Glenfiddich Project XX Experimental Whisky

This smells like a bit of a beastie, lots of woody spicy notes, toffee and orange peel. Clearly some serious cask action going on here. On the palate, lots of wood: cloves, cinnamon and vanilla with tingly wood tannins, all wrapped up with some sweet fudge notes. To finish, long and layered, with lingering notes of espresso and dark chocolate.

• Distillery: Glenfiddich Distillery
• Type: Single Malt Whisky
  
• Region: Speyside, Scotland
  
• Alcohol: 47%
  
• Volume: 700ml
  
• Goes with: Neat or over ice
  

This Project XX expression is the second release of Glenfiddich's Experimental Series. It is was made not simply by one Malt Master, but 20! 20 Malt Masters were invited to the Glenfiddich distillery and invited them to pick any expression from the thousands of casks maturing in the warehouse. The 20 chosen whiskies were then married by Malt Master Brian Kinsman to create this single malt you see before your eyes. 

Glenfiddich is one of three William Grant-owned whisky distilleries which sit in relatively close proximity to each other to the north of Dufftown, the spiritual heart of Speyside. Founded in 1886, by William Grant Balvenie fame, the Glenfiddich distillery is currently one of but three distilleries to bottle on site, and houses stills with a total annual capacity of 13 million litres. Furthermore, Glenfiddich matures its single malt whisky in its onsite warehouses, which can house up to 800,000 casks. Malt is bought in, a proportion of this is malted at the neighbouring Balvenie distillery.

Following the end of the Second World War and the resulting surge in whisky demand, Glenfiddich was a relatively small brand and faced hefty competition from the blended scotch brands which held a veritable monopoly on the market.

Rather than competing directly, Glenfiddich concentrated on single malt sales and in 1963 became the first Scotch whisky to be marketed as such, flying proudly in the face of critics. The gamble paid off, and eleven years later sixteen new stills were installed to cope with demand.

The range is now large and includes several cask finishes as well as a 2002-released 1937 vintage, of which there are just sixty-one bottles. Each came with a recommended Glenfiddich price of £10,000.

Glenfiddich was the first distillery with a visitor centre, which today receives 125,000 visitors per annum and underwent a £1.7 million rebuild in 2005. World famous, Glenfiddich is the number one top-selling single malt whisky not only in the UK, but also globally.

However, in 2010, a rather extreme weather accident created a unique opportunity. Heavy snowfall caused some of the warehouse roofs to collapse, exposing maturing casks to the elements, a frosty -19°C! People were working round the clock to save the casks, and as a tribute to them, the Malt Master created Snow Phoenix, marrying the rescued casks to create a limited edition single malt. In 2016, the distillery introduced its Experimental Series, which has resulted in a few very popular expressions, including Winter Storm and an IPA cask-finished single malt.

• Silver - 2022 NZ Spirits Awards
• Trophy - 2017 International Wine & Spirit Competition - Brown Spirits Packaging
  
• Gold - 2019 The Scotch Whisky Masters (The Spirits Business) - Speyside Single Malt Premium
  
• Silver - 2018 International Spirits Challenge - Distillers Single Malts - Speyside - No Age
  
• Silver - 2018 The Scotch Whisky Masters (The Spirits Business) - Speyside No Age Statement - 2018
  
• Silver - 2017 International Wine & Spirit Competition - Scotch Single Malt - Speyside