Sunday, February 07, 2010

Whisky as Old as I Am


So, I have this very special bottle of scotch whisky -- a Bunnahabhain 36-year-old, distilled in 1967. That's the year I was born.

Technically, whisky is only considered as old as the time it spent aging in casks, not after it was bottled. So the whisky does not really continue to age. I wish the same could be said of people!

I got this from an online seller in Florida, through a family friend who shipped it to me. The plan is to taste it at my tenth wedding anniversary in 2011. I don't know whether this will be an excellent Bunna, or over-aged. I've read tasting notes on some bottlings from around the same time and they are mixed. Whisky can spend too long in the cask; the alcohol content starts to go down, and some of the flavors may become faded. This was, I think, aged in a sherry cask, and I'm not a huge fan of what sherry casks do for some of the Glenmorangie whiskies, but... we shall see!

Old Bunnahabhain is apparently not quite as expensive as old Highland Park. For my wife, I'm looking for a bottle of Highland Park from her birth year, which is 1973.

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