.png)
William Grant & Sons-owned Balvenie distillery in Speyside has revealed the first of three annual releases under the new Fifty Collection. The inaugural Fifty boasts the same font designs as current releases of Rare Marriages Collection 25, 30 and 40-year-olds, with etching on the bottle following the footsteps of the 60-year-old, released in 2023.
Balvenie has previously released multiple editions of 50-year-old whiskies, starting from 1987. But, the distillery has chosen a unique way of ageing the whiskies for the new collection.
Serving as the base for all three expressions, the first edition was distilled in 1973 and aged in a single refill European oak cask selected by malt master Kelsey McKechnie. Subsequent editions will incorporate the previous ones; the second edition will combine whisky aged in an American oak hogshead cask, also filled in 1973, with the first edition. The third edition will combine whisky from an American oak cask filled in 1974 with the previous two editions.
The bottle is presented in tasteful four-layered wood helix packaging with 14-carat gold-plated brass, which was developed in collaboration with Croglin, a bespoke craft workshop based in Cumbria. Each of the three expressions is limited to 125 bottles.
Images by Balvenie
The first edition, offered at 52.3% ABV and retailing for £42,500 (around US$53,000), debuted on 7 August at Harrods, London. The release will be available globally from 12 September, with only 14 bottles allocated to the US market. The second and third editions will follow in 2025 and 2026.
Thank you for reading The Whisky Ardvark. Please check out some of our other whisky news listed below.
Comments