A brand of scotch that routinely prints the release year on the bottle?

Question

I enjoy drinking scotch, and I am about to have my first child. I would like to buy a bottle of scotch that has the year my child is born printed on it, and then give them the scotch as a gift when they turn 30 or so. I am well aware that the scotch won't age the same in a bottle as it would in a cask, but the idea is that I will be able to give my child something that I have held for them for 30 years. I am aware that I could find a special one-time release of some sort, but I am looking for a brand of scotch that routinely prints the year it was released somewhere on the bottle because when I have my second child a few years down the road, I would like to do the same thing for them, and I thought it would be nice if they were the same scotch. The closest thing that I can find is Booker's Small Batch Bourbon from Jim Beam. They do a few special releases a year, and the release year is printed on every bottle. If I cannot find a brand of scotch that does something similar I will just go with the Booker's. However, I thought I would ask this question here in case anyone is familiar with the sort of thing I am looking for. It would also be nice if it was a speyside or highland scotch, but that is not really necessary. I thank anyone in advance for taking the time to read this, and hopefully being able to point me in the right direction.

Best regards, Josh

Answer 1

I think there are two ways to look at this. Some distilleries do put the date when they bottled the whisky/scotch it will just take some leg work. Even cheap Old Turkey has a bottled date stamped on the label

Then the other way is to do some reverse math. There is such a thing as vintage whisky. Distilled and put into barrels in say 1990 and aged 25 years. So it would be bottled in the year 2015. Obviously you might have to wait until they bottle it the year someone is born. You can see some of this at the Glenfiddich website (unfortunately they have an "are you old enough question" to get past).

The last option is to just buy a bottle of 20 year old whisky the year someone turns 20 (or whatever year you want) and just give it to them then when it's released by the distillery. Holding on to a bottle for 20 years or so can leave it vulnerable to all types of accidents. Don't risk it and just buy the bottle when they turn 21 or whatever age you want to bestow it upon them.

Answer 2

Just to extend farmersteves answer...There are quite a few that produce limited releases annually. These tend to be limited releases produced either by a new brand or established distilleries but they are usually limited to smaller cask numbers. As they are limited I would expect you to have to pay a bit more, many sell out quickly from shops so you may have to use an Online Auction.

The following auction is highly regarded and this search (simply for the year 2018) will contain many of this years release. Note in these cases 2018 is the year it was bottled, the age determined by when the cask was put down.

Whisky Auctioneer search for 2018 whiskies

Just yesterday MacAllan released one limited to a few hundred but very difficult to get and managed very poorly by them if I say so myself...

Finally. I am also aware some distilleries let you buy casks to bottle at a later date, or alternatively buy a bottle from a yet to be bottled cask. If you do it this year you could request the bottling at a specific milestone for your child (I know people who have done this).

Answer 3

I just looked at several of my bottles, and the only one having a date on the bottle was Ardbeg and it was stamped on the bottle not on the label. You should look at smaller distilleries as they would use it as a marketing gimmick.

An alternative would be to buy a bottle of Laphroaig which allows you to register a square foot plot of land at the distillery and get a certificate for it, which includes the date of registration.

If you expand your horizons, many bourbon distilleries in the US either batch or date their bottles by hand. Bean-ball Bourbon from Cooperstown does, others such as Hillrock give a batch number, and Hudson Valley also does batch numbers by hand.

Answer 4

I've seen several scotches that are labeled "From the harvest of..." a particular year, if you want the birth year to correspond to the production year. I got my kids vintage ports since they 1) age well nearly indefinitely if properly stored, and 2) everybody can tolerate a little glass of port even if they don't like alcohol.

Answer 5

This is not a very common practice, but there are some options:

• I know for a fact that Laphroaig currently print the bottling year and month on their 27yr old. There are probably others, but I suspect these will all be on the older/expensive end.

• Pick a annual limited release option like the Bowmore warehouseman's selection that has been created for a specific year.

• look for single cask bottlings, as these are more likely to print this information. Single cask bottlings are rarer directly from distilleries, but quite common from independent bottlers.

Finding more examples is likely to involve manual inspection of labels, some of which might be possible with images posted online.