo ila that I had recently. I was gifted with a 4.5oz bottle of it by the fellow who owned the bottle and opened it. Enjoyed one dram, and re-bottled the rest in an empty and cleaned glenrothes 100ml bottle i had handy. It’s just too bad I’ll never know exactly when and where it was distilled. In modern terms it would be called islay style, heavily peaty and smoky.

http://www.tharkis.com/images/temp/100yrscotch2.jpg

By: MARS

MARS — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 20:14:30 +0000

I forget my single cask from glendronach! (1971/2009)

MARS

By: Éric Falardeau

Éric Falardeau — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 16:09:49 +0000

I’m building up my drinking collection… so my oldest is a Bruichladdich 17yrs old. No big deal.

By: MARS

MARS — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 13:21:26 +0000

My oldest bottle is a longmorn 1971/2008 43° G&M
I think I really have to buy a whisky from the fifties as long as it’s affordable.

I must say that I prefer also the whisky who are made with direct (coal) fire. (I hate the ecologist)

MARS

By: Alex

Alex — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 22:25:31 +0000

Correction – I just found some Scott’s Selection Pulteney 1977 in the cupboard – and its Friday!

By: sam k

sam k — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 15:57:44 +0000

MrTH,

There is no doubt in my mind that whiskey today is much different from whiskey of 100+ years ago. In the U.S., we used to employ pot stills to make rye and bourbon, and chances are good that this was not done “on the grain,” but made from wash. We now expect American whiskey to be made in a column still with the grain solids intact. I’ll bet rye whiskey, made in direct-fired pot stills from wash was a much different beast!

I have tasted bourbon and rye distilled in the mid-to-late 1800s, and the body and character is very different from today’s equivalents, though I feel that some of the artisan distillers may soon closely re-create some of those flavor profiles.

Scotch may not have made quite as dramatic a change, being traditionally distilled in pots, but the raw ingredients and their methods of propagation and preparation have changed, the whisky is now routinely chill-filtered and colored, the stills are heated differently, and cask composition and warehouse design have evolved.

I can’t imagine that the flavor profile has not changed dramatically with those “advances.”

By: Greg G.

Greg G. — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 03:05:13 +0000

My oldest bottle would be a 1959 Old Forester BIB. Oldest whiskey would be 1936 Mt. Vernon Rye. There a couple bottles I prize in my collection; 1965 Old Fitzgerald BIB, 1972 Hallers County Fair BIB.

By: Monique at the Dell

Monique at the Dell — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 13:16:57 +0000

i remember hearing the same story when we visited Strathisla and getting a kick out of it. I’ve also heard tales of stillmen with different preferences at Springbank, but they’ve got more to choose from there!

By: Monique at the Dell

Monique at the Dell — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 13:15:54 +0000

MrTH – I wish I knew how to really source them. They come up for sale from collectors or completely by accident. We had a gentleman from an eastern Iowa farm whose father helped a wealthy insurance salesman out in the 70′s. His dad didn’t drink, so we ended up with some 70′s Macallan, Bowmore and Talisker. My most recent Bowmore Black came from a farmer in SD. Seems like they are one-off opportunities from people who don’t really know what they are looking at. It’s always fun to meet them and be able to connect some of the dots with the history of the whisky and their family history…
One of the best i’ve had it the 80′s Talisker 10 that a friend shared in 08 at a tasting. I still love the OB, but they are incredibly different.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 08:03:19 +0000

1968 Glendronach… had two, down to one now.