Elite Traveler Summer 2023

THE LAST DROP DISTILLERS Few have been championing the mis fi ts of the spirits world longer than The Last Drop Distillers. Founded in 2008, the self-proclaimed ‘curators of remarkable spirits’ have traversed the globe fi nding incredible casks of whisky, rum, bourbon and cognac. Some of the discoveries are remarkable, such as a 1925 cognac that spent much of its life hidden behind a brick wall (stored there to protect it from occupying Nazis). Testament to managing director Rebecca Jago’s discernment, Last Drop Distillers has released just 31 expressions in 15 years — its main limitation being that they only bottle the extraordinary. While the pace of releases has historically been slow, it has ramped up in recent years as the company’s reputation has grown and the spirits begin to fi nd them rather than the other way around. “The whisky industry is built on collaboration more than anything,” Jago told Elite Traveler in 2022. “It’s one of the most wonderful things about it. We’ve made a lot of contacts and spread our web so that people know what we’re looking for. I hope that in a very small way, people start to see us as a natural home for their oddities, rarities or something that is never going to be a mass-market release. We are con fi dent in and supportive of the idea of showcasing other people’s work. We halo things that might not otherwise have their moment in the spotlight.” The 2023 collection is true to form, containing an experimental 50-year-old blended Scotch whisky fi nished in Jamaican rum casks, a 50-year-old grain whisky and a blended Japanese whisky made up predominantly of spirit from the revered ghost distillery, Hanyu. lastdropdistillers.com

GLENFIDDICH, ARCHIVE COLLECTION There’s nothing like standing in a cold and damp warehouse drinking whisky straight from the cask. Add in some torrential rain and you’ve got my dream summer vacation. But seriously, it is something people travel across the world for. The Glen fi ddich Archive Collection promises that immersive experience in a bottle with three hyper-rare single malts. The Archive Collection is a new series that, at the time of writing, consists of three rare bottlings taken from deep within the warehouses. All come from single casks and are bottled at cask strength: nothing added, nothing taken away. It is the truest re fl ection of the distillery’s character. The most notable of the three whiskies is taken from a cask fi lled by the owning family on Christmas Day in 1987 in celebration of the distillery’s centenary year. Limited to just 75 bottles and priced at $4,500, the whisky will be sold exclusively at the distillery shop in Du ff town, Scotland. In fact, collecting all three founding expressions in this collection will present a challenge for even the most determined connoisseur. Another whisky, taken from a 1973 cask and priced at a hefty $40,000, will be available exclusively in the UK, while yet another taken from 1984 and priced at approx. $5,600 will only be available in Taiwan and China. Collecting all three will be a remarkable achievement. glen fi ddich.com