Solera bottles

@IainVH - systemdown started a discussion about this very topic two weeks ago. I myself have some solera bottles like ralfy suggested them. My ones (actually four) - I call them living bottles - have been started in 2010 and they are for blends, non- peated, peated malts and one for rum. It's a lot of fun and very educating.

The idea of a solera bottle is gold. Gold I tells ya. I've been doing it for about year.

A: You end up with something special and unique (literally unique -- not just "unique").

B: You get a whisky that's always a little different as you add new stuff.

C: You have a ready-made home for those last bits of each bottle that you might otherwise feel compelled to rush through (to prevent oxidation).

D: You get to perpetually keep (in a way) a sample from those special "fallen soldiers" that you wish you could keep forever.

I've topped mine off countless times with new bottles, but I know that at least part of it is still that original remnant of straight-from-the-distillery Lagavulin and that seeded my solera bottle way back when.

@OldJas Good points well put. Thanks for your reply.

@IainVH In the spirit of good clean fun. I have had a 70 load laundry soap bottle for three years and top it off with other liquid laundry soaps. So my question is does this constitute a Blend of soaps, or a Vatting of soaps, And does this mean my laundry soap jug a solera bottle. The point being is that A) Multiple soaps from different companies could be called a Blend. B) However soap is soap and could be Vatted. C) Once many different soaps are added this could be a Soap Solera Bottle. My admiral (wife) has often caught me in the Laundry room nosing my soap "Saying Hello There, How Are You, Very Well Thank you. LOL. :)

We have two whisky Solera bottles in real life, one unpeated and one peated. Hope this is fun and helpful. :)

@PMessinger thanks for your reply. Another point to consider would be whether all your soaps are from Scotland in which case you would be within your rights to call it blended scotch soap. If its from a number of countries you would only be able to refer to it as blended soap. The SSA (scotch soap association) are very strict. Cheers. Iain.

@IainVH LOL. I had not thought of were all the soaps came from. Also barrel aged soap vs. new make spirit soap. :)

@PMessinger...do you use Spray n' Wash to get rid of the soap stains on the walls of your laundry room from the soap that you swish and toss from your measuring cup? :)

@Pudge72 How did you know that I'm always spilling soap to clean the rim of the cup. LOL. :)

@PMessinger Not to ruin a hilarious discussion but I think I'm going to have t make a solers bottle for myself due to this thread thanks all!

@Nolinske Thanks you can never ruin a thread good knowledge sharing is always appreciated, that said give a Solera a try it's a fun way to use up that last bit of whisky in a bottle you don't want to toss. Cheers. :)

@PMessinger does the 'P' in your name really stand for Patterson? :)

I think a lot of us have a solera thanks to Ralfy. I am curious what people have blended. My own solera is about 7 malts deep and stared with Glenfiddich 15 and Aberlour 10 (which was an interesting combo). I have since added the dregs of a Glenlivet 12, some Singleton, Dalwhinnie, Auchentoshan, and Cask of Dreams. For such an admittedly strange mix, it has some interesting flavours. The nose is heavenly.

I just had a quick look and from my obsessive notebook I'm up to about 35 different whiskies that have been through my bottle. It's getting low, so I should probably sort out some 'bulk malt' to top it up again, ready for tweaking. Other than the occasional cheap malt/vatted malt top up mine is entirely made up of the ends of bottles and dregs of samples, tweaked with occasional dashes of other things to push it closer to my taste. It's rather good at the moment...

On the soap front, I think @PMessinger is safe referring to his solera as a vatted malt (or even single malt, if he has been brand loyal over the years). If he slipped in some fabric softener, however...

@cowfish Lol no mixes of fabric softener in my laundry solera. However our whisky solera non-peated is up to about 15 expressions, while the peated one is up to about 7 expressions. These are rough estimates on the numbers and amounts. :)