THE Scotch Whisky Experience in Edinburgh is celebrating its 30th anniversary with the creation of an exclusive bottled blend and some special events.
Since opening in 1988, the visitor attraction has welcomed 6.8 million whisky fans through its doors and they have sampled eight million drams.
Now, the five-star Royal Mile site has released the unique 30 year old Scotch to commemorate three decades of whisky tourism in the capital.
The blend is limited to only 550 bottles, each individually numbered and visitors undertaking the Platinum Whisky Tour over the coming months will have the exclusive opportunity to sample it.
A series of events will also be running in May. These kick off this Saturday May 5 – the official anniversary of the attraction’s opening – when visitors who were also born on May 5 will be treated to a free silver whisky tour.
During May, the bar within the Amber Restaurant will be offering a unique flight of four whiskies, including one from each decade over the last 30 years.
This will include Cu Bocan 1988, Balblair 1991, Glenrothes 2001 and Benromach Organic 2010.
At the end of May, two special members of the team will be hiding a time capsule in the attics of the building which was originally built as Edinburgh’s Castlehill Primary School.
This will include a photo of the 90-strong team and a commemorative message in an empty bottle of the new blend.
The team members are general manager, Susan Morrison and head of technical, Dave Wilson who have worked at the attraction since it opened 30 years ago.
A visit by local MSP Ruth Davidson will also be taking place later this month.
Susan Morrison, director and general manager at The Scotch Whisky Experience, said: “This is a huge milestone for us at SWE and we wanted to do something truly special to commemorate.
“We pride ourselves on providing a unique experience for all our guests, whether it’s a whisky tasting or blending session, or an intimate private dining experience and we have had a huge amount of success over the past three decades.
“It’s incredible to think that we have shared some of world’s best whiskies with 6.8 million visitors from all around the globe in the past thirty years and we are very excited to see what the next thirty will bring.”
Since 2009, the Scotch Whisky Experience has undergone £8m worth of upgrades across all departments, which has included incorporating the Diageo Claive Vidiz Scotch Whisky Collection – 3384 historic bottles of whisky in a marble and glass vault.
At the beginning of this year, the attraction launched tours in British and American Sign Languages – the first attraction in Edinburgh to do so.
The addition means SWE now offers whisky tours in a total of 20 languages.
The Scotch Whisky Experience was created when 19 individual Scotch whisky companies jointly invested money towards showcasing the Scotch whisky industry to international visitors.
An interactive exhibition, not a working distillery, the Experience represents 90% of the Scotch whisky industry, making it an ideal first stop for whisky enthusiasts.
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