Cadenhead's Glentauchers 38 Year Old

A Speyside single malt Whisky older than disco music.

Established in 1842, Cadenhead is Scotland’s oldest independent bottler. Their two shops in London and Edinburgh are veritable shrines to the art and science of Whisky. For their own line of spirits they purchase a cask or two at a time from the best distilleries. What matters to them is that they find something unique or special that is in too limited a supply for the those distilleries to effectively market. Otherwise, these odd-lot casks of heavenly spirit would be destined to be sloshed into large vats of blended Whisky — and that’s no good, right?

In 1976 the United States celebrated it’s bicentennial, the Winter Olympics were celebrated in Austria, and Apple Computer was formed by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. 1976 was also the year that Cadenhead Glentauchers 38 Year Old went into it aging barrels in the Highlands of Scotland. Glentauchers is a classic Speyside single malt Whisky. Most years, 100% of their production goes into supporting premium Scotch blends. Every once in a while there is enough left over for a rare single malt release. The fact that Cadenhead got them to part with a handful of casks that had been aging gracefully for nearly four decades in ex-Bourbon casks is simply amazing.