By ASHOK SOMAN
The
phrase hand-made has made it to premium whisky with The Last Drop, a blend of
70 different malt whiskies and 12 different grain whiskies from the cellars of The Last Drop Distillers Ltd that took 48 years
to create.
In the context of this whisky, hand-made largely refers to the
selection of the individual whiskies and the bottling process. The most
intriguing thing about The Last Drop, according to James Espey, one of the
company’s founders, is that most of the whiskies selected for this run of 1,347
bottles are from distilleries that no longer exist.
Add in the facts that The
Last Drop is bottled straight from the cask, without chilling or filtering, and
that it is not diluted (making this a 52% strength whisky as opposed to the
usual 40+%), and this becomes a rather fetching proposition for connoisseurs.
The producers say that The Last Drop has a complex nose that incorporates
chocolate, figs and vanilla while the brisk taste is marked by a long and spicy
finish.
lastdropdistillers.com