The world's oldest whiskey?

Quite a discovery was made by Bertie Troughton, who resides at Blair Castle in Scottish Perthshire. First he found a hidden door in the basement, and behind that door... a real treasure. Perfectly preserved 40 bottles of whisky. Not just any whisky. There are many indications that the whisky dates back to 1833, and was bottled in 1841. This makes it by far the oldest Scotch whisky discovered to date, even if the beverage was formally matured for only 8 years in barrels, and was transferred to new bottles in 1932 for unknown reasons.

However, this is not the end of the story. In 1844, Blair Castle and the Atholl estate were visited by the then 25-year-old Queen Victoria along with Prince Albert. There is a high probability that the queen's favorite beverage, still known today as Atholl Brose, was based on exactly this whiskey, and the bottles that have survived to this day are a fragment of the stock made on the occasion of this particular royal visit.

The find underwent meticulous testing, including radiocarbon dating at the Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre, which confirmed that the beverage dates back to the 1930s. XIX century. Further research, this time conducted by the Scotch Whisky Research Institute in Edinburgh, indicates that the beverage has a strength of 61.3% vol. Samples of the found whisky were also examined by well-known specialist, co-founder of Kythe Distillery and co-creator of the WhiskyFun service (run with Serg Valentin), Angus MacRaild. In his opinion, the whisky is a historical find that will probably never be matched by any other whisky. On the palate, he says, the found whisky has a "clean textural weight" and its flavor profile includes medicinal accents, though without a noticeable trace of peat smoke. The profile is dominated by the distillate, with minimal influence from the barrel in which it was matured. It is, in his opinion, a style of whisky that was fairly common in Scotland until the 1950s. In the 1970s.

Of the approximately 40 bottles found in the basement of Blair Castle, 24 will be put up for auction prepared by Whisky Auctioneer, which is scheduled to take place from November 24 to December 4 this year. It is estimated that to come into possession of it, you will have to pay about £10,000 for a single bottle.

Adding flavor to the whole story is the fact that a law enacted in 1823, called the Excise Act, redefined the whiskey-making process, the tools, procedures and equipment used. This means that the whisky found is one of the oldest whiskies produced under the new rules, still in use today in the Scottish distilling industry. Indeed, the probability of coming across a similar find seems close to zero.

Blair Castle, dazzling with white walls, is located in Blair Atoll, a little north of Perth, just off the main road leading from Edinburgh to Inverness and on to the north of Scotland. It is the ancestral seat of the Murray clan, and its location has been of great strategic importance for centuries. The oldest parts of the castle date back to the second half of the 13th century, and the castle itself has had an extremely turbulent history, linked to the Scots' struggle for independence, most notably during the Jacobite uprising of 1745. During World War I, part of the castle was converted into a military hospital. Blair Castle is now a Grade A listed building, partially open to the public. However, it is also the headquarters of the Atholl Highlanders, the only private branch of the military in Europe, owned by the Duke of Atholl, chief of the clan Murray.

According to an official announcement from the Atholl Estate, in addition to the aforementioned research, the story of the found bottles has also found confirmation in the castle's archives. Castle hosts plan to use bottles not intended for auction to create a themed exhibition. They will form the backbone and most valuable artifact on display in a special exhibition dedicated to Scotch whisky.


[28.09.2023 / photo: Atholl Estates]