Finn Thomson Whisky makes impressive debut
Before about the rather spectacular debut of the new brand, let's start from the very beginning.
In 1908, a certain Peter Thomson opened his first grocery store in Perth. Among other things, the store sold self-composed blended whisky under the name Peter Thomson's Whisky. Since the thing took place not long after the crash in the industry, caused by overproduction, and triggered by the machlokes of the Pattison brothers, in order to stay in business, the whiskey had to be of exceptionally good quality. Most likely it was, because before long Peter Thomson was already running a chain of four stores, and in 1922 he decided to rename his whiskey Beneagles. The name was inspired by that of the Gleneagles Hotel, which opened at the time near Auchterarder, about halfway between Perth and Stirling. Thomson's company prospered remarkably well, despite a series of crises and difficulties that plagued the Scottish distilling industry time and again in the first half of the 20th century.
International fame was brought to the Beneagles brand by the introduction in 1969 of ceramic decanters in which whiskey was offered. These decanters were made in the shape of birds of prey, squirrels, barrels, and even a whole set of chess figures was prepared. In every figure, high quality Beneagles whisky.
Like almost every successful brand, Beneagles sooner or later had to find itself the focus of big business and... disappear as part of some larger corporation. When Beneagles finally became part of Whyte & Mackay in 1993, the brand virtually ceased to exist. In 2011, Peter Thomson (Perth) Limited ceased to exist.
However, this is not the end of our story. For here, regardless of the fate of the Beneagles brand, in the 1980s. In the 1970s, Michael Thomson, Peter's grandson, began buying and storing barrels of young whisky and fresh distillate from various Scottish distilleries, both malt and grain. These were the whiskies from which the Beneagles blend was put together. As the brand's position in the market waned, more and more barrels went into storage for long-term storage. Thus was created one of the most extraordinary collections of privately owned casks, a testament to the Thomson family's centuries-long relationship with Scottish distilling - from illegal factories through the blended whisky boom to the present day.
The aforementioned collection was finally taken care of by a representative of the ninth generation of Thomsons, a certain Finn Thomson. And he decided to finally make it available, in bottled form, to modern whiskey lovers, that is, to us.
The first whisky, bottled under the brand name Finn Thomson Whisky, is Glenlivet 50yo (49,8%). Truly an impressive debut? This whisky originated from a firing on March 6, 1970, and spent its entire half-century maturation in a single first-fill hogshead sherry barrel. This barrel was imported from Spain and its contents bottled in Scotland by Peter Thomson. This was back in the days when there were no regulations mandating the bottling of sherry in Spain.
After 50 years in the barrel, the contents were enough to fill only 127 bottles. The whisky, according to the producer, offers mainly rich notes of dried fruits, oloroso sherry and salted caramel.
Whisky by Finn Thomson, including this inaugural edition of the Glenlivet 50yo, will initially be available through specialized stores in the UK, after which it is also expected to hit the Italian, Belgian and Dutch markets. And there are many indications that there will be something to get there, even abstracting from this first, unusual edition.
Finn Thomson Whisky's three lines of liquor, Crown, Rare and Core. As you can easily guess, the Crown line, which also includes the debut Glenlivet 50yo, will feature the oldest whiskies from Scotland's most prestigious distilleries. Rare series to include whiskies at least 30 years old. The Core series will include unspecified whiskies in single cask form, that is, bottled as the contents of single casks.
Although so far there is no talk of the presence of Finn Thomson whiskeys in Poland, one can hope that sooner or later they will wrap up on the shelves of the House of Whisky Online. Meanwhile, those interested in the products of the Glenlivet distillery, where the inaugural Finn Thomson Glenlivet 50yo comes from, and which is now one of the two largest producers of Scotch malt whisky, are encouraged to learn more about the glenlivet's current offerings, available through us. Glenlivet, like few other distilleries, is able to provide both liquors for everyday consumption and extraordinary, collector's editions. And both can be found in our offer.
[28.06.2022 / photo: Finn Thomson Whisky]