It’s like stepping into another world, such is the contrast between the vivid Speyside sunshine and the darkened chill of the stone warehouse. It takes a few moments for the eyes to adjust. A few seconds ago, we were standing outside the Balvenie distillery. Now there’s a sense of the subterranean.
Inside the warehouse doors you are greeted by rows of casks and decades of dust. The sunshine, watery now, tries to trickle through the tiny windows but it’s held back by a blanket of cobwebs. Our small group picks its way over the uneven wooden floor to the far wall, where an unexpected staircase leads down. It’s then that I notice the steel girders — despite appearances, this old, stout building is set over two storeys.
Descend the staircase with care and you discover another floor below. The air is cooler still and there’s a different scent. That distinct warehouse aroma accumulates over time thanks to the evaporation that comes with maturation. But here it’s earthier. More dense. Drier somehow. It gives a sense that these casks are older. There’s a reverence in this space that I’ve never felt before in a whisky setting. These casks don’t see a lot of foot traffic.
“They’re being left alone,” says George Carail, sampling lead for House of Hazelwood. He’s one of just a handful of people that has a profound understanding of these casks and what they hold. Because we’re not just here on a warehouse tour. Deep within the labyrinthine network of William Grant & Sons dunnage warehouses, we’re standing where what will become the world’s first 100 year old single grain whisky is resting.
I’m lucky to be in a group of just five journalists given an advance preview — and tasting — of the first expression in House of Hazelwood’s wildly ambitious One for the Next collection. House of Hazelwood has become renowned for releasing old and rare parcels of malt, grain, and blended Scotch from the Gordon family’s private reserves. Matured for decades, these treasures are selected and intricately blended to convey the sorts of stories usually reserved for family reunions. All through liquid form. But One for the Next feels like a levelling up.
We’re gathered around cask number 39, which so happens to be Carail’s lucky number. It’s one of two custom-coopered casks that hold some of the first grain whisky ever made at the Girvan distillery. It was laid down in 1964 by Charles Gordon, part of the family that founded William Grant. He passed away in 2013. This cask is a very clear and obvious way that his legacy continues. Right now, that is through a 60-year-old Girvan expression, released to mark the maker’s 60th anniversary. That’s exciting enough in itself for grain whisky enthusiasts. But it is just the start.
Once a year for the next 10 years, those same casks will yield Girvan releases at 70, 80, 90, and then, in 2065, at 100 years of age. That’s the plan. It is audaciously ambitious. No one has ever tried anything like it. Just 25 bottles of the 60 Years Old will be released, with those owners given first refusal on the subsequent bottlings. Priced at £10,000, it certainly isn’t cheap. But it is also eyebrow-raisingly well-priced for a 60-year-old Scotch.
For Kirsten Grant Meikle, a company director and great-great-granddaughter of William Grant, it’s an “honour” to be working on something that intrinsically taps into the concept of legacy. “To be working with grain whisky first laid down by my uncle himself makes this extra special.”
In the warehouse, Carail expertly moves Cask 39 back into its mostly empty row — only the very oldest are tucked away down here. It might well be another 10 years until it’s moved again, he tells us. It’s a “well-used” European oak hogshead, he says. The staves themselves could be well over a century old. It’s the combination of cool warehouse plus this venerable wood that slows maturation processes down, meaning an attempt to age a whisky for a century is even possible.
The casks would have come under the care of Ian McDonald, who retired in 2019 after serving for 50 years as a cooper with William Grant. His work is another echo of the concept of legacy. Looking at the lines on the cask, the detail of the staves, it has the character of an elegant elderly relative. It’s mesmerising to think about all the hands that have worked the cask over the course of its lifespan.
It’s fascinating too that Girvan was chosen for this project rather than one of the single malts in the William Grant portfolio. The likes of Glenfiddich and the Balvenie are perhaps considered more prestigious? But as Jonathan Gibson, House of Hazelwood marketing director, notes later, “some of the rarest whiskies in Scotland today are old grain whiskies”.
Girvan might be a workhorse — not just for the company’s blends, for the industry too — but it’s real, it’s down-to-earth. And its continued investment from the Gordon family has been a thread that’s run through the last 60 years. Even now, in what many consider to be a Scotch downturn, a massive expansion project is under way to near-double output. But these vast quantities of whisky get almost all used up in blends. Very little is held back to mature into the wondrously complex whiskies we know aged grains can be.
In a surprising parallel, Gibson links the One for the Next project and Once Upon a Time in Shaolin, the studio album by American hip-hop collective, Wu-Tang Clan. It took six years to craft, and then just one copy was pressed. The plan was for it to be released in the year 2103. To cut a long but engrossing story short, that one copy was eventually acquired by a group of NFT collectors and artists. They turned a five-minute sample into an NFT available for sale online for US$1. Every purchase brings the release date forward by 88 seconds. At the time of writing, it will be another 77 years and 219 days until it is released.
But before this, a small group of journalists were invited to experience the album. That’s what Gibson likens this evening to. We are now in the sumptuous surrounds of Hazelwood House, the real-life Gordon family home that the brand takes its name from. The big reveal was coming. “The whole premise was that there’s this amazing piece of music,” he explains. “The idea is that you take it and then you lock it away. It’s not for the people who are around today, it’s for the people around in the future.”
Before we taste the 60-year-old whisky, Gibson takes us on a tour of the garden at Hazelwood — incidentally, the name of another House of Hazelwood expression. Among the hedges and herb gardens, drinking in the views across Speyside, there’s another link between the Gordon family and One for the Next. Here, in a recent storm, an elm tree was blown down. Local cabinet maker Paul Hodgkiss came to the house and used that wood to craft the cabinets that will hold each of the 25 collections. The cabinet is stunning, with an unusual sliding door time capsule mechanism so that just the right amount is open at once. That’s hard to achieve when the collection has to wait decades for completion.
“I think it's completely unique in terms of how it connects the people that buy it to this house and this family,” Gibson noted. “You know, it is a 40-year project to complete this set. For some people, they'll think, why on earth would I want that? But others, they'll think ‘40 years brilliant’.” He smiles. “So it's not for everyone, but you know, it’s for the people that get it.” It’s also for the intrepid. As he’s clear throughout, there are no guarantees that the whisky will reach that century mark.
There simply has never been a project like this in whisky. A collection that spans a generation, that culminates in a 100-year-old single grain. There have been unprecedented challenges, too, including a legal one. How do you prove who has first refusal on a whisky being released decades from now if the original purchaser dies? Paperwork has been drawn up to capture the complex nature of legacy in contract form.
We gather to taste the 60-year-old whisky just before dinner. Our group is completed by Dennis McBain, the retired Glenfiddich coppersmith who joined the company in 1958, before the 60-year-old whisky was even distilled. Ian MacDonald is there too. Alongside Meikle and Gibson, plus archivist Andy Fairgrieve, there’s now the new guard. And then the whisky is poured.
My first impression is of bright berries, raspberry and strawberry, as well as green apples served alongside shortbread. There’s butter icing too, and flapjack, pistachio, and a summery cut grass note. The intricacies run deep on the palate, with chicory, dusty florals, and walnut set in the silken texture. The detail stretches long into the finish, with a smattering of black pepper coming through aromatic oak and honeycomb. It’s delicate and ethereal, but never shy. It is exceptional.
It really is also about family. “My uncle died in 2013 and that left a bit of a hole,” says Meikle. From the history and romance of Glenfiddich and Balvenie down to the industrialised powerhouse of Girvan and now to the detail of House of Hazelwood, the legacy runs deep through the business. But it’s here, in One for the Next, that the themes of family and the passage of time resonate most strongly. “To be able to do this, it kind of fills that hole a little bit.”
Tasting Girvan 1964 60 Years Old One for the Next
By Kristiane Westray
Nose: The nose opens with buttery, popcorn, and fudge notes, alongside the buoyant sweetness of white chocolate. Cinnamon, liquorice, and cola cube sweets add a grounding element, before raspberries, strawberries, green apple, and butter icing arrive. Magnolia florals, pistachio, and hay add complexity.
Palate: Dense and rich but also delicate, apple strudel and sweet pastries bring a dessert-like element. Dusty florals are reminiscent of traditional beauty counters, while walnut, almond, and crisp vanilla pods bring warmth. Tropical fruits arrive later, along with honeycomb, all set in a silken texture.
Finish: Long and intricate, with drying aromatic oak, black pepper, and a touch of earthiness.
