As part of my general sorting out, I went through a bag of old corks that I'd kept, and found this 1ml sample of 1937 Glenfiddich Rare Collection. This whisky was the rarest Glenfiddich ever, a 64 year old malt, bottled in 2001, and was the oldest bottle of whisky at the time of release. The Whisky Exchange is advertising a bottle of this, one of only sixty one produced, at over £50,000, so I just had to open it and see what it was like.
The sample was too small to do a full tasting, so most of my notes are based around what I smelled, and boy, was it impressive.
A lot of rich, honey and caramel aromas, some dried heather and a little bit of peat smoke coming through. Maple syrup, vanilla, and then some malty sweet aromas come next. Then there is some orange, a little bit of salt comes off with a tiny amount of baked sponge cake. Hay emerges next as well with a little bit of perfume. There is bonfire toffee, standing out from all the other aromas for a moment. It is strange how this whisky is very old, yet has a bright freshness to it and it is simply sublime. The palate, for what I could determine from a tiny amount, has some dry toast, a bit of charcoal and then some dried orange skin coming through, there is a touch of the spice coming off too. I would love to one day be able to explore this malt further, but I know that will never happen.
98 points, for the nose alone.
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