Neighbouring Glasgow venues SWG3 and The Clydeside Distillery have partnered with artist Jim Lambie to create a limited-edition whisky called Velvet Odyssey, celebrating 20 years of SWG3.
The collaboration draws on the long-standing friendship between SWG3 Managing Director Andrew Fleming-Brown and Clydeside Distillery Founder Andrew S. Morrison. The pair have known each other since childhood and now run businesses directly across the road from one another. It also builds on a creative relationship with Lambie that dates back to SWG3’s early years.
The whisky, made from Loch Katrine water and Scottish barley, was matured in first-fill bourbon barrels before spending five months in a Pedro Ximénez sherry butt. Bottled at 48.5% ABV, it has notes of tropical fruit, toffee, oak spice and dark chocolate.
Andrew Morrison said, “We had a fantastic Pedro Ximénez sherry butt and decided to re-rack some spirit from bourbon barrels. The result is a unique expression with intensity and natural sweetness – quite unlike anything else we’ve produced.”
The bottle features artwork by Jim Lambie, originally created for a 2006 Comme des Garçons pop-up at SWG3, where a Daimler limousine was wrapped in psychedelic vinyl tape.
Andrew Fleming-Brown said: “SWG3 was a very different space back then, very rough around the edges, full of potential, with car mechanics as our neighbours and the air thick with activity. When we hosted the Comme des Garçons Guerrilla Store in 2006, Jim had the idea to take one of the Daimlers from the wedding car garage downstairs and transform it with layers of psychedelic vinyl tape. It became the centrepiece – this surreal, colourful car sitting in the middle of a warehouse at the end of a dead end street. It really captured the spirit of that time. I managed to get a small piece of the car back last year, and now it’s on display at The Clydeside Distillery for the launch. A nice way of reconnecting with the early days as we mark 20 years.”
Jim Lambie added, “To see it come back to life nearly 20 years later, on a bottle made just across the road is pretty special.” He described Velvet Odyssey as “something smooth and elegant, but also a sense of movement – that each sip could take you somewhere.”
The news comes as the Clydeside Distillery opens its new whisky bar which is open to whisky tour guests and the general public. The new bar features the distillery’s classic Lowland style whiskies as well as whiskies from further afield along with feature beers, wines, spirits, soft drinks, hot beverages and light bites.
Picture credit: Christina Kernohan