 A bottle of Vat 69 whisky. | |
| Type | Blended Scotch whisky |
|---|---|
| Manufacturer | Diageo |
| Country of origin | Scotland |
| Introduced | 1882 |
| Alcohol by volume | 40% |
Vat 69 is a blended Scotch whisky produced by Diageo in Scotland. It was created by William Sanderson & Son Limited [1] of South Queensferry, Scotland. [2]
William Sanderson was born in Leith, Scotland on 27 January 1839. [3] He started an apprenticeship with wine and spirituous liquors producer Matthew Buchan at the age of 13. [4] By 1863, he already owned his own business producing liqueurs and whisky blends. In 1880, his son William Mark joined the business and persuaded his father to bottle various blends of whisky. [5]
The characteristic Vat 69 bottle with its bulbous neck was introduced to the market and was not changed for the next hundred years. In 1882, William Sanderson prepared one hundred casks of blended whisky and hired a panel of experts to taste them. The batch from the cask (or “vat”) with number 69 was judged to be the best, and this provided the whisky's brand name. [6] The whisky was at first bottled in port bottles. In 1884, Sanderson bought the Glen Garioch distillery which was situated in the middle of a barley field. The distillery was meant to ensure the delivery of 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 large amount of the production that it had a huge influence on the supply of the competing company. For this reason Sanderson, together with Usher and Bell, founded a company to produce grain whisky, which still exists today as the North British Distillery. Sanderson sourced a few malt whiskies used to blend 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, Sanderson's 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 première in England.
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Despite its name, it is not a vatted malt, but a blend of about 40 malt and grain whiskies. Vat 69 Reserve carries no standard age statement.
Since autumn 1980, Glenesk, which is a 12-year-old Highland Single Malt (40%), is available from Sanderson in Germany. Glenesk is stored for at least 12 years in sherry barrels. Since 1964, William Sanderson & Sons Ltd. has produced "Antiquary", which is a 12-year-old De-Luxe-Scotch-Whisky (40%).
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Enjoyed by General Frank Savage (played by Gregory Peck) in Twelve O'Clock High, a 1949 WWII film about the US Air Force in England 1943.
Vat 69 was the beverage of choice in the Preston household (Bette Davis and Gary Merrill) and also the mode of delivery for the titular poison in Another Man's Poison (1951).
Vat 69 was the spotlight whisky for the bad guys in Bollywood films throughout the 60s, 70s, and 80s.
Captain Lewis Nixon, an American World War II army officer who is a major figure in the 1992 non-fiction book Band of Brothers by Stephen E. Ambrose and the award-winning 2001 HBO miniseries made from it, is portrayed as an enthusiastic drinker who went to great lengths to obtain supplies of Vat 69. [7]
Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective, a fictional character created by pulp magazine, radio and TV writer Robert Leslie Bellem, kept a ready supply of Vat 69 in his apartment, and had remarkably good luck finding a bottle at most of the murder scenes he investigated.
In The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension , Ellen Barkin character Penny Priddy says "I guess I just soaked up a bit too much Vat 69 here." while clutching the bottle and crying at a cocktail table.
In a Dirty Harry scene where crooks are held up in a store and "request" a car, Harry decides to give them one. Upon exiting the car once inside, on a wall can be seen, "VAT 69 Gold" appearing on a yellow sign in a stencil font.
Towards the end of the final episode of The Field of Blood (TV series) , three journalists are seen sharing a bottle of Vat 69 in their newspaper office.
A bottle of VAT 69 can be seen during a scene in "Women Haters"(1934), the very first short by The Three Stooges during their time working for Columbia Pictures.
Scotch whisky is malt whisky or grain whisky, made in Scotland.
Whisky or whiskey is a type of liquor made from fermented grain mash. Various grains are used for different varieties, including barley, corn, rye, and wheat. Whisky is typically aged in wooden casks, which are typically made of charred white oak. Uncharred white oak casks previously used for the aging of port, rum or sherry are also sometimes used.
Single malt Scotch refers to single malt whisky made in Scotland. To qualify for this category, a whisky must have been distilled at a single distillery using a pot still distillation process and made from a mash of malted barley. Therefore, a single malt means that the whisky has not been blended elsewhere with whisky from other distilleries. As with any Scotch whisky, a single malt Scotch must be distilled in Scotland and matured in oak casks in Scotland for at least three years, although most single malts are matured longer.
Single malt whisky is malt whisky from a single distillery.
Royal Brackla distillery is a Highland Scotch whisky distillery on the Cawdor Estate, near Nairn in Scotland. The distillery is operated by John Dewar & Sons Ltd for Bacardi.
Glenmorangie distillery is a distillery in Tain, Ross-shire, Scotland, that produces single malt Scotch whisky.
Grant's is a blended Scotch whisky, produced by the company William Grant & Sons in Scotland.
William Grant & Sons Ltd is an independent, family-owned Scottish company that distills Scotch whisky and other selected categories of spirits. It was established in 1887 by William Grant, and is run by Grant's descendants as of 2018. It is the largest of the handful of Scotch whisky distillers remaining in family ownership.
A master blender is an individual who develops specific blended spirits using a combination of spirits with different characteristics. For example, in the Scotch whisky industry, master blenders choose which single malts and grain whiskies to combine to make particular brands of blended whisky. A master blender is not the same thing as a master distiller, although one person may do both jobs at small craft distilleries. As the name suggests, the blender creates blends using spirits from different casks and is responsible for making sure the product remains consistent across different batches, while the distiller is either directly responsible for the mashing and distilling of spirits or simply holds the title as the administrative and marketing figurehead of the company.
Springbank distillery is a family-owned single malt whisky distillery on the Kintyre Peninsula in western Scotland.
A blended malt, formerly called a vatted malt, or pure malt, is a blend of different single malt whiskies from different distilleries. These terms are most commonly used in reference to Scotch whisky, or whisky in that style, such as Japanese whisky.
Lochside distillery was a distillery in Montrose, Angus that produced single malt scotch whisky and grain whisky. The distillery was owned by Macnab Distilleries Ltd. and latterly, by Allied Distillers, a subsidiary of the former British drinks and restaurant group Allied Domecq.
Glencadam distillery is a distillery in Brechin, Angus, Scotland that produces single malt Scotch whisky. The distillery is owned by Angus Dundee plc and produces one malt whisky, with the remainder of production sold to blenders or used within Angus Dundee plc for use in blended whisky brands.
Ben Nevis distillery is a whisky distillery in Fort William, Scotland. It is situated at the base of Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in the British Isles, which rises to 1,345 m (4,413 ft) above sea level.
Murray McDavid is a bottler of Scotch whisky, offering a range of whisky from vintage single malts and grains to blended malts.
Douglas Laing & Co is an independent bottler of Scotch whisky. Based in Glasgow, Scotland and established in 1948, the company has a number of brands including its "Remarkable Regional Malts" range, encompassing The Epicurean, Timorous Beastie, Scallywag, Rock Island and Big Peat, as well as Old Particular, Provenance and Xtra Old Particular, which they collectively call their "Exceptional Single Casks". The firm also creates and sells King of Scots Blended Scotch Whisky, Clan Denny Single Casks and Premier Barrel.
Girvan distillery is a grain whisky distillery located in South Ayrshire, Scotland.
The Nikka Whisky Distilling Co. Ltd. is a producer of Japanese whisky and other beverages headquartered in Tokyo. It is owned by Asahi Group Holdings.
House of Hazelwood is a brand of aged Scotch whisky, owned and produced by the Gordon family, owners of William Grant & Sons. The whisky is made with spirit from the Gordon family's private collection.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to whisky:
