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The Speculative Economics of Super-Aged Whiskies

How do you put a price on a 72-year-old Scotch?

There’s something special about sipping a whisky that’s older than you are. There’s no guarantee that it will be objectively better than younger whiskies on the shelf, but trying a whisky that was resting in a barrel since before you were born feels celebratory and indulgent. This is an attainable treat in your twenties, when such a dram is a spendy but not outlandish splurge. The price accelerates as you get older. By your thirties and forties, you might be looking at a week or more of rent for the experience of drinking one of these super-aged whiskies.

Therefore, I was very excited when, on the eve of my fortieth birthday, I received an unexpected sample of whisky that was not only older than me but older than my dad: a 72-year-old Scotch bottled by Gordon & MacPhail. Distilled in 1949 at the Milton Distillery, now known as Strathisla, the whisky spent seven full decades in a first-fill sherry puncheon. Nearly three quarters of a century after filling, the cask yielded just 180 bottles at a strength of 48.6% ABV, each of them retailing for about $65,000. That meant my little glass vial represented about $2,600 worth of Scotch. It would quite possibly be the oldest and most expensive whisky I ever drink in my life. I took care not to drop it.