Brands often talk about consumer engagement, but the Glenlivet is taking that one step further by asking fans of the single malt across the world to get involved in selecting the whisky that is destined to become the next limited edition release, through an initiative called The Guardian’s Chapter.
“The premium nature of The Glenlivet has always inspired great passion in those who choose to drink their superb Scotch Whiskies, so it became a natural development to actually involve and empower our consumers in the cocreation of this special limited edition product…the process of which is a world first in the Single Malt category”, said Tom Dusseldorp, Group Brand Manager at Pernod Ricard Australia.
Essentially, Glenlivet will be asking punters worldwide to sample three different expressions of the malt, and vote for their favourite. The votes will be tallied up in early 2014 ahead of a March limited edition release. There’ll will be only 2000 bottles produced, so in terms of the single malt world that’s a pretty limited edition.
Tastings will be held across the Australia from the 20th of September. Fans of the Glenlivet can get more involved by signing up online at theglenlivet.com/guardians, and they’ll receive news and updates and invites to exclusives tastings too.
Here’s what we thought of the whisky
Australian Bartender got the chance to attend a special degustation at Tetsuya’s as part of the release of the Guardians Chapter program. A special menu was created for the event by chef Tetsuya Wakuda to pair with a series of Glenlivet malts — matches included ostrich with dwarf truffled peach paired with The Glenlivet 15 Year Old, and a delicious, unctuous foie gras dish matched with The Glenlivet 18 Year Old.
After dinner the three new expressions — Revival, Classic, and Exotic — were brought to the table, with guests asked to be the first in the world to cast their votes on which whisky they thought should be the new release. We won’t tell you our vote, but we’ll give you an idea of what’s in store below. The whiskies are all of the same unstated age, with the difference being the barrel treatment they received.
Revival: very pale in appearance with gold highlights, and a lifted aroma of apple and floral notes, there is plenty of fruit and the signature tropical fruit note of The Glenlivet is apparent, alongside a hint of caramel, stewed apple and spice on the palate — tasty and interesting whisky.
Classic: richer in appearance with caramel, vanilla and dark toffee notes on the nose; fig, spice, vanilla and caramel flavours on the palate with evident oak and a lingering stewed apple flavour on the finish. Classic Glenlivet, as the name suggests.
Exotic: a rich nose of allspice, nutmeg, caramel and rose with plenty of fruit; on the palate, generous flavours of apple again and oak spice and vanilla, complex, with a hint of banana coming through — another delicious, if a little left of centre, example of The Glenlivet.