Despite its name, VAT 69 is not a vatted malt, but a blend of about 40 malt and grain whiskies. VAT 69 Reserve carries no standard age statement because of the combination of the malts and grains.

It is a famous old brand of blended whisky, chosen by Sir Ernest Shackleton to accompany him on his Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914 ‘for medicinal and celebratory purposes’, and also famously the favourite whisky of Captain Lewis Nixon of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, immortalised in the book and TV series Band of Brothers.