The legend of the S.S. Politician certainly had all the makings of a movie: During wartime England, a British ship laden with a cargo of hard cash and Scotch Whisky braves the Atlantic and U-boats to conduct the Empire's business in colonial Jamaica. She never makes it, running aground on the remote Scottish Island of Eriskay. Opportunistic islanders then make the best of it, "liberating" one quarter million bottles of Scotland's finest. Most of the cash is recovered, but nary a bottle of scotch is ever found. (Aye, there is no fooling a Scotsman as to what is truly valuable in life).

As fate would have it, the colorful incident did come to the silver screen in the late Forties in the form of the pulpy, popular "Whisky Galore." More importantly for single malt aficionados, however, the celebrated sinking and subsequent film now lend their legacy to a newly available cache of single malt Scotch whisky that can only be described as whisky's Holy Grail.

Although no late-night scouring of the Hebrides' jagged coast was involved, the discovery of this treasure is no less fortuitous for aficionados thirsting for the smoky, oak-laden taste of an aged single malt. Rarer than plutonium -- and much tastier -- 30-year old-plus Scotch is the benchmark by which all other whiskies must be measured. Through his thick brogue, Steve Lipp, who with his long-time friend and partner, Euan Shand, helm the boutique importing firm of Duncan & Taylor, explains how their company came to acquire 2,000 casks of the liquid gold. "We had the opportunity, through a gentleman's estate, to invest in probably the rarest and most significant lot of Scotch Whisky available on the market today." Calling the cache "Whisky Galore," their gain is now also a boon to connoisseurs, who can slake their thirst for rarefied marks by acquiring premium casks directly through Duncan & Taylor.

Originally assembled by a wealthy American importer in the late Sixties, viewing a list of the cache is as dizzying as it is dazzling. Duncan & Taylor are now busy tending to clients from Europe to Japan, eager to own a cask of 1969 Macallan with its velvety finish or a staunch, peaty Bowmore which has spent 35 years weathering alongside the North Atlantic.

Client's shouldn't expect a massive cask to be Fed Ex'ed to their doorstep. Instead, Duncan & Taylor bottle a customer's lot onsite in their warehouse in Huntly, in the heart of Scotland's malt whiskey country. Each bottle is then bottled at cask strength (no diluting permitted) and then numbered, much like a limited edition, with additional information on the label including the year distilled and bottled.

Adding to the cachet, clients can opt to have personalized or corporate logos emblazoned on the bottle. Depending on the size of a cask, one could expect anywhere from 150 to 500 bottles that are shipped at pre-arranged intervals to a customer.

Ranging in price from $6,000 - $40,000, the investment in a full cask of 30- plus-year-old single malt Scotch isn't for everyone. But then, the initiated know a deal when they see one. In fact, Lipp points out, a 30-year-old bottle of Macallan will run around $350, where one of his customers will pay about $150 at cask prices.

Then there is the small matter of the "angel's share" to consider; the name given by the Scots to that wee amount of alcohol that evaporates as the whiskey ages. Celestial beings notwithstanding, you can't blame them -- it is single malt after all.

Contact Info:
Steve Lipp/Duncan & Taylor U.S.
Offices: 323-960-9065
Web: www.scotchcasks.com

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