That Boutique-y Whisky Company has released a 21 Year Old World Whisky Blend, headlining a collection of seven limited edition bottlings for summer.
The original World Whisky Blend, one of Boutique-y’s best-known bottlings, was made for year round drinking – light enough for a summer highball, but with enough depth that it doesn’t drift to the back of the cabinet come winter. It represents fourteen countries’ whiskies in one bottle, designed to celebrate how the world actually drinks whisky: with seven recommended serves, from cola and ginger ale, to green tea, coconut water – or just neat.
The 21 Year Old takes the poise and purpose of World Whisky Blend and adds time, maturity and some typically compelling label artwork. Offering long-aged whisky from Scotland, Ireland, Canada and Japan, finished in sherry casks, it’s one for shorter cocktails and slow sipping, but it’s still the same celebration of what whisky looks like beyond any one country’s borders.
The label -designed by long-time Boutique-y collaborator, Glasgow artist Emily Chappell – turns the original’s floating globe into an ice ball melting into the whisky. It’s a deliberate climate nod – and not Boutique-y’s first brush with armageddon, having previously devoted an entire series of labels to the end of the world.
With so many styles made across the globe, the question the blend asks is a simple one: what do they taste like together? The answer is a testament to the blending skills of Sam Simmons, Head of Whisky at Master of Malt.
Just 475 bottles are being released, at £74.95.
Sam Simmons said: “The question behind World Whisky Blend has always been a simple one: with so many incredible whiskies being made around the world, what do they taste like together? The 21 Year Old is that question asked of much older stock – long-aged whisky from Scotland, Ireland, Canada and Japan, married in sherry casks. Twenty-one years is just the youngest whisky in there – the oldest is staying a secret.
“It leads a summer collection we’ve loved putting together: single malts from Bowmore, Inchgower and Clynelish, a 35-year-old Girvan single grain, and — because if you don’t ask, you don’t get — two of them at natural cask strength.”
The 21 Year Old leads a new collection of limited editions dubbed the Summertime Specials. The rest of the line-up covers Islay, Speyside, the Highlands and one of Scotland’s biggest grain distilleries:
Bowmore 17 Year Old (£89.95) – Islay’s most venerable distillery. This is a medium-peated malt from a refill ex-Bourbon barrel. 343 bottles
Inchgower 12 Year Old (£59.95) – Most Inchgower is used for blends like Bell’s and Johnnie Walker, making it a rare find as a single malt. Matured in the finest hand-picked refill hogshead and finished in PX Octaves. 336 bottles
Clynelish 12 Year Old (£59.95) – Clynelish is prized for its unusual ‘waxy’ new make, a rare character in today’s malts, with most of its production going into Johnnie Walker Gold Label. This 12-year-old shows off that signature waxiness from a rejuvenated hogshead. 350 bottles
Girvan 35 Year Old single grain (£89.95) – Single grain from one of Scotland’s two largest distilleries, rarely seen at this age outside independent bottlings. Thirty-five years in a single refill barrel. 202 bottles
Plus, by popular demand, natural cask strength editions of the Inchgower (55.2%, £74.95, around 98 bottles) and Clynelish (54%, £74.95, around 314 bottles)
All are bottled at 45.8% ABV unless stated, non-chill-filtered and naturally coloured, in 70cl bottles.
For the first time, Boutique-y has also teamed up with Drinks by the Dram on a Master of Malt exclusive tasting set of all five core Summertime Specials in 30ml wax-sealed drams £32.95.
The Summertime Specials are available now from Master of Malt. For on and off-trade enquiries to Maverick Drinks.
