In a Launch that Blends Old and New, a Rare Scotch House Releases Their First NFT

The New Yorker, April, 2022

Highlighted by Marc Beckman

In the town of Rothes, home of The Glenrothes distillery hidden in the heart of Speyside, heritage tends to take priority over high tech. The distillery is nestled in a glen, with nary a street sign nor visitor center. Its rare 12-, 18-, 25-, and even 50-year-old whiskies—which have a bright, round, subtly fruity taste, owing to the unusually long distillation process—are all worth discovering.

But in April, the distillery will enter the spotlight when it celebrates the release of its 36 Year Old Single Cask whisky, a Scotch of singular flavor and smoothness, with one of the most original spirit launches of the year. The groundbreaking release will feature packaging with original New Yorker-style artwork, a non-fungible token (NFT) of the illustration, and VIP access to exclusive events.

“We’ve always sought to progress and build upon what we do,” says Laura Rampling, The Glenrothes’ Master Whisky Maker. “The boldness of this release exemplifies that.”

Connecting Old and New

The first thing that distinguishes The Glenrothes 36 Year Old Single Cask whisky is the packaging around its leather-clad oak box: an original New Yorker-style illustration from artist Maddie Dai. A contributor to the magazine since 2017, Dai is known for having a disarming comic sensibility. For the launch, Dai paired the iconography of New York City with the pastoral Scottish Speyside estate that has been home to The Glenrothes distillery for nearly 150 years. The secret to unlocking the creativity necessary to produce the right visual? Dai mined the cultural touchstones of these two iconic locations, then merged them. In her mash-up, a subway entrance is offset by the rugged Scottish foothills, a hot dog vendor also sells haggis, and a saxophonist jams with a bagpiper. “A lot of the best illustrations take two incongruous ideas and stick them together,” she says.

Dai began drawing for The New Yorker while living in the city, and has tramped through Scotland numerous times, so she had no trouble drawing on the charms of both places to create the piece. She even added a few specific references to The Glenrothes, including the distillery’s duck house and a nod to the natural springs that provide the spirit’s water source. “Both New York and Scotland are home to outsized personalities and are unapologetically who they are,” she says. “There was a wealth of stories and images to pull from.”

Discovering the Spirit

What’s inside the bottle is masterful, too: a whisky well worth the 36-year wait. The Glenrothes 36 Year Old Single Cask whisky has a fruity character typical of The Glenrothes, as well as notes of almond also apparent in the distillery’s older bottlings. In addition, The Glenrothes 36 Year has a beautiful fragrance, with hints of rose oil and gentle spice, a product of the cask used in the maturation process. A “refill hogshead,” as it’s called, the cask was first used to age sherry, and contributes a refined elegance to the whisky. “When you have a Single Cask offering, it always provides something slightly different and special,” Rampling says.

As one of the few distilleries in Scotland to have its own team of coopers who craft casks from European and American oak, The Glenrothes differentiates itself from most other Scotch makers. It’s also one of the country’s few distilleries that draws on its own water source, on its own land, comprising four different springs and wells. Combine these factors with some unique production methods, including custom stills that create a slow flow rate, and its whiskies stand apart. Add in a 36-year maturation process—the requirement for those oak barrels—and a rare bottling becomes a truly once-in-a-generation event. “This individual cask was identified a number of years ago as something special,” says Rampling. “We’ve waited for the perfect moment to release it.”

Blending Bottles with Blockchain

While The Glenrothes’ distinctiveness pays homage to the past, its keepers have often embraced the new, and it shows with this launch. Every bottle will include an NFT of the label, hosted on the energy-efficient blockchain Solana. A once static image will surprise whisky lovers with subtle movement—a unique twist for a New Yorker-style illustration—that will also reveal special meaning behind Dai’s illustration. Furthermore, Dai’s monochrome sketch is enhanced through strokes of color highlighting both the whisky and the two worlds that inspired the artwork. Finally, consumers will have the opportunity to attend prestigious launch events in New York and beyond.

“The Glenrothes mastery is a tradition, but on the flip side, this release is cutting-edge, and the team isn’t afraid to try new things,” says Marc Beckman, author of The Comprehensive Guide to NFTs and CEO of DMA United, which is helping The Glenrothes with the technical side of things. And while some might think that placing a nearly century-and-a-half-old distillery on the frontier of technology is a surprise, its Master Whisky Maker disagrees. Rampling sees it as the next iteration in a lifelong pursuit of whisky excellence. “There are lots of traditional elements to what we do,” she says. “But the history of The Glenrothes will show you that we have never been shy to look beyond the status quo.”