Elite Traveler Summer 2023

Left, from top Brora Distillery; an exclusive tasting at Brora Distillery

elite traveler SUMMER 2023 133

storage and insurance at Royal Lochnagar for up to fi ve additional years — these rare casks carry price tags that start at hundreds of thousands of pounds and peak between £2m and £3m, depending on the type of cask, its age and the distillery from which it was sourced. (Most of the barrels within the program are at least 25 years of age, with the oldest — a cask from the Brora Distillery — surpassing the half century mark.) Not surprisingly, Diageo only sells a few of these casks per year, and many owners choose to divvy up the resulting bottles that each one produces, — keeping some, gifting others and trading bottles with other Casks of Distinction clients. Ultimately, the liquid that’s pulled from these truly rare barrels is one of a kind, which is exactly what attracts the a ffl uent clients who purchase them. “Behind every one of these casks,” says Bradbury, “is a story of a passionate individual who’s come on a journey to Scotland to see the place and experience the whiskies.” Only a mile from the shores of the North Sea, the Brora Distillery is back humming along after almost 40 years of silence, its two original copper pot stills creating new-make spirit while the whisky-making team is busy laying down freshly fi lled ex-bourbon casks for what will ultimately be decades of patient maturation. The distillery had shut its doors in 1983 so abruptly that many logbooks and other documentation of daily work and production methods were easily found once Diageo committed to reopening the facility — a three-year, $43m project that was realized in the spring of 2021. While appointments are necessary to gain access through the revitalized Highlands distillery’s gates, such access is not limited solely to Diageo’s private clients. That said, being a private client has its perks — most notably a chance to take an in-depth tour with Andrew Flatt, Brora’s brand home host, and an opportunity to taste (and potentially purchase) some highly collectible Brora whiskies that predate the distillery’s closing. Thoseo ff erings include the limited-edition Brora Triptych — a three-bottle collection of whiskies made in 1972, 1977 and 1982, each one showcasing a distinctive fl avor pro fi le fromdi ff erent eras of the distillery’s production. Of the three, Flatt is e ff usive in his reverence of the 1977 expression, one that marks that high point of Brora’s age of peat and one that was bottled at 43 years of age. “When we talk about levels of complexity and the balance between all of thosedi ff erent levels, the depth and the interplay between the nose and the palate, it’s just perfect,” he says. After a single sip, it’s hard to argue with him. By Shaun Tolson Contact dre.scotland@diageo.com, diageorareandexceptional.com DAY3 Brora Distillery, Northern Highlands

DAY2 Royal Lochnagar, Aberdeenshire

“This is the 1% of the 1%,” says Tod Bradbury, a private client advisor who also serves as the head of rare and collectible whiskies at Justerini & Brooks (a wine and spirits merchant that operates as a broker within the Casks of Distinction program). “All of them, if we bottled them tomorrow, would be absolutely incredible liquid — amazing strength, superior quality, really the jewel in the crown of the portfolio.” According to Bradbury, the Casks of Distinction program began about eight years ago, and it provides Diageo’s most valued clients with a unique opportunity to acquire the entire contents of a cask. Inclusive of bottling and packaging — not to mention

Seventy- fi ve miles due north of Edinburgh, the Royal Lochnagar Distillery sits almost in the shadow of Balmoral Castle, the baronial summer home for the British royal family. As far as Scottish distilleries go, Royal Lochnagar is unassuming, but inside the distillery’s warehouse, some of the most extraordinary casks across the entire Scotch whisky industry are quietly at rest. These 100 or so barrels make up Diageo’s Casks of Distinction, a collection of hogsheads, ex-bourbon casks and sherry butts that hold whiskies deemed truly exceptional by those who made them.