REASSURINGLY TIMELESS
The idea of patience is an increasingly warped notion in modern life. We quite simply hate to wait.
In fairness, it’s hard to blame anyone in particular, after all we have all been under involuntary – or perhaps incognisant – training for the past decade, with the amazonic acceleration of delivery times and omnipresent-ly seamless digital delivery of media. We are now ill accustomed to waiting for anything: well, anything apart from whisky it seems.
Cynicism aside, one key selling point of whisky is the fact that it takes so long to make: in fact the longer the better. For any scotch whisky to even exist means that it has spent a minimum of three years ageing in an oak cask, and most established distilleries will (thankfully) consider that the bare minimum.
Then there are of course whiskies that are aged for an even longer period of time, 10, 12, 15, 18, 21 years, so on and so forth. With every increasing year there is a new commitment to painstakingly maintain the jus, a resignation to losing a percentage annually to evaporation and the added risk ruining the whisky altogether.
This task falls to the Master Distillers or Malt Masters as they are fondly known as at Glenfiddich, a nod to their expertise with the building block of scotch whisky, malted barley.
Historically, great architects would set about diligent design knowing full well they would not be around to see its completion. There is a poetic chivalry to their endeavour, much like the Malt Masters that filled the whisky to cask some 60 years ago. Today unbeknown to them we get to enjoy the fruits of their vision, masterfully executed by current Malt Master, Brian Kinsman.
Living in a world where life moves at over 100 mph makes whisky an even more treasured commodity: both in its enjoyment and creation.
“Since the 1960s, just three Malt Masters have been at the helm, overseeing the patient development of these rare and precious casks. Several decades later, these single malts have reached the zenith of their maturity and are now ready for release.”
Aptly entitled the Time Re:Imagined Collection, it consists of three whiskies, each decades old, each with their own character, each with distinct packaging and each telling a different story about time.
The most accessible in terms of price is the 30 Year Old representing Suspended Time, an ode to the moment when the Malt Master decides the cask’s work is complete and suspends the development of the whisky.
Embodying the notion of Cumulative Time is the 40 Year Old, a nod to Glenfiddich’s innovative history having pioneered the remnant vatting process, which encourages layers of accumulated flavour in the jus.
The elder statesman of the trio, the final release is a 50 Year Old portrayal of Simultaneous Time, acknowledging the trying and changing conditions over the lifespan of this whisky’s creation.
While each whisky in the collection has its own thoughtfully designed packaging – an extension of the storytelling – perhaps the most intricate casing understandably belongs to the 50 Year Old. Designed by computational architect Manuel Jiménez García, each facet of the cylinder is a decryption meteorological data over the 50 year period.
TASTING NOTES
30 Year Old
Colour – Rich bronze
Nose – An exquisitely structured balance of hearty oak married with sweet, subtle sherry notes.
Taste – Deep, woody flavours interlaced with delicate floral accents, in a complex combination.
Finish – Warm, honeyed and exceptionally long-lasting.
ABV 43%
40 Year Old
Colour – Dark mahogany
Nose – A deeply layered expression of dried fruits, dark chocolate, roasted coffee and ripe black
cherries. Completed with subtle waves of gentle wood smoke, polished leather and cloves.
Taste – A luxuriously full and silky smooth taste, with memories of past releases in every nuanced note. Evolving from deep dried fruit notes to rich fruitcake, dates, raisins and stewed apples, before giving way to dry oaky notes, with subtle hints of bitter chocolate and peat.
Finish – Complex, memorable, and exquisitely long-lasting.
ABV 44.6%
50 Year Old
Colour – Antique gold
Nose – Rich orange peel and clementine meet complex notes of Madeira cake and muscovado sugar. Maturing over time into the dewy petrichor of a Dufftown morning, mingling with flowering geranium.
Taste – A lingering sweetness softens into deep, silky smooth oak tannin and sun-dried vanilla.
Finish – Oaky, sweet and incredibly long lasting.
ABV 43.8%
