Blair Castle unveils the world's oldest Scotch Whisky
Blair Castle unveils the world's oldest Scotch Whisky
Whisky discovered behind the hidden cellar door in a 750 year old castle in Scotland will soon become the world’s oldest scotch to be sold at auction.
In late 2022, Bertie Troughton, Resident Trustee at Blair Castle in Perthshire, found a number of old bottles in an unassuming cellar room. Around 40 bottles of whisky were discovered at the back of a shelf alongside a shelf plaque which stated “Casked 1833, Bottled 1841, Rebottled 1932”. Since then, research into the archives of Blair Castle and Atholl Estates, alongside authentication of the whisky via carbon dating supports its early 19th century origin.
Whisky discovered behind the hidden cellar door in a 750 year old castle in Scotland will soon become the world’s oldest scotch to be sold at auction.
In late 2022, Bertie Troughton, Resident Trustee at Blair Castle in Perthshire, found a number of old bottles in an unassuming cellar room. Around 40 bottles of whisky were discovered at the back of a shelf alongside a shelf plaque which stated “Casked 1833, Bottled 1841, Rebottled 1932”. Since then, research into the archives of Blair Castle and Atholl Estates, alongside authentication of the whisky via carbon dating supports its early 19th century origin.
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00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:03 It was just before Christmas, and I was in the cellars
00:16 doing some sorting out.
00:17 And in one of the back cellars, there
00:20 was a big door leaning against an opening.
00:24 And I shifted the door aside.
00:26 It wasn't on hinges or anything.
00:28 And behind it was this shelves of this wonderful kind
00:33 of dusty bottles.
00:35 And I didn't know what it was, and got the iPhone torch out.
00:40 And found this label, shelf label,
00:44 saying Blair Castle Whiskey, cast 1833, bottle of 1841.
00:50 And I did what anyone would do in my situation, which
00:54 was opened a bottle.
00:56 And tasted it with my family and the team here at the castle.
01:00 And we were instantly kind of blown away by its strength.
01:06 And the fact that it was, had kept all its purity
01:10 from that time.
01:11 It is got a sort of fiery medicinal quality,
01:15 I guess you'd say.
01:17 I'm not-- I'm an amateur enthusiast
01:19 when it comes to whiskey.
01:21 So I'm not the one to refer to for tasting notes.
01:23 But it's got a-- yeah, fiery and magical.
01:27 And the amazing thing about Blair Castle
01:29 is we've got these great archives here.
01:31 And Queen Victoria came to stay here for six weeks
01:34 with Prince Albert in 1844.
01:37 And her letters, notes, and the bin books
01:41 here refer to the royal party drinking what
01:44 we think is the same batch of--
01:45 [MUSIC PLAYING]
01:50 Whiskey was discovered here at Blair Castle a few months ago
01:54 with a purported distillation year of 1833, which
01:57 is obviously, by a long stretch, the oldest vintage ever
02:00 discovered and probably still in existence in the whiskey
02:03 world.
02:03 So somebody comes to you with a bottle like that,
02:05 it's obviously incredibly exciting.
02:07 But obviously, you have to do quite a lot of due diligence
02:09 to make sure that what you're about to auction is authentic.
02:13 So first thing we do is ask for provenance.
02:15 We're very fortunate here that Blair Castle has
02:17 an incredibly deep archive.
02:18 And they've kept a lot of incredibly useful records
02:21 over the years, which have shown the whiskey being here
02:24 in the castle.
02:24 It's shown the whiskey being in cask in the cellar.
02:27 There's details of the bottling date.
02:28 And there's even details of people
02:30 having been drinking it here at the castle as well.
02:32 So for this to have been distilled on the estate,
02:35 it's hardly moved in the 200 years that it's existed,
02:38 is incredibly fortunate.
02:41 Never seen anything as old and rare as this.
02:43 To try something that old, to try something
02:45 that can claim to be the oldest Scotch whiskey in the world
02:48 is a really special moment for anybody.
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