Trackbacked at Don Surber:
From the Associated Press via Yahoo.com:
LONDON - A Scottish distillery said Monday it was reviving a centuries-old recipe for whisky so strong that one 17th-century writer feared more than two spoonfuls could be lethal.
Risk-taking whisky connoisseurs will have to wait, however — the spirit will not be ready for at least 10 years.
The Bruichladdich distillery on the Isle of Islay, off Scotland’s west coast, is producing the quadruple-distilled 184-proof — or 92 percent alcohol — spirit “purely for fun,” managing director Mark Reynier said.
Whisky usually is distilled twice and has an alcohol content of between 40 and 63.5 per cent.
Bruichladdich is using a recipe for a spirit known in the Gaelic language as usquebaugh-baul, “perilous water of life.”
In 1695, travel writer Martin Martin described it as powerful enough to affect “all members of the body.”
“Two spoonfuls of this last liquor is a sufficient dose; if any man should exceed this, it would presently stop his breath, and endanger his life,” Martin wrote.
[...more at the link...]
This stuff won’t be available for another 10 years. “You get a better drink if you wait because of the basic oxygenation through the oak barrels.”
And this stuff is going to be expensive. 400 pounds, 695 dollars, or 590 euros per case of 12 bottles.
I do enjoy a wee dram of a fine single malt from time to time, although I don’t know if I’ll wait 10 years, and pay $700USD, for a case of this whisky. I’ll just settle back with three fingers of The Glenlivet. Impede no’ th’ path t’ me comfy chair nor me wee dram lest ye would be laid aboot th’ heid & shoulders wi’ truncheon stout.
whisky, distillery, Islay, Scotland
2 responses so far ↓
1 Crazy Politico // Mar 2, 2006 at 8:51 pm
I’m more a bourbon than scotch fan, but I’ll have to archive this and try some when it’s ready. Just to see what happens on the third spoonful
2 joe-6-pack // Mar 2, 2006 at 11:19 pm
I don’t drink the hard stuff, but I had a taste of an interesting drink a few weeks ago. It started off as a barleywine ale, which was then distilled to the point where it was almost clear.
It was literally breathtaking. It reminded me of the only time I ever had any moonshine.