Whisky, Ma’am?
Much is made of the rivalry between England and Scotland, but when it came to looking after some of the world’s rarest whisky, the Scots showed they were prepared to totally put their trust their neighbours to the South.
In fact they did so to the tune of £6 million.
To mark the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, the owners of the world’s most famous blended Scotch whisky, Johnnie Walker, decided to pull out all the stops and create something truly special. A team of whisky experts at Diageo sourced the very best of the rare whisky they had from The Queen’s Coronation year 1952, to create arguably the finest blended whisky ever made. They then brought together the world’s finest craftspeople to create a package fit for a Queen.
Only 60 bottles of whisky were created, each one presented in a decanter hand-made by a leading French glass maker. The decanters were individually engraved, and decorated with stunning flourishes and fine diamonds. One hundred and twenty glasses – two per set – were made and then individually engraved so that no two are the same. A special booklet was put together, bound in rare white leather and hand-bound on parchment. A calligrapher was brought in to decorate each of the 60 books and to hand write a personal message to each owner. Everything was meticulously put together to stunning effect. Nothing was left to chance.
Except one thing.
“We took the whiskies out of the cask in 2011 so the whisky is officially 59 years old, not 60 years old, but all from 1952,” says Johnnie Walker’s master blender Jim Beveridge. “Then as a final flourish we put the whisky into specially made barrels made from oak taken from the Queen’s Sandringham estate in Norfolk. We finished the whisky in English oak.”
Staves were cut, fresh barrels made, their inside toasted and then seasoned with Pedro Ximenez Sherry. The whisky makers took months trying to ensure that everything would go well. Nevertheless, with each of the 60 bottles costing £100,000 Beveridge and his team were entrusting some of the world’s finest Scotch to an untried oak cask made with, of all things, English oak. It was huge gamble – oak varies massively from region to region, and no-one really knew how English oak would react with the spirit.
“It was the only unknown,” admits Beveridge. “What would we have done if it had gone wrong? Well there was no Plan B.”
Thankfully for everybody the Anglo-Scottish alliance paid off handsomely – despite its old age, the new and very rare blend is stunning – a delightful mix of soft grapefruit marmalade, some pineapple, guava, melon and sherbet fresh fruit on the palate, then a hint of aniseed and liquorice. Finally there’s a soft but spicy and oaky finish which lasts as long as most great single malts. Where often whisky aged for more than 30 years can be sharp, spicy and astringent, the soft vanillas of the grain whisky in the mix has created a velvet carpet of a blend.
It’s a very, very impressive total package and for once, the weak link most certainly isn’t the whisky.
Some of the 60 bottles have already been purchased and in the coming weeks selected individuals will be invited to purchase one.
