Product description
Hankey Bannister blended whisky is a creation of Hankey Bannister & Co. from 1882 (the company was founded in 1757 by Beaumont Hankey and Hugh Bannister and quickly gained a strong position in the wine market).
This blended whisky immediately caught the attention of British high society; in 1901 King George V granted it a Royal Warrant and George VI awarded it a similar honour in 1940, extended for another decade in 1950. Hankey Bannister's advocates included Winston Churchill and the famous writer Evelyn Waugh. In 1988 Inver House Distillers acquired the rights to the brand from the IDV (International Distillers and Vintners) concern and within a dozen or so years made it their signature blend (annual sales reach 200,000 cases).
The Hankey Bannister 12 year old presented here was bottled for the South African market, in our opinion, in the 1970s. At that time, the brand belonged to the IDV group, owner of the Glen Spey, Auchroisk, Knockando and Strathmill distilleries, and the aforementioned malts were the main components of its formula (currently Balmenach, Speyburn and Old Pulteney).