Tomorrow (1st October) marks the start of The Whisky Exchange‘s the Whisky Show 2021 (1st-3rd October), which will – for the first time – be attended by both physical and virtual guests, following on from the success of last year’s Virtual Whisky Show. Ahead of the show, The Whisky Exchange has announced its annual bottlings, this year celebrating the science of flavour.
The series of single cask bottlings has been created especially for Whisky Show 2021. Each label design tells a three-dimensional story with superhero characters symbolising the flavour compounds in whisky production.
The theme of this year’s Whisky Show 2021, A Journey Through Flavour, inspired the designs created by Elixir Distillers creative director, Raj ‘MrC’ Chavda exclusively for The Whisky Exchange. He says,
“When considering the show theme, I started to think about what makes up flavours and imagined these compounds as the heroes of whisky.”
Raj wanted to experiment with different dimensions using anaglyphs to try and convey depth of flavour. The anaglyph technique uses layered images of contrasting colours – typically red and cyan – that when viewed through 3D glasses trick the eye into perceiving three- dimensional shapes. Just as red and green lines can create an image that appears to leap off the page, so can flavour compounds evoke a favourite fruit, a piece of patisserie, or even a time or place. This illusory quality is a big part of what makes distilled spirits, and whisky in particular, so compelling – these artworks interpret the experience of drinking whisky.
Raj drew inspiration from the so-called silver age of comic books, as he explains:
“Once we had the selection of whiskies we tasted them to pair each one with the artwork I’d created. For example, Ardbeg ‘The Phenolic Phantom,’ was easy because it was so distinctive with those smoky phenols – the chemical compounds within the peat smoke that are responsible for the distinctive smoky aromas and flavours.”
Ticket holders for both the physical and virtual Whisky Show 2021 will receive exclusive first access to the whiskies, which will be available via the on-site Whisky Show shop and whiskyexchange.com from 1 October 2021.
Learn more about the exclusive bottlings here.