Whisky Focus - Bimber The Spirit of the Underground Collection

London’s Bimber Distillery today unveiled 'The Spirit of the Underground' which will be an ongoing collection of single cask, single malt whiskies that celebrate the distillery’s home city's network of underground stations.

The first batch of releases in the Bimber The Spirit of the Underground Collection showcase four of the most iconic London underground stations - Waterloo; Baker Street; Kings Cross St Pancras and Oxford Circus. Each release features stunning iconography presenting a unique piece of London’s history, and comes adorned with an eye-catching label and packaging design that observes the significance of each station’s location.

The four initial releases of the collection have been matured in American ex-bourbon casks and have been bottled at cask strength and without chill filtration. Bimber tells me that each whisky reveals a highly individual, but perfectly balanced merger of aroma and flavour that reflects the passion and craft of Bimber.

With striking individual designs, each bottle in the new collection features a different station on the London Underground network - the oldest underground passenger railway service in the world. The deal was brokered by TSBA Group, Transport for London’s global licensing agency.

With 270 stations on the London underground network to select from, The Spirit of the Underground Collection could potentially be one of the largest collections of single malt whiskies ever released and the completionist whisky collectors amongst you will need to clear some space if Bimber decide to release a bottle for every station in the network and you will also need deep pockets if they do.

The Bimber The Spirit of the Underground Collection is intended to grow alongside Bimber. New expressions will be added in batches of four single casks at a time populating each of the Underground’s 11 lines and reflecting the vibrancy and multiplicity of the stations and locations throughout England's capital city.

The single cask selected for the Baker Street expression was chosen by the members of the 2020 Bimber Klub Tasting Panel – the distillery’s rapidly growing membership community.

Speaking of the launch, Bimber spokesperson Matt McKay said: "We’re delighted to unveil this exciting new partnership and the first expressions of The Spirit of the Underground Collection. As we approach the fifth anniversary of our spirit, this collaboration with Transport for London celebrates both one of the great engineering projects of the past 200 years and the ongoing development of our spirit. Bimber is very much a product of London and we’re thrilled to showcase our single malt whisky in this most incredible way."

Julie Dixon, Head of Customer Information Design and Partnerships at Transport for London said: “This imaginative collaboration really shows off the visual splendour of our historic and instantly recognisable Underground network. It’s been great to work with a London-based distillery to create this collection and we hope fans of whisky will enjoy this collection as it grows.”

Release 1 of The Spirit of the Underground Collection will be available later this month with an RRP of £125 per bottle. Release 2, which will feature four more iconic London Underground stations, is scheduled to be unveiled over the coming months.

All the expressions in The Spirit of the Underground Collection were crafted to Bimber’s exacting standards. The spirit was produced from the distillery’s single farm barley and malted on a dedicated floor at Warminster Maltings before being fermented for seven days in bespoke, on-site constructed American oak washbacks. Distillation took place in Bimber’s customised stills which possess an increased copper surface area, which results in a rich fruit-forward, layered spirit.

You will find the Bimber whisky range available from specialist online whisky retailers such as The Whisky Exchange and Master of Malt
 

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