The hugely popular Old & Rare Whisky Show 2021 will play host to a series of live-streamed, free masterclasses that provide a window into whisky history.
The annual celebration of old and rare whisky is returning for 2021, and for the first time will take place virtually.
There will be four masterclasses live-streamed on Facebook across three days: 25, 26, 27 February.
Each class will be available to watch for free, with tasting packs available to purchase for those who wish to follow along with the hosts on Zoom.
The show is famed for celebrating the discovery of extremely rare whiskies produced in bygone eras, and this year will be no different.
The show founders – Sukhinder Singh, co-founder of The Whisky Exchange, and whisky experts Angus MacRaild and Jonny McMillan – and Billy Abbott, The Whisky Exchange ambassador, will be joined by a variety of guests
to lead the classes, sharing a lifetime of invaluable expertise and passion for old spirits.
The tasting sets feature old and rare whiskies rarely seen open, drawn from the collections of the hosts.
Tasting packs are available to purchase online, with prices ranging from £150-225.
Waxy Whisky Masterclass: Thursday 25 February, 7pm
A key hallmark of older style single malts is the elusive characteristic of waxiness.
In this tasting, hosts will be joined by Roe and Co head distiller Lora Hemy and whiskyfun.com creator Serge Valentin to explore this flavour profile in depth with some famous and lesser-known examples.
Longmorn Masterclass: Friday 26 February, 7pm
Longmorn is one of the Scotch whisky blenders favourite malts, used as a ‘top dresser’ for adding something special to their blends.
Host, The Whisky Exchange’s Old and Rare Spirits Manager Diego Lanza and Catawiki whisky specialist Jeroen Koetsier, will dig deep into the flavours of Longmorn to discover what makes the distillery’s older whiskies so special.
Gordon & MacPhail Old & Rare Masterclass Saturday 27 February, 4pm
Gordon & MacPhail are one of the world’s oldest and most respected independent bottlers, with an unrivalled range of bottlings to its name.
Host Billy Abbott will be joined by Diego Lanza and Jason Vaswani from The Whisky Exchange Old & Rare spirits team to showcase some of the best examples of more recent years, distilled between 1953 and 1972.
Old-Style Peat Masterclass: Saturday 27 February, 7pm
The flavour of peat is one of the most misunderstood and least explored aspects of whisky.
The tasting pack features some excellent examples of single malts that express starkly differing aspects of peat flavour.
This is set to be a journey through history and geography with some rarely available whiskies.
Hosts will be joined by Scotch Whisky Research Institute senior scientist Frances Jack, and photographer, author and smoky whisky expert Marcel van Gils to taste some excellent examples of single malts that express starkly
differing aspects of peat flavour.
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