@ContemplativeFox I have a few samples of several of the batches and the unreleased single vintages. Now that I can put a face and person to the brand...not sure I’ll buy a bottle. I know...petty of me. But I figured “my money, I’ll spend where I want...”. Petty and won’t make a difference.

@PBMichiganWolverine I got batches 2 and 3 (back when it was _only_ $300). I figure that they're different enough that I can use them for two different occasions celebrating 50 years (or if the price goes through the roof I might sell one and still get to try a very similar bottle).

@ContemplativeFox which one did you end up getting ? I thought his Whistlepig was greatly overpriced as well. some of those limited are close to $400!

@PBMichiganWolverine Yeah, he seems pretty obnoxious. I bought my Bhakta in spite of him being associated with it, not because he's associated. I'm also no fan of Whistle pig, so I had serious reservations about his finishing and blending ability.

@Anthology Thanks for posting them here. That info on the website is what I used to estimate how much of each bottle is older than 50 years and how much is pre-1900 :)

@Anthology ”travel the world in search of rare spirits “ = “ I just sold Whistlepig, and I’m going to travel the world, but use it as a tax write off “. Now that you make that link to the Apprentice, I remember him. I hated him in there...thought he was a douche-y windbag. Yeah...sadly, not some old guy chillin’ in France in his Armagnac cave, as I romanticized

@PBMichiganWolverine I found out more about this bottle cos I had to make a decision on pulling the trigger. Turns out [Raj Peter] Bhakta was the founder of Whistlepig. Apparently the guy also appeared on season 2004 of the apprentice and ran for Congress in 2006. He parted ways with Whistlepig in 2019 “to travel the world in search of rare spirits”. So sadly not some Armagnac guy chilling in France 🤨. @ContemplativeFox I found their website and they’re actually up to barrel #12. Each barrel will contain the 1868 and 1970 vintages. Here’s a break down: Barrel #1 - HOGSWORTH (1868 / 1897 / 1939 / 1946 /1956 / 1963 / 1965 / 1970) - 44.8 abv Barrel #2 - REVIVAL (1868 / 1897 / 1939 / 1946 /1956 / 1963 / 1965 / 1970) - 44.2 abv Barrel #3 - PENDRAGON (1868 / 1897 / 1939 / 1946 /1952 / 1963 / 1964 / 1970) - 45 abv Barrel #4 - GALAHAD (1868 / 1904 / 1933 / 1947 /1951 / 1959 / 1964 / 1970) - 47.7 abv Barrel #5 - PERCIVAL (1868 / 1897 / 1939 / 1946 /1956 / 1963 / 1965 / 1970) - 47.1 abv Barrel #6 - LOHENGRIN (1868 / 1898 / 1939 / 1947 /1952 / 1962 / 1965 / 1970) - 47.2 abv Barrel #7 - GUINEVERE (1868 / 1897 / 1939 / 1946 /1952 / 1963 / 1967 / 1970) - 47.1 abv Barrel #8 - SAGRAMORE (1868 / 1924 / 1934 / 1946 /1955 / 1962 / 1967 / 1970) - 47.4 abv Barrel #9 - COLGREVANCE (1868 / 1893 / 1929 / 1941 /1955 / 1962 / 1965 / 1970) - 45.9 abv Barrel #10 - GAWAIN (1868 / 1878 / 1934 / 1947 /1956 / 1963 / 1967 / 1970) - 44.3 abv Barrel #11 - BOHEMOND (1868 / 1898 / 1934 / 1941 /1952 / 1956 / 1962 /1970) - 48.1 abv Barrel #12 - LAFAYETTE (1868 / 1878 / 1900 / 1947 /1956 / 1963 / 1965 / 1970) - 48.8 abv Apologies if this was more than you asked for. My transparency/info-sharing persona couldn’t help myself 🙂

@Anthology i hope he didn’t. Admittedly, I did 0% research. Don’t even know who this guy is...was wrongly just assuming he’s some Armagnac guy chillin’ in France with 100+ yr old Armagnac casks

@PBMichiganWolverine and @ContemplativeFox in my quick research, Bhatka didn’t show up as a known negocient or producer who turns out high quality cognac or armagnac. So not sure if they include additives or water in their Armagnac products, which is notorious in this space. Did you come across anything that speaks to their product quality or whether this product contains additives?

@Soba45 I know it’s romanticized, but I couldn’t help thinking a portion of this was first laid to casks just as we as a nation were just coming out of Civil War

Nice review and lucky to try such old stuff. Something about drinking from such historic years really makes you stop and think about the history, peoples lives then etc. Crazy they still have armangnac so old for commercial sale.

@Richard-ModernDrinking I did not—I missed that tasting as well (was in Amish country ). I really liked the one I tried, so I can only imagine the single vintages will be even better. You know...I almost wished he didn’t use the Islay finishing. I can barely detect it, and it kinda muddies the concept of having such an old spirit in its original form

Did you try the single vintage samples yet? To my mind they were better than any of the blends. I think he let them sit in Islay barrels to boost the length of the finish and catch the eye of Scotch drinkers, but I preferred the naked spirit.

@ContemplativeFox you’re a more patient man than I. I simply looked at the years, said “ hot damn”, and guzzled it. At least I didn’t add ice to such an old austere spirit.

@PBMichiganWolverine I wondered about how much of this was actually older than 50 years too, so I did some estimation a few months back and concluded that at least something like 8% would be older than 50 years, but probably only a teaspoon was pre-1900. Today, I checked again and it seems a lot older than my previous estimate suggested! My worst-case assumption was essentially that there are a few super old barrels and the rest are from 1970 (50 YO - though 50 YO brandy for $300-400 is still not a bad buy). Following the same logic, the first 12 batches have used Armagnac from 21 different years prior to 1970, 4 of which were prior to 1900. The big question mark I can't say much about still is the angel's share, but considering that there are only 38 barrels to be pulled from in total, it's quite likely that by the end it will be apparent that the majority of the liquid is older than 50 years and a good amount (10%?) is from before 1900!

@ContemplativeFox also makes me wonder: how many barrels of pre-1900 did mr bhakta run into ?

@ContemplativeFox I just checked as well...not $300 anymore. More like $400.

Dang, they're already up to batch 9? In December they were finishing up batches 2 and 3. I also didn't think it could still be found for as little as $300. I'm thrilled to hear that this is so good! Thanks for reviewing it :)

@Anthology i think the only review I saw was on drinkhacker.com . I don’t know much about Armagnac , but this was damn good...and not often one has something this old

@PBMichiganWolverine Thanks for posting this review as I’ve been looking to expand into Armagnac and this one caught my eye with the Islay finishing. Unfortunately not a lot of reviews or info about the actual juice in the bottle. The component parts are definitely a wow factor. Moves it up the list for me in wishlist that includes some pretty old Chateau Laubade and Darroze.