Glenfiddich represented a wooden cask for the “whisky of the future” 2108

14 October 2008 | By Popsop Team

The Glenfiddich Distillery in northern Scotland hosts eight artists in residency a year. They live there while creating whiskey inspired art things.

Over the past three months, Dave Dyment, from Canada, has combined the complexities of aging Scotch whisky with his own interests in the passing of time and notion of artists creating works that will not be complete until after their own lifetimes, to produce a unique concept.

In consultation with our longest-serving craftsmen, David Stewart, Eric Stephen and Don Ramsay, who have more than 135 years experience between them, the artist has buried a 500-litre cask of newly distilled Glenfiddich spirit, in the floor of warehouse 8. It is hoped burying the cask will overcome the effect of evaporation, which normally results in the alcohol strength dropping below the legal requirement of 40%abv, after about 50 or 60 years. The objective is simple – to produce a 100-year-old whisky.

25 empty presentation boxes will soon be available for sale at the Toronto International Art Fair and through the distillery Gift Shop. Buyers of this piece of art, called ‘A Drink To Us (When We’re Both Dead)’, will have to pass the wooden box and contract to their children, who in all likelihood, will also have to part with the work before a bottle is filled with whatever remains in the cask in 2108.