A brush with a legend

A couple of days ago, I was having dinner at Westgate, and casually walked into Vom Fass, just to browse at the whisky offerings. The selection at Vom Fass changes pretty quickly as sales seem to be pretty good, and they have many shops worldwide to circulate stock around. Apart from regular bottlings from the distilleries, they also carry some independent bottlings like Douglas Laing's bottles, though these are fewer in number, and availability may vary from time to time. I've found the prices there to be pretty reasonable, given Singapore's ridiculously high alcohol levy. What is most fascinating is the selection of Vom Fass independent bottlings, under their Fasszination series, and other whiskies that they decant at the shop, which can be browsed on the website.

The Fasszination series is a series of whiskies bottled at high strength, some at cask strength, that are different from what's commonly on the market. For example, they have a Bowmore 14, which is not a common year for a Bowmore. They also have on their barrel shaped decanters things like a 19 year old Bunnahabain, 23 year old Bruichladdich, and a couple of Irish whiskies, and so on.

Before this starts to sound like an advertisement, I'll quickly move on to the point of this post.

On the shelf of Fasszinations, I was browsing from left to right. Auchentoshan 12 CS, Bowmore 14, a couple more Bowmores (including one at 26 years), a Glen Garioch, and, at the end of the shelf, with no price tag, sat...

A 30 year old Port Ellen, CS, bottled in 2013. Bottle 21 of 30.

I took it off the shelf immediately.

One out of 30 in the world, from a silent, legendary distillery. Aged for 30 years. What are the odds?

The sales lady smiled, as if she knew that I had picked up the treasure of her shop, and told me that this baby would cost $1840. For one wild moment, I considered buying it.

$1840 is about the price range for any 30 year old whisky that you can find in Singapore. Crazily, the Yamazaki 18 is being sold for about $800, while the 25 goes up to $4000 or even more. And the Yamazakis are still in production. On the other hand, a 30 year old cask strength Port Ellen is going for $1840. Feels like a (very expensive) steal. Demand and supply skewing prices out of proportion, really.

But, fighting that impulse, I put the bottle back on the shelf. And walked out of the shop. I'll start saving a portion of my yearly alcohol budget, and maybe a few years later, I'll come look for this legendary Islay again (though I am painfully aware that, by writing about it here, I'm reducing the odds that it'll still be around when I finally scrap my loose change together. Ah well).

A brush with a legendary malt. What a heady feeling. Drunk, without even drinking a sip.