The Perfect Collection by Mr. Richard Gooding Digital Catalogue - Magazine - Page 49
THE BALVENIE
1937 PURE MALT 50 YEAR OLD
42% | 75cl
An incredible whisky, half a century in the making.
In 1987, John & Wallace Milroy were invited to the
Glenfiddich and The Balvenie distilleries. What was
originally supposed to be a casual visit turned out to
be quite the shopping spree, as John Milroy recalls:
“Peter Grant Gordon invited us to visit Glenfiddich
and Balvenie distilleries, when we noticed four
cask [sic] of Balvenie 50 year old gathering dust
in a corner of the warehouse. After a few drams
Peter agreed to bottle these and sell most of it to
us exclusively.” - from Collecting Scotch Whisky:
Volume 1 by Emmanuel Dron
Upon bottling in the same year, 500 bottles in total
were produced. The Milroy brothers paid a total
of £62,100 for 360 bottles (equivalent price circa
£175,833 in 2020) which were sold through the
brothers’ famous bottle shop on Greek Street in
London.
The remaining 140 were sold to the Japanese market
via the Seven Importers Group. A rare phenomenon
this is a vatting of four casks, each imparting their
own unique qualities. This whisky was distilled
in 1937 and bottled in 1987, at a time when such
vintages were virtually unheard-of.
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