The first two bottles of a unique whisky came under the hammer at NFU Scotland’s annual dinner in St Andrews last night, fetching £1400 and £1200.
Both bottles of the unique Banffshire Centenary Blended Malt head back to the North East. Bottle number one, sold by United Auctions auctioneer Donald Young was bought and shared by a group of nine members from the North East region with bottle number two – sold by John Angus of ANM Group – going to John Gordon, Wellhead, Huntly.
Bottle number three of the blend has been entered into a specialist whisky auction being staged by Bonhams in Edinburgh on Wednesday, 26 February.
Members of the Banffshire Branch of NFU Scotland toured their county in October 2013, collecting malt whisky donated by all of the 28 working distilleries within Banffshire to create the ‘dream’ dram for whisky aficionados – a feat unlikely to ever be repeated.
Members of the branch struck on the idea of crafting this one-off blend to celebrate NFU Scotland’s centenary and to recognise the close links between the two main industries in their county – whisky and farming.
The distilleries who donated whisky to the Banffshire Centenary Blended Malt include many of the most famous malts in the world, helping to produce one of the most unique and valuable drams ever created in Scotland’s long history of whisky-making.
With only 40 bottles available, funds from the sale of the blend will go to support the work of NFU Scotland’s Centenary Trust. Ends
Notes to Editors
• Photographs of the purchasers with their bottle of the Banffshire Centenary Blended Malt are available from media@nfus.org.uk on request
• In creating The Banffshire Centenary Blended Malt, members of the branch toured the distilleries in Banffshire on Thursday, 3 October and Friday, 4 October, 2013 using a Landrover, a vintage tractor and a vintage lorry to carry the cask. Scotland’s Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Richard Lochhead, joined the cask on the final few legs of its tour. The journey ended at Glenfiddich distillery where Mr Lochhead and the Lord Lieutenant of Banffshire, Clare Russell, poured the final litre of malt into the cask.
• The tasting notes are as follows:
- Colour - Barley fields in August sunshine.
- Body - Fantastic purity with a satin smooth texture, it’s a mature, mellow spirit full of characters in the coming together of so many distillates. It has created a totally unique flavour experience which is both intriguing and delicious.
- Aromatics and palate - It opens on barley and breakfast cereal intertwining wonderfully with freshly picked summer flowers. Then, given time and appreciation, the vanilla sweet oak offers crème brûlée, hazelnut, digestive biscuits and syrup drizzled almonds. But there is so much more evolving and it is on the palate that you get the real sense of just how good this is. The taste buds are loving the flavours of soft fruits; apricot, pear stewed apple, candied almonds, cherries and honey and marzipan cake. The flavours are simultaneously delicate and potent considering the complexity of so many great spirits. The balance is perfect as is the finish which lasts long after the glass is empty. Like a classic tweed many threads come together to produce a complex, decedent, beguiling spirit. It is a credit to all the distillers involved.
- Finish - The flavours are like true friends; very rare and valued. When will we see it’s like again?
More information available at the website: www.banffshire-centenary-blend.co.uk