Curator's Note: Vintage Scotch Bottles Explained

This blog series will feature my past writings on Scotch: I believe only a few of you have seen these, as they were sent out through targeted emails. In lieu of merely re-posting all of these individual notes, I will write a curator’s opinion on the honest question of “how is this bottle,” and “why I acquired this bottle in the first place.” The reasons will vary drastically from bottle to bottle, and they could be quite similar to those of an educated collector. I believe there’s no perfect bottle for everyone, but there’s always one that fits one’s needs. 

1966 Glen Grant Gordon & MacPhail 50 Year Single Malt Scotch Whisky 700ml

Cask #3720, Refilled Sherry Hogshead

This bottle is an exclusive bottling for The Whisky Exchange, London. Bearing the beautiful Book of Kells label, a series that is famed for bottling the best of GM casks from the 1980s to 2010s, this dram represents the very top of all Glen Grant stocks that Gordon MacPhail owns in its modern days, at least until GM starts to bottle older casks in the Private Stock series using crystal decanters. 

In 1966, Glen Grant still used direct coal fire to heat both its wash and spirit stills, which many connoisseurs believed would bring richer flavors and a bolder body.  They gradually turned to gas fire heating and indirect heating after 1973 for efficiency.

As a single-cask bottling sitting at 50 years old with almost 100 proof, this bottle is perfect for the most sophisticated drinkers and highest-end whisky collectors. 

Curator's Note:

It was quite an all-around bottle when considering its specs. It is from the top series of the top independent bottler exclusive for the best scotch whisky retail in London, which is already a solid promise of quality. Looking at the distillery and vintage time, it is right at its prime. Being at 50 years old while still maintaining high proof is another testament to its quality. Note that there are a lot of Glen Grant bottles by both GM and Official bottlings that are high in years aged but proofed down to 80(40% abv). Those are notoriously mediocre expressions to avoid. 

Some may argue that it is not a first-fill old-style dark sherry cask. However, with 50 years of aging at high proof, first-fill sherry casks would have easily gotten overly oaked, extracting too much tannins and unwanted flavors. Admittedly, some rare exceptions could have survived that and still performed great, but that comes with an even higher price tag, like the 20k$ Black Bowmore.

With such a bottle, the only consideration left is price. Are you willing to pay 3500$ for an absolutely great bottle? Greatness doesn’t come cheap, but there aren’t many great ones out there.

1973 Longmorn Duncan Taylor 34 Year Single Malt Scotch Whisky 750ml

Longmorn is one of the very few distilleries that drinks well regardless of its age, cask types, and even proof. Highland Park, Talisker, and Springbank (Longrow) are the only distilleries outside of Islay to have this high level of versatility and quality, and all but Longmorn are at least slightly peated. 

Longmorn has one of the most robust and structured distillates in the Speyside region, with its signature subtle earthy botanical flavors underlying its smooth surface. Extended aging in refilled bourbon barrels/hogsheads transforms malty and creamy notes into tropical fruits.

Regarding the vintages, as consistent and competent as Longmorn, almost any vintage before 1976 is considered excellent. 1973 is also one of them. Two legendary bottlers’ selections, Samaroli 1973 hand-written bottling and Kingsbury 1973 hand-written label, bottled in the same era, are the best examples. These are all selling for over 1500$ and 3000$, respectively. I have personally tasted these two bottles, and they are among my favorite Longmorn expressions.

This bottle of 1973 Duncan Taylor Longmorn is a perfect cask strength expression for the vintage. Any raw or rough flavors would have already been tamed by time. This is a very rare chance of encountering such a bottle.

Curator's Note:

It is worth noting that Longmorn has been my favorite scotch distillery for a long time. As its value has been discovered by collectors over the years, the majority of its famous expressions are already either hard to find or very high in price. From a realistic standpoint of doing business, the cost of acquiring the best Longmorn is too high, not to mention offering them at a competitive price. This is the moment when “I want a good bottle of 1960-70s Longmorn in our portfolio, but I also have to take the business reality into account.”

Of course, there are cheaper options, such as the 10-year-old Official Bottling from the 1970s, which usually sells for $350-$500 depending on the version and condition. Due to its low strength (40%) and predominantly low cask influence (could be due to cask type or short aging), it tastes pale and mediocre. Though its blending component was distilled in the 1960s, it is nowhere near representative of Longmorn’s performance level around the same era.

This Duncan Taylor bottle is my answer for a relatively affordable 1970s cask strength version of Longmorn. It is from a solid tier-2 independent bottler, not those hall of famers, like Samaroli/Kingsbury mentioned above, that are carrying price hypes. It is not a heavily sherried cask expression, which also gets around the market hotspot. I personally have a lot of good experiences with bourbon/refill-barreled Longmorn(1967, 1968 Scotts Selection, GM Original Cask 1969, including the Intertrade variant), and I do wholeheartedly think that they are on the same performance level as those of dark sherry casks per my Whiskybase ratings.

Every attribute of a collectible bottle has a different price tag on it. Distillery, year-distilled, years-aged, cask type, proof, bottler, you name it, and they all have influences on the final taste of a whisky. With limited resources and budgets, there are various necessary choices and decisions to be made in search of a “better tasting” one.