Friday 30 May 2014

Time Capsule

Preserving a bottle for the future

http://www.thedrinkingmansguidetoscotland.com/balblair-distillery.html

For quite some time I have been playing with the idea  of buying a bottle of whisky, with the same age as myself. By that I mean, a whisky distilled in the same year as I was born.
I got a few other bottles, that I keep aside for special occasions or just to drink later. But I destined this one to be for the ages. Something I'll keep in the cabinet for the next 50 years or so.
Now what were the requirements for this bottle?
  • I was born on the 15th of January 1990, so it had to be a distillation from that very same year. I came across some Bladnoch from November 1990, but that was almost a whole year down the line.
  • A distillery that I appreciate (self-explanatory) Some distilleries like Highland Park offer a 1990 expression, at a reasonable price, but after consulting a few reviews, I decided to move on.
  • The price was another significant factor. If I wanted a famous whisky from 1990, I could have payed a lot of money for an  Ardbeg Airigh Nam Beist or a Glendronach 1990. But I was unwilling to pay up over €200 for a bottle that I would only try in a couple of years. My line of thought was that the better the price/quality 
  • Cheap equals bad? There are a lot of bottles out there from 1990, some can be picked up from prices as low as €40. Most of them from independent bottlers. So the whisky monitor from Malt Maniacs will come in handy. Imagine the disappointment if after half a decade you'll have to pour your bottle down the sink?
  • Something unique. It shouldn't be to hard to find a regular Glenfiddich OB. So I decided to look for an independent bottler.
  • Something I haven't tried yet, if I finally get to try the bottle, I want to be surprised. Not knowing is half the thrill. 


The Winner


So the winner was a Blackadder Raw Cask Balblair 21yo 1990/2011, bottled at 56.4 ABV, single refill Sherry Butt, one of 679 bottles.
This one was actually a distillation from June 1990. Balblair is one of those distilleries that only recently managed to generate some publicity around its single malt bottlings, but still an obscure whisky to most people. I like its house style: a true Northern Highlander with rich & grand profile.
The price was about €130 (the official 1990 Vintage was about €89), but I did not follow any advise buying this bottle, simply because there wasn't anything to find online on this particular bottle.
I chose, a Blackadder Raw Cask, as I enjoyed various excellent bottles from Blackadder before and I love the Raw cask concept. Un-Chill Filtered, no colour was added (but look at that natural colour from the cask: simply delicious)
Notes from Blackadder:
  • Nose: Fresh, woody, with some peat, short-crust pastry. 
  • Taste: Very rich, buttery, solid peats, lots of fruit. Apples, plums and also almonds. 
  • Finish: Very long, somewhat spicy. Satisfying.
Now of to the cabinet with you to gather some dust