The second edition of the rare aged whisky collection has launched and is aimed at those who love both spirits and art.
‘How do you bring a sense of time to whisky?’ asked Jonathan Driver, the managing director of William Grant & Sons’ flourishing private clients division at the launch of Ladyburn’s 1966 Edition Two at South Kensington’s Grade II listed art hub, Cromwell Place. Suzy Menkes, a global fashion authority and former Vogue editor, had already demonstrated the answer. Her assembly of rarely seen pictures taken by fashion and royalty photographer, Norman Parkinson CBE, fronts the rare whisky collection. Exquisitely printed, the blazingly colourful compilation of ten labels, comparable in format to Polaroids or Instagram posts, shone from otherwise minimalist bottles. These feature carefree models so typical of the Swinging Sixties, enacting scenes such as Red Legs in Puerto Rico, Swedish Summer and Celtic Magic. The fluid images were captured from 1960-69 with Parkinson’s portable, gold detailed, Hasselblad camera. “Clothes mirror people’s souls," noted Menkes of the ensembles.
This is the second aesthetically driven celluloid single malt edition to put focus on the much-cherished remaining whisky from 1966 from the Ladyburn distillery. For the frontispiece of Edition One another British fashion and portrait photographer, David Bailey CBE, authorised the use of his black and white works presenting the East End of London. The third instalment, due out next year, will complete the triptych.
Both collections feature an eleventh ‘black swan’ bottle; in the case of Edition Two, it is a model holding the reins of a Zeppelin, only available to purchasers who are well-heeled enough to have amassed the other ten bottles.
But what about the contents? The 55-year-old spirit flowed into cask at the once super high-tech, Ladyburn Distillery in Girvan on 12th May 1966, being bottled 55 years later in 2021 – 46 years after the plant permanently closed. ‘It operated for less than a decade,” said Brian Kinsman, malt master at William Grant & Sons. “Not all whiskies can, or do, pass the test of time,” he added. “Cask 102089 selected for Ladyburn Edition Two was one of only a handful of Ladyburn 1966 Sherry butts that stood out and exemplified the character of the lost gem distillery. Its contents are a match to Norman Parkinson’s enduring images that tell such a compelling story of the 1960s. They come together to create an unseen wonder.” Thus the total of 210 numbered bottles of Ladyburn Edition Two are likely to become especially coveted by collectors whose passions for whisky and art collide.
TASTING NOTE
98 POINTS
Ladyburn Limited Edition Two is rosewood in colour with green flecks at the extremities, this is followed by antique leather, linseed oil, liquorice and softer vanilla notes on the nose, complementing its clearly apparent 55 years in Sherry wood. On the meandering palate, dried fruits, cinnamon, more vanilla, and then citrus. It is worth noting that the single malt takes over ten minutes to ultimately burst back to life in the glass. Finally, the long, linear aftertaste is slightly dry but never offensively tannic.
700ml, 46.5% ABV, £17,000/$21,400 per bottle or £198,000/$249,000 for the full collection of eleven bottles.
