Buy a Cask of Scotch from Bruichladdich

[slkinsey]

A friend brought over a bottle of Bruichladdich single malt the other night. In the packaging was an interesting brochure. Bruichladdich is offering a program whereby you can buy an entire cask of scotch right out of the still, age it with them as long as you like and have them bottle it however you like. Sounds like an interesting idea... although it will take 15 to 30 years before you see any real results, so it's a long-term investment. Would be a wonderful gift for a newborn son or daughter. Who wouldn't want their very own cask of 30 year old single malt for their 30th birthday?

[beans]

Or instead of the birthday thing, to save and open to mark some sort of celebration, such as a lovely wedding of said child?

[docsconz]

Sam, How was the whiskey? Was it good enough that this really would be something special. I must admit it has intriguing, though costly possibilities.

[J_Ozzy]

Jack Daniels also has a program for its Single Barrel product:

News Tribune article

$9000 a barrel, ~240 bottles... that's around US$38 a bottle, pretty darn good by Ontario standards.

[anil]

How much $ ? Did not find it on the website.

[slkinsey]

Bruichladdich is good stuff. It's probably the lightest and least emphatically peaty Islay malt, and therefore does not accord well with my personal preferences, but it is a very well done scotch. Interestingly, for the cask offer one may choose either regular Bruichladdich or "Port Charlotte" as the base spirit. Apparently Port Charlotte is a relatively new secondary distallate at Bruichladdich, and it is quite peaty. I'd probably choose this for the cask offer, myself.

Prices are as follows:

• Barrels - 200 Bulk Litres
  - Refill Bourbon £775
  - Rum (very limited availability) £895
  
• Hogsheads - 250 Bulk Litres
  - Refill Bourbon £995
  - Refill Sherry £1,050
  - Fresh Sherry £1,100
  
• Butts - 500 Bulk Litres
  - Refill Sherry £2,100
  - Fresh Sherry £2,195
  

The casks are stored free of charge for the first ten years, and thereafter for a small premium charge (currently £20 per annum for a hoggshead).

[Katherine]

What states would this be legal in? I know I can't import that quantity of liquor to my state.

[bloviatrix]

One of my friends is expecting his first child at any minute. I believe he's considering placing order to celebrate the impending arrival. He's already trying to figure out how early he can begin introducing the child to "the nectar of the gods." (his words)

[mnebergall]

One of my friends is expecting his first child at any minute. I believe he's considering placing order to celebrate the impending arrival. He's already trying to figure out how early he can begin introducing the child to "the nectar of the gods." (his words)

Right about the time he learns to drive.

[slkinsey]

One of my friends is expecting his first child at any minute.  I believe he's considering placing order to celebrate the impending arrival.  He's already trying to figure out how early he can begin introducing the child to "the nectar of the gods."  (his words)

That will be so cool! Tell him he should buy a bottle in one of those cardboard tubes so he'll get the full brochure. Man, I'd sure love to have my own cask of... eherm... twenty-eight year old scotch right now.

[jackal10]

Many merchants and distilleries will lay down personal casks. It often used as a form of investment - liquid assets.

http://www.scotchcasks.com/casks.htm

http://www.tullibardine.com/caskoffer.aspx

The Scotch Whisky Association has a pamphlet

http://www.dcs.ed.ac.uk/home/jhb/whisky/swa/cask1.html

http://www.dcs.ed.ac.uk/home/jhb/whisky/swa/cask2.html

However, beware, there are some scams selling whisky that does not exist, or the whisky might just be of very poor quality

http://www.sfo.gov.uk/publications/2000_2001/section_05.asp

Whisky Scam help line

[Thomas Secor]

Has anybody pursued this any further? I am currently corresponding with the distillery and thought I would check out egullet before I laid down the pounds. Not surprisingly, I found this thread that is exactly on point.

Curious if anyone else has done it, what their experience was and what type of whiskey they ended up selecting.

[bobsdf]

A few years back a friend of mine and some of his associated bought a hogshead of Balvenie 30 yr old from a dealer in London. Obviously, it had already been aged. I ended up buying about a case of it. It ended up costing much less than buying it retail. If I recall correctly, I think we paid something like CAD$65.00 (aprox US$50.00, at the time). This seemed quite resonable as my friend had seen the same whiskey being sold for north of US$200.00 at retail stores in N.Y. It was very tasty stuff!

They had it bottled in London; with a custom label they had made up and shipped it over in cases. One trick they employed to keep the duties lower was to have it bottled at cask strength--which is about 50% alcohol--instead of diluting it down to 40%. Apparently customs charges are levied by volume, so doing it this way reduced the volume they brought in. When drinking, you would dilute with about 1 part water to 2-3 parts whiskey.

[haribos]

My friends and i bought a cask together and instead of waiting 30 years, we asked them to bottle 6 bottles once every 3 years for us to experience the progression of the whisky over the years. interesting stuff

[EvergreenDan]

So cool. Alas: "With regret we can no longer supply cask or futures sales to the USA or Canada (Existing customers are not affected) "

[Deus Mortus]

One of my friends is expecting his first child at any minute. I believe he's considering placing order to celebrate the impending arrival. He's already trying to figure out how early he can begin introducing the child to "the nectar of the gods." (his words)

Right about the time he learns to drive.

That sentence instantly brings images of disaster to my mind, perhaps a wiser tactic is to teach him/her one of the two first, so (s)he is fully aware of all the subtlety's of at least one of the two...

Though I have to agree, that is one badass present to get, perhaps you could even get a special barrel to fill from one of your other favoritism drinks, like a barrel from your favorite brand of sherry, though maybe I am over thinking and over complicating this.

Edited June 30, 2011 by Deus Mortus (log)