Last Drop Distillers release 1971 Vintage

The tenth release of The Last Drop Distillers collection is to be released this summer. The 1971 vintage blended Scotch whisky is set to sell at £3,000 – with only 1,352 bottles of this exceptional spirit in existence.

The liquid has been through an extensive three-part maturation process, and is all the more remarkable given that the single malts and grains in the blend were all distilled over the course of the year 1971.

First blended in 1983 as a 12 year old, it has all the hallmarks of the 1970s/80s blending style. The remnant after bottling was refilled into eleven ex-Oloroso Sherry butts where it was aged for a further nine years before a small volume was taken out and bottled as a 21-year-old blend.

What remained was then refilled into nine oak barrels. These nine casks were sent to a traditional dunnage maturation warehouse where they lay for a further 24 years. Towards the end of this third maturation period, the casks were acquired by The Last Drop Distillers’ team who bottled this liquid in June 2017 at the mature age of 45 years.

Every bottle of The Last Drop 1971 vintage blended Scotch whisky is bottled and sealed by hand with a driven cork dipped in boiling wax. Part of the ‘Finest Aged’ range, each bottle is presented in The Last Drop Distillers forest green leather case with its own 50ml miniature, also included is a certificate of authenticity, a leather-bound tasting booklet and a custom-made stopper.

The release has an RRP of £3,000. UK stockists can be found at www.lastdropdistillers.com/stockists.

12 July 2017 - Sam Coyne The Drinks Report, news editor