Vat 69 Blended Whisky

Volume - 40%

According to Wikipedia -

Vat 69 whisky is a scotch blended Whisky, produced by William Sanderson.

In 1882 William Sanderson prepared one hundred casks of blended whiskey and hired a panel of experts to taste them. The batch from the vat with number 69 was judged to be the best tasting one and the famous blend got its name. The whisky was at first bottled in port wine bottles.

The typical VAT 69 bottle was introduced to the market and was not changed for the next hundred years. In 1884, Sanderson bought the Glengarioch Distillery. It was situated in the middle of a barley field. The distillery was meant to ensure the delivery with grain-whisky. Sanderson took care that there were always new products to be blended, because DCL, which was a strong society at that time, controlled such a big amount of the production, that it could influence the supply of the competing company very sensitively. Therefore Sanderson, together with Usher and Bell founded a company to produce grain-whisky, which still exists today as the 'North British Distillery'. Sanderson got a few Malt Whiskies that he needed to blend his VAT 69 from a friend, John Begg, who owned the 'Royal Lochnagar Distillery' When Begg died, Sanderson became director of Begg's Distillery. In 1933, Sandersons company merged with Booth's Distilleries, which merged again with the DCL-Group in 1935. In autumn 1980, 'Vat 69 Reserve' from the House of Sanderson had its world-premiere in England. Chosen and optimal stored malt whiskies are used to produce this De-Luxe-Whisky.