It isn’t everyday that you get invited to taste a 50-year-old Scotch—one that sells for $25,000.
So I was delighted to accept an invite to a whisky dinner in April that included a toast with The Glenlivet’s Winchester Collection Vintage 1967. It was also at Ian Schrager’s new Times Square EDITION Hotel, which I’d been hoping to get a look at.
Master Distiller Alan Winchester was on hand for the dinner to celebrate his 40-plus year career in the whisky industry, as were Alex Robertson, head of heritage and education at The Glenlivet, and Sona Bajaria, vice president of marketing for The Glenlivet and high-end Irish whiskies at parent company Pernod Ricard. Vintage 1967, the third and final installment of the Winchester Collection, was produced in a handcrafted bottle and case designed in partnership with British designer Bethan Gray.
Held in the hotel’s Terrace Room restaurant, the meal kicked off with The Glenlivet 12-year-old paired with an appetizer of ham and pineapple focaccia and a mushroom carpaccio. The first course matched The Glenlivet 15-year-old with baked clams, grilled oysters and smokey quail.
The second course paired The Glenlivet 18-year-old with carrot Bolognese, Long Island duck and mahi mahi. For dessert, a gold chocolate orb and Baked Alaska, along with The Glenlivet 21-year-old.
We ended with a toast of The Glenlivet Winchester Collection 1967, which brings together malts from several rare oak casks, the youngest of which was filled in December 1967. Bottled in June 2018, the whisky is non-chill filtered at cask strength, and it delivers on the distillery’s tasting notes: a rich and fruity nose, notes of apricot jam and sweet ripe peaches, and a hint of toasted almonds; a smooth taste with fondant orange and milk chocolate flavors, velvety texture and a long, sweet finish.
Just 150 bottles of The Glenlivet Winchester Collection were released globally, with only 33 in the U.S. This was the only tasting of the 50-year-old expression in the U.S.; the group was headed to Japan next. So I was happy to get my shot, if you will. Cheers!
Melissa Dowling is editor of our on-premise sister publication, Cheers magazine. Reach her at mdowling@epgmediallc.com. Read her recent piece The 2019 Wine Growth Brands — America’s Fastest-Growing Wines.
