Balblair 1975 - 22 Year Old - First Cask - Single Cask 7285

Located in the Northern Highlands a few miles from Glenmorangie, Balblair’s whisky is old-school coastal Highland style. The original Balblair distillery was founded in 1790 but production was moved in 1872 to a new distillery which was subsequently rebuilt in 1894 and then mothballed from 1911-1949. Balblair was acquired by Hiram Walker in 1970, became part of Allied Distillers in 1988 and was finally sold to Inver House Distillers in 1996. Inver House have been owned by Thai Beverages plc since 2006.

Sporadic official bottlings of Balblair occurred prior to the Inver House takeover, and Gordon & MacPhail also bottled Balblair semi-officially under licence for many years. Inver House issued a memorable 33-year-old Balblair in 2000 before launching a popular vintage range in 2007. The core range reverted to age statement releases in 2019. Most of the classic indie Balblairs are from Gordon & MacPhail, with notable releases also from bottlers including the SMWS, Adelphi and Douglas Laing.

The First Cask range was a prolific series of single malt whisky bottlings by the UK’s largest mail order wine company Direct Wines Ltd, owner of Laithwaite’s and The Sunday Times Wine Club. From the early 1990s until the mid-Noughties Direct Wines released dozens of outstanding single cask whiskies annually under the First Cask label, almost all of which were bottled at 46%.

These whiskies were not particularly highly sought-after on release, probably because they were only sold online through a wine club.  Back then, of course, it was not widely known that the casks had been sourced from Signatory Vintage, which would certainly have raised their profile among whisky fans. Nowadays, although still frequently excellent value at auction, the First Cask collection - which includes hundreds of long-aged whiskies from distilleries including Brora, Port Ellen, Ardbeg and Macallan - is finally getting the recognition it deserves.