The Balvenie Fifty first edition holds an ABV of 52.3%, with an RRP of £46,500.

The Balvenie has announced one of its rarest releases to date – The Balvenie Fifty Collection – a trilogy of expressions which it said represents the interwoven stories of craftsmanship at the Speyside distillery over the last 50 years.

TRBusiness was on location for the launch of The Balvenie Fifty Collection, which will see 125 bottles (per expression) released annually over the next three years, starting with the first edition, a single cask expression aged in a European oak refill butt, filled in 1973 and selected by Malt Master, Kelsey McKechnie.

The second edition is an American oak hogshead cask filled in 1973 to marry with the first; to make the their edition it will subsequently be blended with an American oak barrel filled in a 1974 cask.

Launching from September 2024, 13 of the first edition bottles have been allocated to the travel retail channel at various key locations, primarily across Asia and Europe.

These locations are Hong Kong; Seoul; Taipei; Singapore; Mumbai; Bangkok; Korea; Macau; Los Angeles; Paris; London; and Amsterdam.

The second and third editions will launch in 2025 and 2026, respectively, and while no plans have been officially announced regarding travel retail distribution, both Joshi and Cooke agreed it would be “crazy” not to consider as much.

“The amazing thing is it’s straight from the cask so this is the liquid that went in back in 1973,” said Ashvin Joshi, Global Brand Ambassador GTR for William Grant & Sons.

“I cannot find a 50-year-old collection in a trilogy like this which has ever been done, we’re the first,” he added.

Aromatically comprised of deep fruits, cassis and candied apricots, cedar and warming spice, on the palate the whisky presents caramelised fruits and soft vanilla, with ginger spice and citrus.

The Balvenie Fifty Collection is encased in wood helix packaging developed by Croglin; a bespoke craft workshop based in Cumbria.

Kelsey McKechnie, Malt Master, said: “Each edition in this collection is a testament to the craftsmanship that has defined our liquid over the past 50 years.

The unique characteristics of these rare casks come together to create a truly exceptional experience and set a new benchmark for our contribution to the rare and extraordinary whisky market at Balvenie.”

Each presentation contains over 100 different elements, including four layers of wood in the helix structure with a tolerance for error of less than 1/10th of a millimetre, and a 14 carat gold plated brass display.

“Our role is to make sure that the way these are presented in travel retail reflects the care, the craft, and the passion that’s gone into  nurturing these liquids across the years,” said Gwilym Cooke, Head of Brand Marketing – Global Travel Retail for William Grant & Sons.

“This is kind of a pinnacle for us. It’s like a clinical expression of the brand, and we need to make sure that when people come across it as they’re passing through airports, they see and feel like that’s the case,” added Cooke.

Fifty years of ageing has worked wonders for this whisky, as this editor could tell the Balvenie Fifty is undoubtedly an incredibly smooth and refined expression.

Fresh off a sit-down meeting with IWSR (International Wine and Spirits Record) Cooke also spoke to the resilience of the whisky category within GTR and domestically, especially where concerning ultra-premium expressions.

 “If you look at the projections in the next five years, the ultra-premium segment is due to grow by $4 billion in the next five years. Four in every ten bottles of spirit will be in that bracket. I suppose if you look at the market, it is reflecting that there’s still an appetite.”

Such is the case particularly in India, wherein the Balvenie GTR team chose Mumbai over a Middle Eastern airport, owing to the growing density of duty free shoppers in India on the lookout for premium whiskies.

“There’s an increase in the luxury end of the market coming out of Mumbai. We’ve got shop-in-shops in Delhi, and we’ve got one coming in Mumbai, and the main message from us is we see great opportunity for investment in India, and I can only see us continuing and potentially increasing our investment across the portfolio there,” commented Cooke.

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