Blue Hanger returns
After a ten year hiatus, the 14th edition of Blue Hanger – an aged blended release from Berry Bros. & Rudd – revisits the traditional arm of blending just as a new wave of blenders is making the category interesting again, writes Tom Pattinson
Whisky in general, and Scotch specifically, tends to aim at one of two audiences: the old guard of smoky gentleman’s clubs and wingback armchairs, and the newer wave of wearers of tight beanies and amusing moustaches. So it makes a refreshing change to see a dram that is happy to ignore the trends and instead channels the 18th-century dandy.
After a ten year hiatus Berry Bros. & Rudd have just released the 14th edition of their luxury blended series Blue Hanger. No, not a broadspectrum OnlyFans account but instead the release takes its name from William “Blue” Hanger, the Third Lord Coleraine, a customer of Berry Bros. & Rudd in the 1790s who fully embraced dandyism, a movement built on sharp wit and sharper tailoring.
Operating in the same Regency orbit as the original dandy Beau Brummell, Hanger was known for favouring bold blue outfits in the clubs and society circles of St James’s in London, where Berry Bros. & Rudd still operates today. He was widely considered one of the best dressed men of his age and, one assumes, spent enough at the merchant to warrant having a whisky named after him.
The first Blue Hanger whisky first appeared in 1938, created for diplomatic export, which brings with it a slightly cringeworthy nostalgia for an era when British officials stationed around the world were supplied with cases of Scotch to ease the realities of empire. Bottles found their way into consulates and embassies, gained a following, and by 1958 Blue Hanger had made its way onto the UK market.
The whisky eventually faded into obscurity until 2003, when Doug McIvor, Berry Bros. & Rudd’s spirits curator and head of all things whisky, revived it as a blended malt. The first modern release ran to just 700 bottles and an annual series followed over the next 13 years until it ceased in 2016, when McIvor retired.
That pause lasted a decade, until now. Felix Dear joined the company in 2023 in the role that McIvor vacated and he was aware of the heritage and prestige that Blue Hanger held.
“I always had in the back of my mind that it was something we could resurrect but I didn’t want to rush into it, as it has a special reputation,” he tells Barley Magazine, describing a slow process of shaping what a new edition should be rather than simply recreating what came before.
“I wanted to create something that was an old style of whisky”
“I wanted to create something that was an old style of whisky. We live in an age where there is such variety and choice in whisky, so many different casks and grains and yeasts. We bottle a lot of different things, but something I personally love is old-style whiskies. I was looking for something more mellow, more restrained, but also with some real age in there.”
That search plays out across Berry Bros. & Rudd’s two warehouse systems, one focused on casks likely to be bottled in the next two to three years and another reserved for long-term ageing. The casks used for Blue Hanger 14th edition come from that long-term stock, many of them sitting in the company’s warehouses since the 1990s.
The final blend draws from seven casks, six ex-bourbon hogsheads and one ex-sherry butt, with Dear building the whisky around that sherry cask before layering in the others through a process of trial and error until the balance felt right. The youngest component is 26 years old, with other elements, as he puts it, “quite a bit older”, maintaining the precedent set by earlier editions that often included significantly aged liquid.
“I am a fan of refill casks that are allowed to let them stay in for a long time without being overwhelmed by the wood,” he says, pointing to a style that prioritises integration over intensity.
He is also keen that it is taken as a complete whisky rather than something to be dissected. “I hope people approach it as a whole rather than the sum of its parts.”
That position sits neatly within a broader shift. Blended malts are gaining renewed attention, with a growing number of independent and cult bottlers building reputations on creative blending, and Dear argues that they offer something increasingly difficult to find elsewhere.
“They are a great way to try and drink some older whiskies at lower and more approachable price points.”
At £120 a bottle it is not cheap, particularly for a blend, but it looks more reasonable when set against the wider market, where a 26 year old single malt from a recognised Scottish distillery will usually exceed £200 and can easily climb towards £500 depending on the name on the label. Dear declines to reveal the source distilleries, noting only that the casks have been in Berry Bros. & Rudd’s warehouses for decades.
“I want it to be a whisky that people open and drink and share with friends, although I am sure some will stash away bottles to collect and open down the line.” With only 2,500 bottles available, that outcome feels inevitable.
In the glass it leans fully into that older style. Milk chocolate and soft caramel move into citrus peel and stewed fruits, with the sherry cask influence adding depth on the nose. The palate carries an oily texture with barley sweets and orchard fruit wrapped in caramel, while a dusting of baking spice lifts the finish into lingering chocolate and soft fruit.
Bottled at 45.6% ABV, it sits in a space that feels considered rather than showy, accessible without being lightweight.
Whether this marks the start of a more consistent return for Blue Hanger is still an open question, although the intention is there.
“It feels an honour and a big responsibility to release Blue Hanger, so I have spent a long time working on it and bottling it,” says Dear. “Both Doug McIvor and [his successor] Jonny McMillan have had huge impacts on the whisky world so it is a big weight and a fun one to bear.”
There are ideas for what comes next, and the expectation is that Blue Hanger will return as an annual release, but there is no sense of urgency. Which, for a whisky that first launched just under a century ago, feels entirely appropriate.
Blue Hanger 14th edition is available at 45.6% ABV from £120
