Every so often, a very special project comes along.
In 2012, Bowmore commissioned me to write a booklet for their oldest and rarest whisky, and the oldest Islay Single Malt ever released.
Distilled in the year Prime Minister Harold Macmillan famously declared “we have never had it so good”, only 12 bottles of Bowmore 1957 (54 Year Old) exist in the world.
Finally awoken from more than five decades’ slumbers, this masterclass in the distiller’s art is presented in individually sculpted bottles inlaid with shimmering flecks of platinum, crowned with a neck collar and stopper made from the same rare, precious metal, and nestled in a hand-crafted presentation box fashioned out of specially selected pieces of Scottish Oak.
Wanting to do justice to all the skills and crafts involved in the creation of this rarest of Bowmores, I visited Hamilton & Inches’ historic workshop on Edinburgh’s George Street where the platinum neck collars and stoppers were made and hand-engraved, asked Brodie Nairn and Nichola Burns how they sculpted waves from molten glass for the bottle and quizzed Peter Toaig about the tools and techniques used in the construction of the wooden presentation box.
An absolute joy and privilege to work on, the first of the 12 bottles of Bowmore 1957 (54 Year Old) sold for a suitably spectacular £100,000.
As I say, not your run-of-the-mill project.
Images courtesy of Bonhams
Watch the individual craftsmen at work:
- Hamilton & Inches’ platinum neck collar and stopper
- GLASSTORM’s hand-sculpted glass bottle
- Peter Toaig’s handmade wooden presentation box
And the magical end result:
John Ormston Copywriting 