Tasting the Oldest Whisky on Earth

“More people have reached the summit of Mount Everest this year than will ever taste this whisky,” states Stephen Rankin, director of prestige at Gordon & MacPhail, indicating the whisky glasses in front of us. Each vessel contains a pour of the world’s first 85 year old whisky, a Glenlivet single malt scotch, the news of which was revealed in July.

This historic spirit was filled into Gordon & MacPhail’s cask No. 336 on February 3, 1940, during Franklin D. Roosevelt’s presidency. At the time of its release, it is older than any currently living U.S. president. The whisky was made from barley grown in 1939, Britain’s last peacetime harvest for six years, and malted at the distillery using local peat. It’s matured in a first-fill American oak sherry butt; the oak trees used for the cask would have been growing when Abraham Lincoln was a young lawyer in Springfield, Illinois. Before maturing this whisky, the cask was used to transport 111 British imperial gallons (500 liters) of oloroso sherry from Spain.

Wartime Whisky

Whisky laid down during World War II is incredibly rare; the Ministry of Food in London cut back malt whisky distilling by a third in 1940 to ration barley for the war effort. Food rationing was introduced in Britain at the beginning of 1940 and continued until 1954. On Speyside, Glenlivet Distillery’s production fell by two-thirds that year. Gordon & MacPhail had been in business for 45 years then, but Captain Bill Grant, great-grandson of Glenlivet founder George Smith, ensured the Gordon & MacPhail order of sherry casks was filled for owner John Urquhart and his son, George.

Whisky is a long-term business, but with the outbreak of war and the possibility of invasion, neither the owners of Glenlivet nor Gordon & MacPhail were certain which flag they would be living under by the time the spirit became mature, so their philosophy was simple: keep calm and carry on. “In the whisky industry, you need to take leaps into the unknown and put a lot of faith in the future,” remarks Rankin. Many years ago, I was fortunate to interview Ian Urquhart, George's oldest son, who told me he remembered his father speculating on the prospect of producing these incredible aged single malts with him when he was a young man joining the family business. Nobody in history has ever pushed the boundaries of maturation this far before; at this level, there’s no playbook to tell you how to age whisky for 85 years.

Spanning Four Generations

This release spans four generations of the Urquhart family, curators of this cask for over eight decades. They have carefully noted its progress, volume, strength, and vitality for decades, choosing not to bottle it earlier while its flavors were still developing. The fact that it still has an ABV of 43.7% at 85 years old is absolutely remarkable. As independent bottlers, Gordon & MacPhail has now been in business for 130 years and filled casks at 112 different scotch whisky distilleries. This is the second release in its Artistry in Oak trilogy: We can only imagine the age of the whisky that will conclude this history making trilogy.

Only 125 decanters of this whisky were created, making this rarer than previous record holders of the world’s oldest whisky title. There were 200 decanters of Macallan Time:Space aged 84 years old, 288 decanters of Macallan The Reach 81 year old, and 250 decanters of Gordon & MacPhail 80 year old distilled at Glenlivet Distillery, the first release in the Artistry in Oak trilogy.

American architect Jeanne Gang was commissioned to design the sculpture and integral decanter for the Gordon & MacPhail 85 year old from Glenlivet Distillery. Her creation is inspired by nature and consists of four spiralling American oak branches, cast in bronze, which cradle the mahogany-colored whisky suspended within a hand-blown glass vessel shaped like a barley kernel. With time, golden highlights will develop on the edges of the patinated bronze, adding character and individuality to each sculpture. The four branches symbolize the four generations of the Urquhart family behind Gordon & MacPhail, and highlight how actions, such as laying down a cask of whisky or planting an acorn, may only bear fruit generations later.

How Does Gordon & MacPhail 85 year old from Glenlivet Distillery Taste?

There’s apricot, woodsmoke, and dried pineapple on the nose initially, but it continues to evolve over time, adding notes of polished antique wood, dried flowers, worn leather seats in vintage cars, oily rags, and beeswax to the citrus and tropical fruit notes. Bottled at 43.7%, the first impression reveals a spirit that defies its age. The complexity and fruitiness clearly indicate that this is not a relic of oak and time. Sweetness spreads across the palate, with tropical fruits, orchard fruits, vanilla, and red peppercorn, with further flavor transitions emerging with time. I pick out morello cherry notes, flashes of plum and black currant, and there’s the suggestion of cinnamon, oyster mushrooms, oak char, aged balsamic vinegar, and a tantalizing herbal quality that brings in spearmint at the end. The finish is light, with a pleasing palate-coating texture and lingering dried herbal notes.

Online Sale, Auction Details

Collectors have been registering their interest since the release was first announced, with 124 decanters on sale from October 2^nd at $150,000 each. If all the bottles are spoken for, one final chance remains. Decanter No.1 is set to be auctioned at Christie’s, New York next month, with proceeds going to support American Forests. Bidding is open from November 7^th-21^st, and the lot includes Jeanne Gang’s drawing of an oak tree from the project, the cask end of the sherry butt, and a private tasting experience with Stephen Rankin at a venue of the customer’s choosing.