I've written a lot about ultra-pricey Scotch over the years but haven't had a chance to taste too much of it myself. Laura Baddish of The Baddish Group took pity on me, arranging a meeting with James Espey who let me sample The Last Drop. The slogan of The Last Drop is "if you only drink only one more glass of whisky..." and indeed, were you choosing a fitting accompaniment for your last meal, this would be the one to sip slowly as you contemplated your doom.

The Last Drop is a company founded by three old hands in the liquor business who have decided to bottle one by one, a collection of fabulous old casks from remote cellars scattered all over Scotland. Between them, Tom Jago, James Espey, and Peter Fleck have over 120 years in the Scotch industry. Meeting Espey was a trip through liquor history as he told me several interesting stories including one involving the invention of Bailey's Irish Cream. When they were first working on the mix of cream and whisky they didn't emulsify it at first. The result was a bottleneck of solid fat at the top of the bottle which made for a rather awkward moment when debuting the new concoction. The formula was fixed and the brand became very successful. Espey, Jago and Fleck were also responsible for developing Malibu rum, another brand with instant name recognition.

The trio aren't looking for that sort of popularity with this offering. The Last Drop is a passion project for these seasoned pros. Their first offering is a bottling of 1,347 bottles of whisky distilled in 1960. When it reached 12 years it was blended and put back into Sherry casks where it stayed for 36 years, evaporating slowly until less than a third of the volume remained. It has been bottled straight from the casks with no chilling, filtering or other additions.