Listen to “Whiskey: A Powerful Time Machine” on Spreaker.
QUOTES
“If a 10 year single malt was bottled in the 1960s and it’s on the shelf beside another 10 year malt that was bottled in the 1980s, they’re both worth the same value.”
“Whenever I open the cap of a bottle of whisky I always look at the bottling date.”
“I tell you what guys it does work, whisky is like a little time machine.”
“But every now and again you will see a bottle of 10 year standard going on sale at the market for quarter of a million??
“They’re a fanatic.”
SHOW NOTES
A Midlife Traveler Podcast; Season 1 Scotland Speaks
EPISODE: Single Malt Whiskey is a romantic time machine
All 10 year whiskys have the same value, not matter when they were bottled.
Every bottle is individual in terms of its bottling date. So as I said, if a 10 year single malt was bottled in the 1960s and it’s on the shelf beside another 10 year malt that was bottled in the 1980s, they’re both worth the same value. They’re both still 10 year single malts, it will not age inside the glass bottle, it’ll stay exactly the same.
Single Malt: The Romantic Time Machine
Whenever I open the cap of a bottle of whisky I always look at the bottling date. It’s within my lifetime I’ll go to my drawer, I’ll find one of my old journals or one of my old diaries, I’ll flick back to that date and I’ll find out what was going on in my life. Was I in love, was I out of love, was I happy, you know, what was going on? I reminisce. I imagine that when they bottled that whisky on that particular day the whisky captured some of the emotions and feelings of that day and I will reminisce on the past.
Like a little time machine. And I tell you what guys it does work, whisky is like a little time machine. The more that you drink, the more powerful the emotions will feel from that day.
If you get to the very, very, bottom of the bottle, whoa! The time machine is so powerful that you will have regressed right back to very early childhood. It’s absolutely amazing. So I see it as quite a romantic drink.
Did you see the crazy price on that bottle of whisky?
Every now and again guys, you will see a 50 year bottle of single malts…if you are going to pay for a 50 year… you need another mortgage, £20,000 to £35,000 a bottle, for a 50 year. But every now and again you will see a bottle of 10 year standard going on sale at the market for quarter of a million.?? You’ll think, “Why, it’s just a 10 year?”
Because the person who is buying that bottle has absolutely no interest in the whisky. They are a fanatic about something else and the bottling date on that whisky might be when the Red Sox won the World Series. Or, Elvis first got to number one. So they are not paying for the liquid they are paying for that date. They’re a fanatic.
They’ve clearly got too much money because some people get confused about that, they’re like, “Why has that sold for so much money?” Is it, well, because the bottling date was the date that John Lennon died, or the day that something specific happened.