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Caskshare has turned to location app what3words to get round a gagging order on the provenance of its latest cask acquisition. Unable to reveal the name of the source distillery, the independent bottler has however been able to pinpoint the location of the unnameable 33YO Islay single malt (52.20%), which goes on sale on the platform today for £2,000 per bottle, using what3words address ///began.tasteful.icon.
Commenting on the release, Caskshare managing director, John Robertson, said: “In this secret bottling, we’re giving consumers an incredible opportunity to buy an extremely rare Islay malt for a fraction of what it would cost for a named release. While we are prohibited from using the distillery name, we can show where the whisky has been distilled and we’re using what3words’ innovative mapping technology to give customers transparency on its origins.”
Giles Rhys Jones, CMO of what3words, added: “It is always incredible to see the variety of imaginative ways what3words can be used: from sharing meeting spots with friends, or specifying a precise delivery location, to creatively naming a unique whisky. Caskshare’s approach of sharing the what3words address of the cask is helping to give customers a glimpse of the distillery where the whisky was made.”
As with all its single-cask bottlings, Caskshare has commissioned an individual piece of art for the label design. Working purely from the what3words address to allow the mystery and intrigue of the cask to be captured in his artwork, natural landscape painter Harry Frost has been given this commission.
Around 235 bottles will be drawn from the cask in November 2023. The sale is open to customers worldwide (£2,000 / €2,965 / $3,225) from now until 12pm on Friday 28th April at https://caskshare.com/ballot/the-unnameable-islay-gb
A cask-to-glass service, Caskshare was founded in 2019. As well as selling whiskies from 13 new-wave distilleries including Arbikie and Raasay, Caskshare acts as an independent bottler, acquiring rare single malt casks direct from distilleries to enable people to get a taste of one-of-a-kind whiskies across a range of price points that can’t be found anywhere else.
what3words is revolutionising the way we communicate location. It has divided the world into a grid of 3m x 3m squares, and given each square a unique combination of three words: a what3words address. Now every parking space, stunning viewpoint, tucked-away side passage and large building entrance has its own what3words address. For example, ///slot.friday.puff takes you to a stunning viewpoint of Edinburgh Castle. The what3words app is available in 54 languages to date, and is free to download for both iOS and Android, as well as the online map.