What are you stashing away for your kids?

The first bottle I stashed away was an otherwise-random IB (a peated 1994 single cask BenRiach from Signatory) that I just happened to really enjoy while my wife was carrying our second child. When she was born, I returned to the store to see whether they had any bottles left. They had one, so I bought it and stashed it to share with little Eve one day when she isn’t little anymore.

Since then, I’ve started to think how fun it will be to be the old man with a cabinet full of old whisky that he pulls out to share with the family at special occasions. Whenever this fantasy crosses my mind, it usually involves my daughters’ (very acceptable) husbands and me getting to know each other over some super-old drams after a Thanksgiving dinner in, say, the 2040s. I can’t afford to build a stash of whisky that really IS super-old, but we’re still close enough to the turn of the last century that vintage-dated bottles from the late 1900s are common and affordable. So that’s what I’ve been setting aside. I’ve yet to buy one just for this reason, but I recently pulled out the few unopened 1900s bottles that I already had in my stash and put them in their own special stash. I plan to start making these a regular part of my buying until I have around 20 bottles. (One each Thanksgiving for 20 years? That’d be pretty good!)

Here’s what I have so far:

•A 1991 Glen Scotia

•That 1994 BenRiach

•A 1996 Springbank

My oldest son turns 7 today...24 years to go before he can legally consume alcohol...Not saving anything at this time - lol.

@FMichael oops - 14 years.

lol

I thought those drinking laws sounded rather draconian in your state @FMichael !

21 to enjoy a drink; 18 to get handed a rifle and sent to war. Go figure.

Back to the topic. I don't have kids so I'm drinking it all now with my wife and friends.

I have no guarantees my kids will even like whisky by the time I am old enough to pass along my collection.

That being said, I've tried to find some special stuff for them. I have a couple of special releases from forty creek where I got special numbered bottles for them, specifically looking for their birthdays.

I have one bottle of A'Bunadh batch 37 that I bought on the day son was discharged from hospital after a major operation. I'll save that for him to give him on his 37th birthday.

I think that given the amount of Whisky I have and my inability to increase my consumption to compensate for my purchasing (though recently I've tried to decrease my purchasing to compensate for my rate of drinking with some success), I will have no choice but to pass on some (by that time) rare bottles when I pass on. And the rare bottles I have now will be rarer still then, and likely still unopened.

I have a 1 litre, homemade Solera bottle with a little black book describing the exact contents of the vatting. I would like to pass this unique bottling onto the next generation, assuming my kids get into whisky...otherwise I will have to finish myself.

@MaltyMike , I think the solara's a great way to go, especially with the contents logged. (I do that too.) In fact, that's probably the biggest "win" for a future adult child who's really into whisky enough to continue drinking from it and topping it back up with new bottle pours. He'll know he's sharing a wee bit of all those bottles with his dad (in a way) across the decades.

Working on getting some kids at the moment - LOL.

Hopefully they will grow to like whisky and may appreciate some bottles of closed distilleries and rare stuff that I will likely pass down to (or share with) them.

My son is 25, doing well and has appreciation for good whiskey and tequila. I wonder where he got that from. He'd bring his frat buddy's for the weekend and I'd do a few tastings for them. I've a nice little collection of things I liked through out the years. After I pass my collection will go my son. If I don't drink it first.

I decided to do this a while back, it has formed part of my collection, so the bottles I have bought with the purpose of giving to my two daughters are.. 1994 Glenfarclas family cask. 1994 Lagavulin distillers edition. 1994 Talisker distillers edition. 1994 Glendronach. 1994 Glenrothes. 47yo "probably speysides finest" :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 1995 Glenfarclas family cask. 1995 Lagavulin distillers edition. 1995 Talisker distillers edition. 1995 Glendronach. 1995 glenrothes. 46yo "probably speysides finest"

this list will grow some more but I also have a few special bottles tucked away to open with them [or not] on any special occasion.

I don't have kids, but I feel like I would wait to get a nice bottle for my hypothetical children. After the whiskey bubble bursts (which it will), these distilleries will need to get rid of old stocks. Then I would be able to get a nice bottle with some age on it for a more reasonable price! Maybe that plan would backfire, but it's worth a shot!

There are a lot of people talking about the "whisky bubble" and if it will last or burst, the thought of some distillers is that it will last a fair while yet. do you think they would be building bigger distilleries and producing at full capacity now if in 10 years it wont be needed ? I only see prices rising, but that's only my thought...

@OCeallaigh @sorren

Either way in 40 years when my drinking days are over, unless I stop buying whisky forever AND increase my drinking (neither of which are likely to happen), I will have old impossible to find bottles of good, proven spirits (mostly whisky) that they can keep as heirlooms, drink or sell. No one will have an A'Bunadh batch 33, A Raymond Armstrong era Bladnoch, Forty Creek Special release Heart of Gold (well no one except maybe @paddockjudge), Original release Amrut peated Cask strength or unpeated 2007 edition (before batch numbers), Springbank Claret wood, etc....

Sure there may be a few of what I have that you can get new batches of, but these will still be special, and most come with a story.

Nozinan. I agree with you, some of the bottles you mention will indeed be impossible to find, I'm lucky in that I have a fair amount of early abunadhs and bladnochs, but that wasn't exactly my point, I just think all these people who think prices are going to drop soon won't be happy, things might change in 5-10 years but it's not around the corner.. Your probably like me in that we have many more bottles than time to drink it ..

Well, I actually didn't initially buy to save for my kids' consumption, but it will likely end up that way. I've got Yoichi 15, Yoichi Genshu 20, Yoichi Genshu 25, Hibiki 30, Highland Park 35, and will be getting Whiskey Society 7.55 for 40. There's a good bottle for every 5 years of my first born's life so far (single now but am planning ahead), but I'm thinking which 10 year will be good to get and will get another bottle for my first born's birth year (whenever that happens) and then probably another bottle for when my kid gets married (Glendronach 1971/1972 perhaps) and for when he/she has his/her first born (unsure which one yet but perhaps an early 1980's Karuizawa or one from the Hanyu poker card series). I of course won't allow my kid to drink under-age so he/she will have some good stuff to start with when he/she gets to 25.