Leading drinks e-commerce site The Whisky Exchange (or TWE) is debuting a new premium marketplace where folks fancying rare and exceptional bottles can manage their collection virtually via The Whisky Exchange Cabinet, which allows members to buy, sell or hold bottles, facilitated by NFTs (doubt we need to educate anyone on that by this point).

The TWE Cabinet will work with producers, bottlers and brands to bring (at least initially) exclusive and newly released premium bottles to the platform where they will be for sale, whereby users can subsequently decide to redeem their bottles (in which case they can do with it as they wish), hold their bottles with TWE, or sell it to other users via the platform.

The platform's launch is now live, and as a first foray, TWE has worked with Glenlivet to create a 12-piece set of 50 Year Old single malt Scotch whiskies from the distillery. The set is named The Twelve Elements by Glenlivet, with each expression named after a key element of Glenlivet's Scotch-making. Each bottle carries a label that is AI-generated.

The first of the set, Air, will be released 11 AM GMT on 21 February 2024, and will have an incredibly small outturn of just 12 bottles, priced at €40,000 (or US$43,095, or 16.5 ETH).

Air carries the description "The air at the distillery helps to create the atmosphere that nurtures The Glenlivet’s whisky to maturity. It helps to grow the barley, moves in the warehouse, swirling the slowly evaporating vapours and moving each cask along its journey."

Official Tasting Notes

Aroma: A medley of fruitiness with top notes of soft red apple, maraschino cherries, fresh pineapple and homemade apricot jam combining with stewed pears baked into a crumble. The fruit is balanced by marzipan and ground cinnamon with a hint of milk chocolate honeycomb.

Taste: A burst of juicy apricot and charred pineapple is followed by a wave of lavish caramel and dark chocolate mousse. This sweet introduction is succeeded by a layer of toasted oak, nutty praline and ginger spice with a subtle hint of nutmeg.

Finish: Lusciously long and elegant with warming spices.

Kanpai!

88 Bamboo Editorial Team