Since the era of the Whisky Loch of the 1980s, Scotch has arguably never been in a better place, both for collectors and for owners of whisky casks, than in the 2020s.
With record sales being broken every few months and silent distilleries singing again the song of the single malt, high-quality whisky has broken through at all stages and this rising tide has raised all ships.
It has also created some rather unusual whisky collections to hit the market, including some based on anime, some memorialising football matches and some being endorsed by celebrities.
There are a lot of celebrity-endorsed alcohol brands, from Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s tequila to Dan Aykryod’s bizarre Crystal Skull Vodka, which apparently has some connection to the paranormal and the interstellar.
However, one of the most interesting ones has come from Beyonce Knowles-Carter, one of the world’s most famous pop stars, because despite the rather natural cynicism one should always approach celebrity brands with, there does seem to be a deeper meaning to it.
Arise SirDavis
Named after her great-grandfather, moonshiner Davis Hogue, SirDavis is not strictly a Scotch whisky, being manufactured by the French company Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy, inspired by American Whisky tradition, finished in Texas and spearheaded by a woman with an open fondness for Japanese whisky.
However, aside from the shared lineage of both the Japanese and American whisky traditions back to Scotland, there is a surprising level of connection to Scotch distilleries.
Whilst LVMH is French and Beyonce is American, the whisky lead was Dr Bill Lumsden, a Scottish man with nearly 40 years of experience in the business, 29 of which was spent with the legendary single malt brand Glenmorangie.
SirDavis is not, however, a single malt; it is a blend of 51 per cent rye and 49 per cent malted barley, combined with traditional single-malt distilling practices coming from Dr Lumsden, such as secondary maturation in sherry casks.
This leads to, according to Dr Lumsden himself, a combination of the deep, strong flavours found in American rye whiskies such as Bulleit, Jim Beam Rye and Wild Turkey Rye, with the texture and feel in the mouth of a Japanese whisky or single malt scotch.
Whilst one should always be sceptical of marketing, it won a Best In Class award at the 2023 SIP Awards after being submitted anonymously and achieved 93+ ratings from the Ultimate Spirits Challenge and New York International Spirits Competition that same year.
There does appear to be a genuine passion from Beyonce herself as well; besides the name being a connection to her great-grandfather, the whisky was made in the wake of the album Cowboy Carter, a country album inspired by her childhood in Houston.
She described her love for whisky as “fated” due to her great-grandfather’s history, particularly his tendency to hide bottles of whisky in the knots of cedar trees, and describes the “power and confidence” she feels when she drinks a quality whisky.
Time will tell how the drink will fare, both upon its initial release and in the long-term on the collector’s market.