End Date : Jun 25 2025 08:00 PM
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Rosebank 8 Year Old. Bottled by The Distillers Agency Ltd. 1980s. 75cl. 40%. In presentation box.
A lovely old ‘Unblended’ official bottling of Rosebank 8-year-old Lowland single malt whisky from the mid-1980s, released in the distillery’s last years as a going concern before being mothballed in 1993.
These Rosebank 8-year-olds were fast-maturing old school Lowland malts that showed remarkable richness and development for their age and despite their softness are often rather weightier and more assertive on the palate than you might expect, with an oily fruitiness and, frequently, some lovely old school sherry influence. It’s genuinely amazing that the distillery was ever closed when it was putting out whisky of this quality, and there’s no doubt Rosebank’s new owners Ian MacLeod would be over the moon if they could replicate this style at the newly-refurbished distillery.
The writing was on the wall for Rosebank in 1988 when owners United Distillers preferred the less accomplished but much more tourist-friendly Glenkinchie for their new Classic Malts series. Rosebank closed in 1993, after UD balked at a £2m upgrade to the distillery’s effluent treatment facility, and soon became a cult lost distillery - the Lowland equivalent of Brora or Port Ellen. Miraculously, Diageo have now restored both Brora and Port Ellen, while Rosebank was rebuilt under new owners Ian MacLeod Distillers and began distilling again in June 2023.
Today, new bottlings of old Rosebank are dwindling, and prices have increased dramatically over the last decade. Essential official bottlings of Rosebank include the glorious 1979 and 1981 Rare Malt Editions, and the splendid Special Releases from 2007, 2011 and 2014. Indie Rosebanks from the early 1990s vintages are generally excellent and usually more affordable at auction.
Distillery bottlings are, as the name suggests, bottled by or for the distillery from which the whisky has originated and are thus often referred to as Official Bottlings or OBs. Distillery bottlings are generally more desirable for collectors and usually fetch higher prices at auction than independent bottlings. They are officially-endorsed versions of the whisky from a particular distillery and are therefore considered the truest expression of the distillery’s character.
This ideal of the distillery character is regarded so seriously by the distilleries and brand owners that casks of whisky that are considered to vary too far from the archetype are frequently sold on to whisky brokers and independent bottlers. When this happens, it is often with the proviso that the distillery’s name is not allowed to be used when the cask is bottled for fear of diminishing or damaging the distillery’s character and status.
| BID | DATE | TIME | |
|---|---|---|---|
| £410.00 | 25th June 2025 | 09:45 AM | |
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