I just discovered one more incredible source in the UK for rare, hard-to-find, single-malt whisky.
You may have seen my two earlier columns on single-malt Scotch, based on two weeks of (highly dedicated) research in Scotland.
Missed them? Go to
and also see
http://www.napaman.com/napamancom/2011/07/scotch-whisky-is-the-new-black-.html
Anyway, the pretty, crystal bottle pictured above was secured by my newest whisky friends, in Yorkshire, UK. Their business is called The Whisky Vault.
This is a family venture, run by dad Philip Hawley and his two sons, Richard and Thomas.
Philip, who works in construction by day, decided in May 2008, to turn his passion for single-malt whisky into a business.
Contact The Whisky Vault, tell them what you want, and there’s a great chance that they’ll find it. One of their clients called looking for the rarest Ardbeg whisky ever made, The Lord of the Isles, a 25-year-old whisky, which I had the rare pleasure to taste in Scotland at the distillery in Islay.
In short: it was one of the three best whiskies I’ve ever tasted; sublime, sensual, arousing, ethereal.
Think of The Whisky Vault as the Google of Whisky World – just query them, looking for something rare and obtuse… and they’ll have the answer and get what you’re looking for!
That pretty glass bottle above, by the way – it’s the most expensive whisky sold by The Whisky Vault to date – a 57-year-old Macallan single-malt, in a Lalique crystal decanter. Philip found it for a client who paid $17,600 for the bottle. That’s $676 an ounce. But don’t count ounce prices if you intend to contact The Whisky Vault.
(For the record: The 57-year-old Macallan was assembled from two casks, the first a 1950 American oak sherry butt, the second from Spanish oak sherry butts originally filled in 1949, 1951 and 1952. Only 400 decanter-bottles were produced.)
“We have a large network of customers in Taiwan, Singapore and Japan as well as in Europe and we have never lost a shipment to the US,” notes Philip in an email exchange, commenting on his reliability.
Philip says that he has many rare, Pre-War whiskies, too, including a blended whisky from 22nd December 1885, supplied to "The refreshment department" of the Houses of Parliament. (See image directly above.)
Looking for a rare single-malt Scotch? The Whisky Vault is the first place to start your treasure hunt.
Their web site: http://www.thewhiskyvault.com
Happy treasure hunting.
Comments