'A Singular Blend' well describes this remarkable whisky, since both malt and grain components were produced at the same Highland distillery in the same year, 1963. While there have been a handful of such 'singular' whiskies, never before has a whisky with such provenance been offered for sale at such an advanced age, and such rarity. It is bottled history, and the cask has yielded a mere 74 bottles. It forms part of House of Hazelwood's 'Autumn Collection' of eight stupendous whiskies, and, as with the company's 'Inaugural Collection' - released this summer and reviewed by me in the Autumn 2022 edition of this magazine - it is divided into two ranges, The Charles Gordon Collection and The Legacy Collection. Hazelwood House near Dufftown is owned by the Gordon family and has played a significant role in the lives of several generations of this whisky-making dynasty, not least that of Charles Gordon (1927-2013), the leading whisky distillery of his day, who spent much of his youth at Hazelwood House and laid down some of the earliest casks in the collection which bears his name, all of them over fifty years. Now the Gordon family has unlocked their archive of unusual and historic casks from all over Scotland, under the House of Hazelwood name. The family claims, with some justification, their collection to be "the greatest inventory of aged Scotch whisky held anywhere in the world. Spanning seven decades and every corner of Scotland, the diverse whiskies held in cask tell stories of remarkable places, lost ways of working, first casks, last casks, the ambitions and achievements of several lifetimes - none of which will be repeated." The inventory is held in several carefully selected warehouses across Scotland, with fresh stocks being laid down each year. Prior to bottling, a small proportion of the stocks are moved to traditional dunnage warehousing near Dufftown, from where they are monitored and sampled ahead of release. I have written elsewhere that they are tremendous whiskies - greatly aged, complex, outstanding on the palate. However, what really sets them apart are the stories behind them. Every bottle is an invitation into the Gordon family's ways of working - a very personal connection to a different era, a different mindset. We should be in no doubt that these whiskies are heirlooms and none more so than A Singular Blend. To see a whisky of such provenance available to purchase is a remarkable thing - and for those lucky enough to try it, the liquid character is breath-taking. I feel privileged to have been able to taste it and sad that the sample was so small! It is one of the finest whiskies I have ever encountered. The original feature is from the Spring 2023 edition of Whiskeria, delivered to the door of W Club subscribers and also free with any Whisky Shop purchase in store or online.