The Collection Chronicles Part 2
To celebrate Whisky Month, we have launched The Collection Chronicles, a series exploring interesting stories about The Diageo Claive Vidiz Scotch Whisky Collection, housed here at The Scotch Whisky Experience. If you visit us and take one of our tours, or private experiences, you will be lucky enough to see The Collection first-hand. Make sure you look out for some of the bottles we highlight in this series.
For a bit of backstory: In the 1970s, Claive Vidiz, a founding member of the Brazilian Association of Whisky Collectors, began to source and purchase Scotch whisky of varying type, cost, and rarity. Over the span of 35 years, he amassed an impressive 3,384 bottles.
In 2006, The Collection was purchased by Scotch whisky distiller, Diageo with a commitment to preserve its legacy and share it with an international audience. It was determined that this would be best achieved by locating it here at The Scotch Whisky Experience in the vibrant heart of Edinburgh.
In part 1 of our series, we explored the oldest bottles in the collection as well as Claive’s most treasured edition. In this second instalment, we invite you on a journey through some of the most unique and interesting bottles.
Celebrating 500 Years of Scotch Whisky
Starting off strong, is the selection of bottles which were entered into the 1994 International Wine & Spirits Competition to commemorate 500 years of Scotch Whisky. To honour this occasion, seven bottles were produced by seven different distillers in small quantities. Originally, Burn Stewart crafted two ceramic decanters before discovering they were intended to be glass. In light of this error, one of the redundant ceramics was gifted to Claive, the other kept by Burn Stewart. Remarkably, this is the only collection in the world with all eight bottles. The Scotch whiskies are as follows: Burberry’s, Friar John Cor, Heritage, Morrison Bowmore 25 years, The Quintessential, The Spirit of Scotland 500 years, Whyte & Mackay 500 years and Burberry’s Ceramic.
Jubilee Collection
Gordon & MacPhail’s full collection can be found within these cabinets, launched to commemorate the Queen’s Silver Jubilee in 1977. Impressively, it is extremely rare to own the complete set!
Royal Salute 40 year old Baccarat Decanter
Adding to the remarkable collection, is the 500 ruby Baccarat crystal decanters which were bottled to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth’s Coronation. This very edition is number 89 with the dates of the Coronation proudly listed on the front.
A regal piece of history!
Isle of Jura 22 year old
This was the first bottle of Jura that was produced on the island under management of Willie Tait in 1986. Invergordon had recently taken over the company and during this transitional period, had discovered a cask. It was soon uncovered that this belonged to Mrs Prosser who was part of the Ferguson family that founded the distillery in 1810. Amusingly, Mrs Prosser had forgotten she had owned it, and it was agreed that it would finally be bottled. In doing so, Willie and his son, Scott, visited Mrs Prosser’s garage where they bottled the whisky straight from the cask with a case given to Willie, Mrs Prosser, friends, and family. Upon Claive’s travels to the island, he was given a bottle from Willie himself.
Glengoyne Millennium Grandfather Clock 2000 AD
This bottle was produced to celebrate the birth of the Millenium using the finest of casks of Glengoyne, the youngest of which is 30 years old. The combined edge of the married casks come to exactly 2000 years. Interestingly, the grandfather clock is made from ash and is set at 1 minute to midnight. This limited-edition collection was individually numbered and signed by Sandy Lawtie, the Distillery Manger. Out of just 2000 bottles, Claive took home number 468.
We hope you have enjoyed learning about some of the oldest and unique bottles accumulated by Claive. For the final entry in this series, we’ll be exploring our bespoke Collection experiences.