This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
Ladyburn releases ultra rare Ha Chong-Hyun edition whisky
By Shivani Dubey | 31 October 2024 | Arts, Food & Drink
Hidden from public view for more than half a century, Ladyburn is releasing an ultra rare whisky collaboration with artist Ha Chong-Hyun
If you’re in the market for some ultra rare whisky, then we have some news. Because, from the ultra-rare reserves of William Grant & Sons, hidden from public view for more than half a century, comes the release of the Ladyburn Ha Chong-Hyun Edition whisky.
This is the first Ladyburn release from the seventies, and it has resulted in a partnership with experimental contemporary artist Ha Chong-Hyun, whose early experimentalism and ‘material exploration’ helped shape the Korean Art Scene in the 1970s. Ha Chong-Hyun was born in 1936 in Sancheong, Korea, and is recognised in South Korea as one of the most important artists of the post-war and contemporary eras.
Related: 24 Hours in Westminster – A guide to London’s most popular neighbourhood
This whisky collection was born from a ‘lost-gem’ distillery, and connects the worlds of rare single malt and contemporary art through legacy and collectability. Ladyburn distillery, nestled in the heart of Girvan, Ayrshire, stood as “a beacon of industrial innovation” when it first opened its doors.
From 1966 to 1975, this establishment produced a whisky whose legacy lives on in very few precious casks, maturing on the original site. The casks distilled in the 1970s represent Ladyburn’s swansong, the final remnants of a distillery whose production ceased in 1975.
The 11 works adorning the bottles of the rare whisky have been personally curated by Ha Chong-Hyun in collaboration with the Seoul Kukje Gallery. Each bottle in the collection comprises a selected piece from his ‘Conjunctions’ series, which showcases Ha Chong’s unconventional artistic technique that became his signature.
Related: Mortlach distillery appoints creative director, Philippe Starck
Speaking about the new launch, malt master Brian Kinsman emphasised how Ladyburn is now part of an incredible legacy.
“Ladyburn is a piece of history. It’s one of those distilleries — it came and it went — but the legacy lives on in places like this where we have casks that literally tell a story of a bygone age of making whisky,” he said.
“The recent collections of Ladyburn are fascinating and this new Edition is matured in American Oak. The distillery character shines through and you get a little bit more of that Ladyburn DNA because the cask itself is not dominating,” he added.