Blended at Birth, a Vintage Scotch Whisky from 1965, is a marvel. Born of techniques no longer used by whisky makers – a blending of new make spirit, as opposed to legally aged whisky, at birth - it is a true piece of distilling history. But, beyond its provenance, it is a whisky born of the mid-century, having laid witness to many key historical moments. We take a trip back in time to explore its year of birth.
1965. Exactly halfway through the decade, the swinging sixties spirit was well underway. A time of great optimism, enjoying the most freedom since the conservatism of the second world war, restrictions and rationing was truly seen as a thing of the past. Cultural competition broke out between the mods and rockers as The Rolling Stones embarked upon their world tour. Beatlemania had peaked, and fans were rewarded with hit after hit, an impressive feat across the year, considering The Beatles has embarked upon their second North American tour by the summer.
Newfound freedom could be found in sartorial expression: rising hemlines upwards to the mini, skirts swapped for chiffon trousers and the adoption of denim jeans became a staple in women’s’ wardrobes. Vidal Sassoon opened his salon in New York City, an act that would see the fashion-forward attending to sport geometric and cropped hair, a la Mary Quant and Twiggy style.
The space race was in full swing, with giant leaps for mankind in the form of the first ever tethered spacewalk – a precursor of things to come, such as the moon landings of 1969. Architectural marvels began to take shape – such as the construction of the Sydney Opera House beginning to form the iconic sail-like silhouette outline that we know today.
Despite progress within the arts, an undercurrent of tension could be felt. 1965 brought the passing of a beacon of stability in the second world war - Sir Winston Churchill. Meanwhile war waged across Vietnam, while in the United States, civil rights grew in visibility as protesting gained momentum. It was a time of great change.
In Scotland, the whisky industry was evolving through great change of its own. By this time, Charles Gordon (of the Charles Gordon Collection moniker) was embarking upon his own journey of independence and entrepreneurship. Within a mere decade of joining the family company, Charles, alongside his brother, Sandy, had created significant disruption throughout the industry.
By 1965, relations were strained with trading partner and grain behemoth, Distiller’s Company Limited (DCL), with the creation of Girvan Distillery in 1963, a means for the brothers to pilot their own destiny in a previously largely monopolised landscape. With just one year before legal whisky would come of age from Girvan, the focus continued with a focus on diversifying the family portfolio. At this time, the Gordon family began to lay down substantial stocks – not just for commercial purposes, but for personal consumption – after all, all work, and no play was no fun at all. These casks, laid down with foresight, would later become the inventory known today as the House of Hazelwood.
Continuously pushing the boundaries, Charles Gordon sought to whet his appetite for innovation, and amongst putting in place genuinely disruptive processes, such as the employment of the industry’s first ever in-house coppersmith, he encouraged experimentation. Single grain was segmented into single casks, with the strict instruction to be left for over half a century. Blended Scotch Whisky, which was almost of age, was stopped in its tracks, and sent for more, unconventional maturation. History was made, and unorthodox practices continued: malt and grain parcels from a singular distillery segmented together, stowed away to become one day the first of its kind in age and provenance.
One of the more controversial, yet compelling, experiments, began not with casks and forward-looking maturation, but in fact with new make – with parcels of spirit blended at the beginning of their journey – an expression that would suitably become Blended at Birth, a 1965 Vintage Blended Scotch Whisky.
At the time, this process of blending new make would have been altogether unheard of – and arguably the only example of such an experiment. Whisky makers typically had their eyes set on only commercial objectives, focusing on producing as much Blended Scotch Whisky as quickly as possible to meet demand – without the view to experiment so radically as to dabble in the marriage of new make spirit.
Then, a practice that was unheard of. Today, a practice that is entirely impossible, with thanks to the Scotch Whisky legislation of 2009, prohibiting the blend of anything other than legally aged whisky, making this expression the very last, and perhaps the only of its kind. That is not to say that it is any lesser a being – with its inception well before these much-needed rules and regulations coming into place – but instead, a time capsule of the optimism and entrepreneurship of the swinging sixties.
The resulting whisky is just as intriguing as its unconventional inception. Any lengthy maturation for 56 years would be compelling enough, but the unusual flavour profile alludes to its circumstances of creation. The nose promises all the hallmarks of a well-aged whisky: marzipan, almonds, fruitcake and rancio-led leather. The palate evolves into something entirely unexpected – a tantalising glimpse of tannin rich herbal tea, before cleansing the palate with a cooling, mint aftertaste.
Vintage Scotch Whisky – An Adventure through the Archives
There is certainly no shortage of tales to tell from within the House of Hazelwood stocks – with vintage Scotch Whisky such as Blended at Birth helping to orally share the tales of its time, illustrated in its nuanced tasting notes. The stocks which Charles Gordon and the family laid down are seemingly limitless, and as for where our archives will take us next – the only guarantee is it will be nothing short of an adventure.
