Vat 69

A bottle of Vat 69 whisky.

Vat 69 is a scotch blended whisky that is produced by William Sanderson & Son Limited of South Queensferry, West Lothian, Scotland.

In 1882, William Sanderson prepared one hundred casks of blended whisky and hired a panel of experts to taste them. The batch from the cask (or “vat”) with number 69 was judged to be the best, and this provided the whisky's brand name.

The whisky was at first bottled in Port bottles.

History

William Sanderson was born in Leith, Scotland, in 1839. He started an apprenticeship with a wine and spirituous liquors producer at the age of 13. In 1863, he already owned his own business and produced liqueurs and whisky blends. In 1880, his son William Mark joined the business. William Mark convinced his father to bottle various blends of whisky.

The typical VAT 69 bottle was introduced to the market and was not changed for the next hundred years. In 1884, Sanderson bought the Glengarioch Distillery. It was situated in the middle of a barley field. The distillery was meant to ensure the delivery with grain whisky. Sanderson took care that there were always new products to be blended, because DCL, which was a strong society at that time, controlled such a big amount of the production, that it could influence the supply of the competing company very sensitively. Therefore Sanderson, together with Usher and Bell founded a company to produce grain whisky, which still exists today as the "North British Distillery". Sanderson got a few Malt Whiskys that he needed to blend his VAT 69 from a friend, John Begg, who owned the "Royal Lochnagar Distillery". When Begg died, Sanderson became director of Begg's Distillery. In 1933, Sanderson's company merged with Booth's Distilleries, which merged again with the DCL-Group in 1935. In autumn 1980, "Vat 69 Reserve" from the House of Sanderson had its world première in England. Chosen and optimal stored malt whiskys are used to produce this De-Luxe-Whisky.

Blend

Despite the name it is not a vatted malt but a blend of about 40 malt and grain whiskeys. The different malts are blended with each other at the optimal ripening stage to ensure the best blend. This means that a light malt of eight years, having reached its ripening summit and coming from the Lowlands adds the same result to the blend as an 18-year-ripened peat malt from Islay. Therefore, there are no standardized, age-descriptions of Vat 69 Reserve.

Since autumn 1980, Glenesk, which is a 12 year old Highland Single Malt (40%), is available from Sanderson in Germany. Glenesk is stored for at least 12 years in sherry barrels. Since 1964, William Sanderson & Sons Ltd. overlooks the sale of "Antiquary", which is a 12 year old De-Luxe-Scotch-Whisky (40%).

Products

Whisky products available from Sanderson in Germany are:

• VAT 69 Finest Scotch Whisky (40%)
• VAT 69 Reserve de Luxe Scotch Whisky (40%)
• Glenesk Single Malt Highland Scotch 12 Years Old (40%)
• The Antiquary de Luxe Old Scotch Whisky 12 Years Old (40%).

Whisky products available from Sanderson in Australia are:

• 700 mL Vat 69 Fine Scotch Whisky (40%)

Popular Culture

Literature

• In chapter 3 of the novel The Lady in the Lake by Raymond Chandler, the character Chris Lavery has a bottle of Vat 69 on a burl walnut table.
• Osbie Feel in Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow "sucks frequently" at a half pint milk bottle filed with Vat 69 and water.
• Vat 69 was mentioned in Stephen King's 1977 novel The Shining. The author explains Jack Torrance's hang-over headaches during his past drinking problems: "He had begun to think of his morning-after thumpers as Excedrin Headache Number Vat 69".

In Norman Freeman's "Seaspray and Whisky", Vat 69 is the main cargo on a ship of alcoholic ruffians, who pilfer much drink and most of the stories' adventures stem from this...

Film

• In the 1938 film Sidewalks of London, an advertisement for Vat 69 can be seen in a theatre program.
• In the 1946 film It's a Wonderful Life, a bottle of Vat 69 can be seen on the shelf at Martini's bar.
• In the 1949 film Twelve O'Clock High, Gregory Peck pours himself a drink from a bottle of Vat 69.
• In the 1958 film Our Man in Havana, one of James Wormold's friends is found killed with a bottle of Vat 69 in his hand. It was a present for James, who collected miniature whisky bottles.
• In the 1965 film Alphaville, Eddie Constantine's pours Vat 69 from a flask into his coffee.
• In 1984 film The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension, Penny Priddy attributes her sadness to "a little too much Vat 69."
• Vat 69 appeared in the 1980 Bollywood movie Dostana. Singh's character is seen getting drunk on a bottle of Vat 69 during the song "Mere dost kissa ye kya ho gaya".
• Vat 69 was Lewis Nixon's favorite liquor in the book and mini-series Band of Brothers. Nixon went to great pains to obtain it, and to avoid having it confiscated, he used the footlocker of his tee-totaling friend Richard Winters to store his stash. In episode 9, "Why we Fight", he is seen taking several drinks from a bottle of Vat 69.
• In the Italian film Febbre da cavallo (Horse fever), the protagonist records a commercial for Vat 69.
• Vat 69 is often the drink of choice of protagonists in James Hadley Chase pulp fiction novels.
• Vat 69 appears numerous times in the pulp comic, Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective.
• Vat 69 is the preferred drink of Joseph Burke, the main character in Robert B. Parker's novel Double Play.
• Vat 69 appeared in British comedy Fawlty Towers.
• In Hotel Rwanda, Don Cheadle's character gives Vat 69 to an African General when there is no Glenmorangie left.
• In the French film Le Cercle Rouge, the character played by Yves Montand is introduced in a scene depicting his alcoholism. A bottle of Vat 69 is seen next to his bed.

Television

• Vat 69 was the favorite drink of The Saint's cohort, Hoppy Uniatz.
• In Simone De Beauvoir's novel She Came to Stay, Gerber tells Francoise, "When I'm rich and run my own house, I'll always keep a bottle of Vat 69 in my cupboard."
• In the 1949 World War II film Twelve O'Clock High, Gregory Peck drinks Vat 69.
• One of Irvine Welsh's short stories in his collection, The Acid House, is titled "Vat '96", which is presumably a pun on Vat 69.
• In an episode of Yes Minister, Minister James Hacker obtains a drink of whisky at a party in a "dry" Arab country by referring to his "69 VAT returns".
• Vat 69 also appeared in the 1981 Bollywood movie Naseeb. The depressed Vicky is drinking directly from a bottle of Vat 69 in the song "Zindagi Imtihaan Leti Hai", which can be found on a popular video site.
• In the television adaptation of Mary Wesley's novel The Camomile Lawn, the aging Helena Cuthbertson (played by Felicity Kendal) asks for her hip flask to be filled at a pub prior to the climactic funeral scene; she says that she prefers Vat 69.
• In the novel Kitty Foyle by Christopher Morley, the heroine's father refers to his bottle of Vat 69 as "the Pope's telephone number."

Other uses

• In 1914, Sir Ernest Shackleton took supplies of Vat 69 on his Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, stating that it would be used for medicinal and celebratory purposes.
• Nickname of the Royal Malaysian Police 69th Commando Battalion.