The Glenfiddich Distillery was founded in 1886 by William Grant in Dufftown in the Speyside region of Scotland. The name Glenfiddich derives from the Scottish Gaelic Gleann Fhiodhaich meaning "valley of the deer". Once the spirit has matured, the whisky is cut with pure Robbie Dhu spring water. Glenfiddich has a bottling hall onsite along with a large bottling plant in Bellshill. It is visible in a rocky valley’s many solid strata; laid down over millennia, worn smooth by wind and rain. And with layers comes complexity. Which is why Glenfiddich 40 is so much more than an exemplary single malt. This rare single malt is made through remnant vatting, a pioneering process in which the Glenfiddich malt master carries one batch over, time and again, and marries it with the casks selected for each subsequent release. Cask after cask, season after season, it absorbs the evolving flavours of the passing years. It is time, age, experience accumulated. It’s a unique process that isn’t commonly used. In fact, Glenfiddich is the only distillery that still makes use of the remnant vatting process, which is a testament to the label’s traditional approach to distillation. Since the first release of Glenfiddich 40 Year Old in 2000, its special marrying tun has never been emptied, with some of the previous batch saved to provide the backbone of each new release. This year, Brian Kinsman added two butts and five hogsheads of whisky to the mix, creating a rich and sherry-led expression, weightier than previous editions. The sculptural packaging design is inspired by geological metamorphosis and made from jesmonite (a resin-based material used for sculpture and decoration), which is streaked with both upcycled copper, which represents Glenfiddich’s stills, and green glass, which nods to the ever-popular Glenfiddich 12 Year Old, giving a stone-like appearance. Luxuriously full and silky smooth, with memories of past releases in every nuanced note. Evolving from deep dried fruit notes to rich fruitcake, dates, raisins and stewed apples, with sweet cooking spices and vanilla, before giving way to dry oaky notes, with subtle hints of bitter chocolate and peat. The finish is complex, memorable and exquisitely long-lasting.

The Balvenie Cask Finishes is a unique range of single malts created by David C. Stewart MBE, The Balvenie Malt Master. Cask Finishes gains its distinctive character from maturation in two distinct cask types in succession, a proprietary process pioneered by David in 1983 with The Balvenie Classic. For The Balvenie Thirty, he marries Traditional and European oak casks that have been matured for decades in order to craft a whisky of incredible sweetness and complexity. The Balvenie Thirty’s silky sweetness gives way to rich honey, mellow oaky tones and hints of candied orange peel. Smooth and honeyed on the nose with mellow oaky tones and hints of candied orange peel, great depth with rich dark chocolate, hints of plum, marzipan and caramelised pear and an exceptionally smooth and warming finish with gentle spice and lingering sweetness.

A Premier Cru by classification; a Grand Cru by breed. Clos Saint Jacques has long been a contentious site. For many it is superior to all Grands Crus in Gevrey but for the regal duo of Chambertin and Clos de Bèze and even then, it is often their equal. Sturt. Forceful. Ferrous. Among the very greatest expressions of this regal commune, Jasper Morris MW refers to the Clos as the ‘crown prince’, as it slopes steeply to an ideal southern and easterly exposure. Rousseau’s, by far the finest articulation.

The Clos de La Roche is a complex, and powerful wine, with an abundance of red berry fruit aromas with a hint of thyme. The wine shows true elegance in the mouth, with spicy, smooth tannins and a touch of tobacco and saline-infused energy. A long, harmonious finish with great consistency and a certain firmness rounds out this incredible wine.