My father (a former London Guinness & Whisky Bar owner) handed me the bottle with the following story (please excuse the vague account).
The Whisky was sold to my father by a Gentleman who had discovered it in Galway, Ireland. At the time my father purchased it, it was still sealed with the Midleton seal in a Carboy. The story of how the Gentleman acquired it is of interest...
His father was a distiller with Midleton’s and after a fire at the factory where a distiller that blew up, it was his father that survived the blast that nearly blew all of his clothes off. After telling this story to a Galway pub owner, the man was led to the basement where he was presented with the Carboy of Whisky his long since departed Father had distilled many years before. He snapped up the Whisky realising the importance of the find.
This was the Carboy of Whisky that was eventually shipped to London and on some advice sold to my father, being that my fathers bar was a famous spot for a rare and expensive Whisky (The Toucan in Carlisle St, Soho). My father took a gamble and purchased the entire lot of whisky and then set about verifying the contents, the seal was broken with witnesses present and a sample was sent to one of the last remaining proofers in Scotland. It was verified as a 43.5% proof .
My fathers bar bottled the contents in 1995 with the help of P.J. Molloy & Son of Covent Garden and the whisky was sold by Milroy’s of Soho in London. At the time these bottles fetched £400 each and 31 of the 33 produced were snapped up fast by collectors and celebrities, including Irish actor Richard Harris who bought a bottle for Sean Connery because he was fed up of hearing Connery quip that the Irish couldn’t make a good whisky. The last remaining bottled went to my father and his business partner.
Jim Murray heard about the bottle shortly after completing his book the Whisky Bible and came into my Fathers bar to sample some and said he wished he had tried the Whisky before completing his book because it was “..One of the best whiskeys he had ever tasted..”.
I am now the owner of my fathers bottle and am interested to find out more about it's value. What do you think? Where would I start?
