Cuvée presentation
Donated by Benriach distillery
Benriach unveils a bottling produced in collaboration with plastic artist Arnaud Liard: an exclusive limited edition of Benriach 16 Year Old.
The artist wanted to highlight the coming together of the craft of distillation and contemporary art, sharing the idea that harmony is created by juxtaposition, whether of colours or flavours. The creative process behind this limited edition has been meticulously orchestrated to capture the essence of the artistic universe of Arnaud Liard, all whilst remaining loyal to the Benriach identity.
50 cases have been painted by hand by the artist - while preserving visual harmony, each unique piece, signed and numbered, is testament to the handcrafted nature of its production.
The distillery, as well as the artist, wanted to offer three special edition cases for the auction, with the words ‘EA’ (for Épreuve d'Art), distinguishing them from other pieces by their unique designs. This lot also includes an original work that Arnaud Liard created ahead of the project to define the colourful theme of the canister pack (19*17.4 cm).
Born in 1975 and residing in Paris, Arnaud Liard first made a name for himself on the Paris graffiti scene in the 1990s before developing his work in the studio. He is also known today for his study of the “aesthetics of chaos”, an approach that captures the beauty of the imperfections and unstructured elements of the urban landscape.
The distillery Benriach
Scotland, Speyside. Distillery operational. Owner: Brown Forman
Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, Benriach is a distillery that has reopened on more than one occasion. The first was in 1898 at the initiative of John Duff, who built the distillery before, just ten years later, being forced to close it down following the Pattison Crash. The second was in 1965 at the instigation of Glenlivet Distilleries Ltd (the future Chivas Bothers), who completely rebuilt the distillery in order to produce a “blender's malt”. Finally, in 29 April 2004, the distillery came into the hands of Billy Walker and his South-African partners and began operating again in September of the same year. In the meantime, only a few independent bottlers, including Gordon & MacPhail, released expressions of the Benriach malt. When it comes to in-house expressions, a 10 year old version was released by the Seagram Group in 1994. Despite its 120 years of history, Benriach is a distillery only now coming to the foreground of collectable whiskies, and connoisseurs are no longer under any allusions as to its worth. The now-frequent single cask vintages are immediately seized upon as soon as they released.
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