A NEW independent Scotch whisky bottler has unveiled its debut release.
Halcyon Spirits, which was founded by online whisky auctioneers Daniel and Craig Milne, has marked its arrival with a single cask Macallan 30-year-old, distilled in 1993.
Only 238 bottles of the whisky, which was matured in a first-fill sherry cask and bottled by Halcyon at 49.8 per cent alcohol by volume, will be made available for sale.
The dram has been described by former Macallan master distiller and independent whisky expert David Robertson as a “a superb example of a well-matured Spanish oak sherry vintage whisky, displaying many of the classic characteristics of a 25–35-year-old Macallan”.
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It is being sold in the Halcyon website at £2,950 per bottle.
Daniel and Craig Milne, who established the Whisky Hammer online auction site in 2016, set up Halcyon after completing on their custom-built cask warehouse in Udny, Aberdeenshire. The warehouse, which can accommodate more than 2,000 casks, allows the brothers to store, mature, and bottle whisky from some of Scotland’s most sought-after distilleries.
The casks selected by Halcyon are bottled on site in Aberdeenshire.
Daniel Milne said: “Launching Halcyon Spirits has been a true passion project for my brother Craig and I. As whisky fanatics ourselves, our goal is to be able to find and share incredible whiskies with others.
“The name Halcyon encapsulates our dedication to bottle exceptional whiskies which, when enjoyed, can allow our customers to relive memories of joy and nostalgia. The name also has deep significance to our family as it pays homage to our grandfather’s fishing boat, Halcyon BF187.
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“We are in a fortunate position to have direct access to a fantastic selection of quality maturing whisky casks, which makes the journey of selection and bottling incredibly exciting.”
Halcyon said the debut release will support action on climate change by funding the planting of ten trees for every bottle sold. It means the inaugural release could result in 2,380 trees being planted.
In an interview with The Herald in January 2021, Daniel Milne explained that the brothers did not come from a professional background in the whisky industry. Daniel is a chartered accountant who worked in the oil and gas industry, while Craig is a former skipper of a North Sea trawler. Both, however, share a passion for Scotch whisky.
He explained: “We were born in Macduff, right near the Speyside region, so [we were] surrounded by whisky from a young age.”
“We had our own collections prior to the start of the auction. Part of the drive for us to do this [was] one day when we went to value our own collections online and we discovered that people were doing these auctions, and we just felt we could do it a little bit better.”
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