Dram old 'nose' sniffed out

Bob Dalgarno takes stock of his creation

A distillery has successfully reproduced the flavour of a 160-year-old bottle of whisky, which is thought to be the oldest in existence.

The bottle of Macallan, made in 1841, had been held at the company's Speyside distillery for decades but was only opened and sampled last year.

It was recreated by Bob Dalgarno, who said he thought the original spirit had not lost any of its flavour despite its long period in storage.

"We made dozens of experimental composite vattings, to see how the individual components reacted together," he said.

"It was like creating a delicate sculpture, where, when you added one component, you ran the risk of throwing the rest out of balance."

Glass containers, which were rare for the mid-19th century as whisky was normally kept in stone flagons or jars, were created for the copies.

Macallan was named distillery of the year earlier this month by one of the "bibles" of the whisky world, Malt Advocate magazine.