Believed to be the oldest bottle of Scotch whisky in the world, and one of 2,987 in The Unseen Valentino Zagatti Collection.
Move across the photograph to light it
Valentino Zagatti lost his sight at the age of eleven. Over four decades he gathered 2,987 bottles of whisky, and knew every one of them by touch.
“Something more interesting and real, something which would remain.”Valentino Zagatti, on what he bought instead of cigarettes
Seventy years, two countries, one collection that was never allowed to be split.
On 23 September, eleven-year-old Valentino steps on a landmine left from the war. He survives, blind in both eyes, and goes on to become a celebrated accordion player and music teacher.
He quits smoking and on 19 January buys his first bottle with the money he saves. By the early seventies single malt Scotch has become his focus, and he records every purchase in a Braille diary.
The collection fills the family home in Lugo from floor to ceiling, sparing only the bedroom and bathroom. Zagatti publishes it as a book. A second volume follows in 2004.
Michel Kappen of Scotch Whisky International travels to Lugo. Collectors from Japan, China, Russia, the United States and Italy have tried before him. None could meet Zagatti’s terms.
Backed by twenty private investors, Scotch Whisky International acquires the collection. In November an art transport carries all 2,987 bottles in secret from Italy to the Netherlands.
Whisky writers Hans and Becky Offringa begin photographing and describing the entire collection, published as The Unseen Collection in five volumes.
On 9 October, Valentino Zagatti opens the permanent exhibition in Sassenheim himself.
Collectors from five countries tried to buy the collection. He would only sell to someone who accepted all three.
Whisky writers Hans and Becky Offringa photographed, described and authenticated every bottle in the collection, each under identical light. The result fills five volumes, in which every bottle has its own entry.
The Unseen Collection, Volume I
The oldest bottle in this collection was filled in 1843. The label reads:
“This bottle of Whiskey I wish my Daughter Atty to have. It was bottled by me, the year I was married, 1843.”
Note the spelling with the ‘e’. At the time both whisky and whiskey were used interchangeably, whether the spirit was made in Ireland or Scotland.
Five volumes and 1,208 pages, with essays on the manufacture of glass, the development of labels, and why people collect.
Ask about the booksHe could tell you exactly when each bottle came into his hands, where, and under what circumstances. Four days from forty years of collecting.
25 December 1966
An Aberlour, eight years old, on Christmas Day. The earliest recorded bottle in the collection.
3 April 1993
The bottle from 1843 arrives. Believed to be the oldest bottle of Scotch in the world.
30 April 1997
The Glen Grant 1877, the oldest vintage single malt in the world, one of seven Glen Grants that day.
31 December 1999
Thirty-six bottles on New Year’s Eve, as the century turned.
The Appendix to the books records an acquisition date for 2,936 of the 2,987 bottles, from 1966 to 2004.
From 3 to 64 years of age, from distilleries that still run and distilleries that fell silent a century ago.
The oldest vintage of single malt whisky in the world.
Four of the six bottles known to exist, from a Dufftown distillery silent since 1931.
Scotch from casks seized by Rommel’s army in North Africa, bottled in Italy for Allied troops.
Every one of these bottles can be seen in person, in Sassenheim.
Arrange a private viewingThe official trailer of the exhibition, filmed among the bottles he knew only by touch.
Valentino Zagatti Museum, official trailer
Every bottle stands in a purpose-built exhibition in Sassenheim, behind 170 square metres of glass and lit by 165 spotlights. At its centre stands a table cut from a single rain tree, weighing more than a tonne.
The space was designed by Veenendaal & Associates of Amsterdam, with lighting by Clemens Lichtadvies. Mr Zagatti opened it himself on 9 October 2018.
The collection is on permanent display in Sassenheim. Private viewings are arranged by appointment for parties considering an acquisition of the collection.
Industriekade 18A, 2172 HV Sassenheim