Very Old White Horse Whisky on eBay

[bboivin]

I didn't win, but I bid on this whisky here: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/VERY-OLD-WHIT ... 500wt_1413

After thinking about it, I have some questions.

1.) This bottle appears to have a cork top (or not - as obviously is not a straight cork, but could be a cork-cap)? According to various articles on the net, White Horse having started in 1861, switched to screw-top in 1924. The label states: "In Appointment to Her Majesty the Queen", so that is either Queen Victoria....or could be a more recent bottle (but the label looks very old). The bottle number 4554987 seems high? (but not sure exactly what that means)

2.) Looking at the photos/description, there has been absolutely zero evaporation. How can this even be possible? The lead seal looks like it is on pretty tight, so I guess that is a factor? I can't believe this would be super old, with that little evaporation, so maybe 1950s?

If this was legit, I'm thinking I've missed out and probably should have bid a little more. The backbone of White Horse is Lagavulin (so I'm told) so I thought this might be very interesting to try.

[Mr Tattie Heid]

I was going to say the current queen has been around for quite a while, but that does look like a very old bottle--I note, for example, no size or strength indicated. Evaporation is a hit-or-miss thing, and I wouldn't think it impossible for such an old bottle to have retained a very good seal. There might be some sort of cap on there, as well as the cork and the seal (just guessing). As for Lagavulin being the backbone of it, well, that's true in recent history, but who knows about then. I wouldn't read too much into it, but the label says "From the original recipe 1746", and Lagavulin was established in 1816. On the other hand, the oldest legal distillery still operating in Islay is Bowmore, established 1779, so as I say, you can't read too much into that--"original recipe" probably can't be taken too literally. But that does seem to raise even more questions, doesn't it?

[bboivin]

Thanks, after a little more research, I'm thinking this bottle is 1950s/60s (but have no idea how the bottle codes work) and that it has just been stored very badly.

[John Barleycorn]

This bottle probable dates from around the beginning of the present Queen’s reign to the mid 60’. If you look at the photo you can just make out that there is something concealed under the foil capsule.

White Horse Cap.jpg (70.48 KiB) Viewed 608 times

This is the outline of the wire which makes up a lever cap closure. This type of cap was introduced in 1928. Although not initially used by White Horse, who at that time, were already using their own screw cap system, it was adopted by them in later years. In the 1960’s the lever cap system was dropped in favour of the ROPP cap.

[Mr Tattie Heid]

Cool. I think we've achieved closure.

[Nick Brown]

Notwithstanding Tattie's pun, I'm not sure we have. Why couldn't the label refer to Queen Mary or the previous Queen Elizabeth.