Chivas Brothers’s New Tasting Experience in Scotland Lets You Try Out Rare Whiskies
Chivas Brothers is one of the most famous names in Scotch whisky, with a stable of brands in its portfolio including Chivas Regal, Royal Salute, and the Glenlivet. Now you can try 14 previously unreleased single cask whiskies from those and other distilleries, including Aberlour and Longmorn, at a new luxury tasting experience in Scotland called the Vault—and purchase a barrel for yourself if you’re so inclined.
The Vault is located at the Strathisla Distillery in the Highlands region of Scotland, which is credited as being the oldest continually operating distillery in the country. A visit to the Vault starts with a private tour of the distillery and a meeting with the Chivas Brothers archivist to explore the history of the company and its whiskies.
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Then you’ll head over to the whisky library, where you will be guided through a tasting of samples selected from the 240 available, including some rare and ultra-aged whiskies. Finally you’ll enter the actual Vault itself, where you’ll get to sample from 14 casks to taste a single cask expression that has not been made available to the public before; the selection is based on the flavor profile created in the whisky library.
Blending expert Sandy Hyslop and cask expert Kevin Balmforth were responsible for selecting the Vault experience casks, and the pair focused on barrels from well-known distilleries like the Glenlivet as well as the shuttered distillery Caperdonich, among others. The exact breakdown of the casks available to sample are: the Glenlivet 25 Year Old (second fill American oak); Aberlour 19 Year Old (first fill American oak); Longmorn 25, 28, and 30 Year Olds (first and second fill American oak); Caperdonich 25, 29, and 30 Year Olds (the last one is a peated refill hogshead); two 28-year-old Glen Keith casks; Braes of Glenlivet 31 Year Old; two Scapa 23-year-old casks; and a Royal Salute 27-year-old first fill sherry hogshead.
Don’t worry if you don’t have the space to store a barrel of whisky in your home, because you can keep your cask in the Vault for up to four years before having it bottled. The Vault opened to visitors this month, and you can book your experience at the website now for £1,200 per person.
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