Duncan Taylor Scotch Whisky has unveiled four special expressions of Scotland’s national drink in a partnership with English golfing legend Sir Nick Faldo.
The Tale of Two Legends series, with bottles starting at £120, coincides with an overhaul of the Aberdeenshire firm’s Black Bull branding worldwide.
There is an official launch at this week’s prestigious Pro-Am tournament in Bangalore, India where Sir Nick is playing alongside an elite field of other golfing greats.
Duncan Taylor’s latest release includes 18, 30, 50 and 55-year-old limited editions of Black Bull whiskies – all blended using aged spirits from the Huntly company’s vaults.
They were hand selected by Sir Nick, together with the firm’s chairman, Euan Shand, and his son, senior operations and spirits manager Andrew Shand, when the retired golfer visited Aberdeenshire last year.
The three-time winner of the Open Championship and treble winner of the Masters said: “I’ve always loved whisky and it was fascinating to delve deep into the process of blended whiskies to create this range.
“I got the opportunity to taste some incredible aged malts and grains from the Duncan Taylor Scotch Whisky vaults, guided by Euan and Andrew.
“There’s some fascinating history, back stories and flavour profiles behind each bottle in the Tale of Two Legends.
I’ve always loved whisky and it was fascinating to delve deep into the process of blended whiskies to create this range.”
Sir Nick Faldo
The 18-year-old and 30-year-old whiskies in the collection were matured in sherry casks and created specially to represent major milestone events in Sir Nick’s illustrious professional career.
The 18-year-old marks the age he turned professional. The 30-year-old is a nod to the 30 wins he amassed on the European Tour, reflecting his World No. 1 status for an incredible 97 weeks.
Duncan Taylor described the 50 and 55-year-old whiskies as “the very pinnacle of the collection”.
It is expected these will be “highly sought after amongst whisky collectors and the cognoscenti”.
The 50-year-old is limited to 600 bottles featuring malts from the likes of Caperdonich, which closed in 2002, as well as Macallan and Glen Grant – all more than 50 years old.
There are 600 bottles of the 55-year-old – made using sherry, grain and malt whiskies produced at Lochside Distillery, in Montrose, which stopped production in 1992.
‘Big and bold’
Euan Shand said: “This year we are going big and bold with our release.
“The Tale of Two Legends series comes hot on the heels of one of the oldest Macallan whiskies we’ve ever launched.
“Together with Sir Nick, we’ve handpicked some of our best whiskies within our archives and blended them meticulously to create four stunning blends that are worthy of celebrating some of the iconic times in his life
“Timing it with our re-brand of the entire portfolio is perfect and we look forward to launching these new releases as the official sponsor of the Pro-Am golf event in Bangalore this week, followed by a global distribution.”
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