Close Menu
News

Prince Charles to bottle oldest Royal Lochnagar single cask

Prince Charles visited Royal Lochnagar Distillery this week and was presented with a 30-year-old cask of single malt Scotch whisky – set to become the brand’s oldest single cask bottling.

Prince Charles looking ecstatic while filling a whisky cask at Royal Lochnagar Distillery

During his visit on Tuesday (16 October), Prince Charles, the Duke of Rothesay, took a tour of the distillery in Royal Deeside and met with employees, including one who worked at the distillery when the cask presented to him was filled in 1988. He also tasted the whisky.

The cask was originally a present to His Royal Highness to commemorate the 140th anniversary of the first royal visit to the distillery by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in 1848.

However, Prince Charles has donated the cask to be bottled and sold, with the funds earmarked for his charity, The Prince’s Foundation, and its new project, The Carriage in Ballater, a bistro and tearoom at the village’s restored Old Royal Station.

The 1988 Royal Lochnagar Scotch whisky will be bottled on Prince Charles’s 70th birthday on 14 November 2018. Consumers will then be able to enter a ballot via The Whisky Exchange for a chance to purchase a bottle. Details will be revealed on the prince’s birthday.

The Diageo-owned distillery will also support The Prince’s Foundation by offering Scotch whisky education to trainees on the charity’s Get Into Hospitality programme at The Carriage.

Ewan Andrew, Diageo director, who welcomed Prince Charles at the distillery, said: “We are delighted to have welcomed His Royal Highness and to formally hand over this special cask, which will become the oldest single cask bottling of Royal Lochnagar Scotch whisky.

“As we pass on one cask, we are pleased that The Duke of Rothesay filled a new cask that will continue the charitable legacy and support further good causes.”

Prince Charles also unveiled a plaque to mark the visit, before Royal Lochnagar presented him with additional birthday gifts, which included a set of coasters crafted by the coppersmiths and engineers at Diageo Abercrombie in Alloa using copper from the wash still that would have been operating when his whisky was distilled in 1988.

His birthday gifts also included four glasses made by QEST (Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust) Johnnie Walker scholar Daniel Durnin, presented in a box made of larch from Prince Charles’s Birkhall estate.

Earlier this year, Prince Charles made his first official visit to Australia in 24 years and made a return visit to the Bunderberg Rum Distillery.

It looks like you're in Asia, would you like to be redirected to the Drinks Business Asia edition?

Yes, take me to the Asia edition No