Next week, The Balvenie will set a new record for the oldest single malt Scotch whisky ever released. Its 88-year-old bottling breaks the previous record (an 85-year-old Glenlivet bottled by Gordon & MacPhail) by three years.
This superannuated dram was distilled at The Balvenie in Speyside in 1931 from barley grown on the distillery’s estate. It was malted at Balvenie’s own home floor maltings facility, which, unusually, continues to operate to this day. The whisky was then placed in a single sherry butt that lay undisturbed in Dufftown until 2019, when the contents was decanted into glass. It is field-to-bottle in a way that modern grande marque malts rarely are. (There are whiskies in circulation that were distilled prior to 1931 – what makes this one record-breaking is the amount of time spent in the cask.)
Barley arrives on the malting floor at Balvenie in 1937 © John Grant Junior Collection
The whisky world loves a superlative – so I’m prone to be cynical. I’ve tasted a lot of antiquated spirits, and if it’s taught me anything it’s that older is not necessarily better. There are very mature whiskies with incredible flavour, but plenty more just taste as tannic, woody and lifeless as a creaky antique. Knowing how far you can push is a real skill. But simply seeking deliciousness is perhaps missing the point. Part of the thrill of tasting old whisky is that each sip is a step back in time. And the lineage of this particular whisky is unusually distinct: just before I tasted it, I was shown a black-and-white photo of the distillery team, which includes the malt men (and one distillery dog) who malted the barley for the liquid I was about to sip.
