Sometimes, things going out of production is a nuisance – lipstick colours, perfumes and aftershave to name but a few— but there’s no denying that a bit of scarcity can stir up a whole lot of romance.
Certainly in the whisky world, there is an entire category of highly sought-after single malts drawn from the stocks of “lost distilleries”, or distilleries that have long since closed with names such as Port Ellen, Brora, Glenury and Karuizawa can fetch hundreds, even thousands of pounds and, if you’re so inclined, offer some good investment potential too.
If you want to blow the socks off your favourite whisky anorak, you can’t go wrong with something that’s as rare as hen’s teeth — and when you’re drinking the stuff, nothing focuses the mind more than knowing that, when it’s gone, it’s gone forever.
HDW consequently thought about indulging in some whisky research this week by choosing three wonderful whisky examples. But the reality is that all the real goodies are snapped up as soon as they’re released (keep an eye out for the Diageo Special Releases that come out every October). So here are two affordable tasters and a luxurious whisky that have come and are still around to get.
Three of the best Whiskies:
1. The Last Drop finest aged 1960 blended Scotch Whisky The Last Drop is a passion project, which resulted in the distillation of 1,347 Whisky. When it reached 12 years it was blended and put back into Sherry casks where it stayed for 36 years, evaporating slowly until less than a third of the volume remained. It has been bottled straight from the casks with no chilling, filtering or other additions (52% abv, £1,495.99)
2. Jameson Rarest Vintage Reserve Blended Irish Whisky. This contains some of the oldest and rarest whiskeys available for individual selection in the Jameson Distillery. For this 2007 Vintage, the fortified wine casks used for maturing one of the pot still whiskeys were port pipes, giving it a glorious fruit rich character. The combination of the oldest whiskeys and the characterful ageing process has delivered a supremely lavish taste experience, which brings with it depth, complexity and intriguing berry fruit note (46% abv, £329.99)
3. Bushmills Irish Whisky 1608 This Special edition was created to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the oldest whiskey distillery in the world (46% abv. £59.99)
