BALVENIE (50 YEAR OLD) 1937
Balvenie was blurred at one point in history, living in the shadow of its giant big brother, Glenfiddich. But in spite of the relative opacity of the brand, whiskey experts John and Wallace Milroy, who saw potential in Balvenie, are industry legends, founded Milroy’s of Soho and specialized in selling liquor and liquor. luxury whiskey. All 50 years of Balvenie bottles issued are sold by the Balvenie distillery to two whiskey retailers, John and Wallace Milroy, who have a close relationship with Mr. William Grant, owner of Balvenie. Milroys quickly exported the 1937 Balvenie to their dealers around the world and 500 bottles were soon sold out. Balvenie was not well known at the time, and the pure 50-year-old whiskey bottles that were bottled in the natural concentration of the barrel were almost absent. This contributed to making Balvenie 50 years a rare phenomenon.
- Limited production version.
1937 – two years before the start of World War II, the year that the former King Edward VIII married American divorcee Wallis Simpson, The Hobbit by J.R.R Tolkien was published. A lifetime ago. And yet the Balvenie 50-Year-Old serves as a relic from that time. During all of this, and the events that followed, the whisky sat in a barrel, slowly maturing and taking on flavours from its cask. The whisky was released from its cask in 1987 when it was bottled, and those bottles soon passed to the hands of the Milroy’s who have had a hand in making Balvenie as revered as it is today.
Adding to the bottle’s growing popularity is its rarity – many of the 50-year-old Balvenie bottles are gone, meaning the few that remain are even more valuable. The whiskey in these bottles has been distilled for only 45 years during the Balvenie’s lifetime, making it one of the oldest Balvenies still in existence. The bottle is also labeled as a replica of the label on Glenfiddich bottles from 1903-1908. This label serves as a compliment to Glenfiddich and as a link between the two distilleries. Balvenie has truly emerged from the shadow of Glenfiddich thanks to this extraordinary bottling.
In recent years, Balvenie 1937 50 years old bottles have broken their estimates before being sold at auctions. In 2020, a bottle of 50-year-old Balvenie sold for £ 38,720 at Sotheby’s. Now, the 50-year-old Balvenie is becoming more and more popular and sought after.
Balvenie 1937 was distilled in July 1937 and bottled in December 1987 at a concentration of 42%. Balvenie 1937 was released 500 bottles worldwide.
- A sweetness and richness whiskies.
From Wallace Milroy, author of the Malt Whisky Almanac, 1987: “To the best of my knowledge, no other fifty year old pure malt whisky has been bottled at such high natural cask strength. This has contributed to make the Balvenie 50 year old Pure Malt Whisky such a rare phenomenon.
For a whisky so old, it has retained a remarkable degree of body whilst achieving a sweetness and richness of taste that only whiskies of this age can impart. Incomparable and singular quality.”
