This blend was about adding new shine and lustre to a very rare, antique dram.
After finding another cask from the same distillery a couple of decades younger (but still in the “old” camp) that exhibited the right characteristics, we embarked on a slow, long period of carefully and gently fusing them together.
After finding a ratio we felt represented the right balance of spirit and sense of time, we decided that trying to preserve this as a “single grain whisky” was holding the potential of the whisky back. Cue the power of blending theme tune!
After trialling the inclusion of a few different distinctive single malts, we settled on a tiny amount of very lightly peated Islay Single Malt, which acted as the bridge between these two ancient members of the same highland family.
Nothing prepared us for the pressure that comes with blending with whiskies that are older than us! But we proved in this blend that older does not necessarily mean better in whisky. The result was way, way more than the sum of its parts despite us effectively destroying the ability to sell this one off a high age statement.