Feature: Village pub's unusual collection (From Hampshire Chronicle)

Feature: Village pub's unusual collection

9:30am Thursday 9th September 2010 in

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FROM the outside The Woodman Inn looks like a typical Hampshire village pub, but inside lurks a secret.

Hidden behind a veil of pretty flowers the free house at Lower Upham conceals one of Britain’s largest collections of Scotch whisky.

Most pubs offer a few bottles – perhaps a dozen in some cases – but The Woodman Inn has no less than 200.

For the last two decades landlord Tony Senger has built up the collection, which started purely by chance.

It was a tied house at the time and his brewery offered him half a dozen single malts.

He took a gamble and stocked them, and they proved popular, so he decided to add to his collection.

Since then he has acquired a few extra bottles here and there every year, which now dominate the bar.

Indeed, people come from far and wide to sample the whisky, including a party of Americans who have visited twice.

Mr Senger rustled up a few bottles for the group to take home, which prompted a letter of thanks soon after.

He said: “Our old postman at the time came around and said ‘you’ve got a letter from America’ and he wanted to stay until I’d opened it.”

Mr Senger has been at the Woodman Inn since 1959, having moved there from Winchester.

His 51 years at the venue are a comparatively short blip in the pub’s history, which is thought to date from the 17th century.

As a hobby he traced its roots back to around 1800 but the trial went cold.

However, a near neighbour supplied him with some archive title deeds from 1692 that led to a breakthrough.

They indicated that a pub was trading on the site of the current venue and was known as the Travellers’ Rest.

The oldest bottle of Scotch at the pub dates from 1943 – the year Mr Senger was born – and was produced by George and J G Smith.

If unopened the bottle would probably fetch £800 but visitors to the venue have gradually whittled it down.

Many of the other bottles are now 20 or 30 years old and some of the stronger ones have an alcohol content of more than 60 per cent.

As a result, Mr Senger maintains a close eye on his collection to keep it safe, especially as some varieties are no longer produced.

Each month he features one bottle as his ‘malt of the month’. If taken in sequence it would take 17 years for the same one to come around again.

The current variety is a bottle of Oban. According to my father – who volunteered for the onerous role of ‘taster’ for this article – it is excellent.

Then again the Woodman Inn is not just about whisky as it also offers several real ales including some Hampshire brews.

It includes the new Flack Manor Double Drop, which was launched in Romsey earlier this year.

Mr Senger dabbles in a little alcohol production himself – along with a friend, he has invested in a vat of Scotch, equivalent to 550 bottles.

It is still under production as it takes at least five years to produce a single malt and in most cases, closer to eight.

He said they planned to keep their whisky in the barrel for 12 years but they have now reached 15 and their patience is yet to crack.

“We might do something about it soon, as I haven’t got that long to sell 275 bottles of my own whisky,” he said.

And it will have to be visitors to the Woodman Inn that drink it for one good reason.

Believe it or not – Mr Senger does not touch a drop of whisky.

“I have my own rules - I don’t have a drink until closing time, and it’s a friend of mine from Scotland who tastes the new bottles here,” he added.

* Along with its whisky collection, the Woodman Inn holds quizzes and live blues music. Call the venue on 01489 860270 for more details.