how to read chivas serial numbers

[rippsnorter]

I have a bottle of Chivas Regal that I would really like to know the date of. It is labeled as a 12 year, but I know that it was bought some time in the 60's or 70's. does anyone know how to read all the codes on the bottle or box? the box has this number on the bottom: 6500138. The ATF label across the cap has 2 numbers the first one is:078719178. the second is I-549. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

[Andy M]

Hi, here is an reply which i gave to another post a while back:

"I know certain bottles can be aged from the markings on the bottles but a lot of the time the markings only mean something to the distillery that produced the bottle. They where put on the bottles for by the bottler for quality control reasons.

It can sometimes be worthwhile contacting the distillery the bottle is from, remember to give them the full details of the bottle you have, including any markings on the glass and everything it says on the label. You may be surprised how helpful some of them can be they may even be able to tell you to the exact day how old the bottle is."

I personally do not know a what the numbers on a Chivas Regal bottle means if anything as i said above they may only mean something to the bottler.

If you want to read the rest of this post which also has some interesting info about when the bottle size changed which can be useful when trying to age a bottle see here:

http://www.scotchmaltwhisky.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=253

Andy M

[rippsnorter]

Thanks for the help! I will contact them and see what they can tell me about it.