All I Want For Christmas...

...is my own cask of Single Malt:

Mr. Reynier soon encountered the problem facing anyone who starts up a single-malt distillery: You have to sink in about a decade of costs before you start to see any revenue from the new whisky. Bruichladdich has been able to dole out the fine whisky from the old stocks in the warehouse to keep afloat, but Mr. Reynier has had to look for creative ways to generate immediate cash-flow. One approach has been to sell whisky by the cask to connoisseurs willing to pay for it when the spirit comes off the still. Also among the distilleries making "cask offers" are Isle of Arran, which opened in 1995, and the recently revived Bladnoch.

The folks at Bladnoch quip that their cask offer is for people "with more money than sense." But if you've got a use for a few hundred bottles of whisky, the price is right. It costs about $1,500-$2,700 to buy your own cask of whisky, depending on the size. This price includes 10 years of aging in the warehouse, but not bottling, labeling, delivery and taxes -- which cost three or four times more than the stuff in the cask. Add in all the back-end expenses and the total cost per bottle works out to about $27. Not bad given that my local liquor store is selling Bruichladdich's 10-year-old whisky for $55 and Bladnoch for $53.

That's such a god deal that you'd be stupid not to buy your own cask of Scotch. Right, honey?

In their version of "A Fine Romance," Louis Armstrong sings to Ella Fitzgerald that she is his "strong, aged in the wood woman." It's a nice metaphor for the good effects time can have on us -- the pleasant notion that aging isn't just about decay. I like the idea of putting away a cask of whisky upon some significant event in one's life -- the birth of child, say, or a 10th wedding anniversary. Let the spirit mature, marking the time that scurries along so furtively. Bottle it up to celebrate one's 25th anniversary or the kid's graduation from college. And be sure to share it with your friends -- after all, you'll have plenty to go around.

Plenty? Let's not get crazy here. I suppose if I had my own cask I could share a dram or two.