The Whisky Exchange has created three single cask bottlings in celebration of its Virtual Whisky Show 2020 next month.
The 12th edition of the Whisky Show had been scheduled to take place on 2-4 October at Old Billingsgate in London. Due to the pandemic, the show’s organisers decided to hold a digital event from 2-9 October, hosted by drinks writer Dave Broom.
Every year, The Whisky Exchange releases an exclusive series of bottlings for its Whisky Show.
This year’s collection comprises of three single cask Scotch whiskies: Imperial 1994 26 Years Old, Ardbeg 2000 20 Years Old and Girvan 1989 30 Years Old.
The selection explores three different aspects of whisky making under the concept ‘An Ever-changing World of Whisky’.
The Whisky Exchange’s creative director, Raj Chavda, has divided the concept into three themes: The Ever-changing World of Impossibility, The Ever-changing World of Order and The Ever-changing World of Artificial Intelligence.
The 26-year-old Imperial (45.3%ABV) follows the ‘The Ever-changing World of Impossibility’ theme, described as an “abstract play on illusion and impossibility”.
The single malt whisky was filled in a single barrel on 22 August 1994 and bottled on 11 September 2020 .
The Imperial distillery in Speyside operated infrequently between 1897 and 1998. The original site was demolished and replaced with a new distillery, Dalmunach, in 2015. As such, acquiring liquid from Imperial “is now very much impossible”.
On the nose, the whisky is said to have aromas of preserved lemons, sugar flowers and freshly cut grass. The palate provides green grass and barley sugar, royal icing, butter mints and mint sprigs.
The 20-year-old Ardbeg (57.2% ABV) was matured in a single ex-Bourbon hogshead, filled on 6 April 2000 and bottled on 5 August 2020.
This bottling highlights the theme ‘The Ever-changing World of Order’ and celebrates the Islay distillery’s combination of technology and craftsmanship.
On the nose, the single malt has notes of sherbet lemons, rock pools and gravelly smoke. The palate is described as “rich and thickly textured” with smoky toffee, leafy bonfires and a touch of mint chocolate.
Finally, the 30-year-old Girvan whisky (51.8% ABV) was filled into a single hogshead on 17 December 1989 and bottled on 9 September 2020.
Opened in the 1960s, Lowland grain whisky distillery Girvan is owned by Scottish spirits firm William Grant & Sons. The Whisky Exchange said Girvan “is the futuristic side of the still old-fashioned Scotch whisky world – the perfect whisky to examine a potential future of AI and automation”.
The single grain whisky offers an aroma of freshly varnished tables, beeswax polish, butterscotch, cinder toffee, caramel and hints of treacle. The palate brings treacle toffee, dark chocolate and barrel char.
Each bottle in the series comes with a one-off label design and a unique code that gives consumers access to an exclusive section on The Whisky Exchange website.
The whiskies will be available to buy from The Whisky Exchange website. The RRPs are yet to be confirmed. Ticket holders will have exclusive access to the show bottlings before the public.