This year is one of the smaller recent collections and sees just eight bottlings. The eight have been put together to show the stories of whisky from different environments and terrains across Scotland. This incorporates a set of mythical creatures that reside in the sea, lochs and mountains and can be seen on the packaging. The 2021 collection is subtitled Legends Untold as a result. The striking artwork has been created by illustrator Ken Taylor.
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| The road leading to Royal Lochnagar |
Royal Lochnagar is a distillery in the eastern Highlands of Scotland. It is owned by drinks giant Diageo and is the smallest distillery in their portfolio with a capacity of only 400,000 litres per year. Much of the whisky produced is used for blending and Royal Lochnagar is an important constituent of Diageo's world famous Johnnie Walker range. The distillery is located close to Balmoral castle and it's proximity to the royal residence has influenced it's name and history. Originally opened in 1845 as Lochnagar, the owner invited Queen Victoria and Prince Albert to visit the distillery. They accepted and visited in 1848. Queen Victoria liked the whisky so much that she issued a royal warrant, so from then on it was allowed to be called Royal Lochnagar. More recently, Prince Charles wrote a series of stories called 'the old man of Lochnagar' and they were based in the local area and mention the distillery. These were later published and he originally made them up to entertain his younger brothers, Andrew and Edward. This 12 years old is the only regular release and independent bottlings are extremely rare due to the low production rate.
