Greg Dillon of GreatDrams and Tom Mills of Malt of The Earth Whisky Company have each enjoyed success with their offerings both regionally and nationally for over a decade. They thought it was high time that they worked together and in conjunction with award winning Liverpool-based architectural studio, Studio MUTT, their vision has become realised.

Between the duo, they have tasted, written about and bottled an almighty array of thousands of Scotch Whiskies to date. Their first collaborative release is a 9 year old sherry cask-matured single malt from the Benrinnes Distillery in Speyside, with only 100 bottles being produced. “We thought it was high time that we worked together and the first fruits of our labours are in your hands. Here, we have a whisky that has spent 8 years maturing in a second fill Oloroso sherry cask before spending a secondary maturation of 10 months in a first fill Oloroso sherry cask,” said Greg Dillon.

Award winning Liverpool-based architects Studio MUTT were commissioned as designers for this edition. Their striking and colourful abstraction of the Benrinnes Distillery is depicted on the label that wraps around a lavish, heavyweight square bottle.

Tom Mills, Director of Malt of The Earth said: “Greg and I have been heavily immersed in the Scotch Whisky industry for over a decade now and it seemed like the perfect time for us to work together. We’re both incredibly passionate about the whisky/whiskey categories as a whole and this first joint bottling represents the culmination of our experience in many ways. We’re incredibly pleased with this first release which is the result of careful cask selection and management.”

With so few bottles being produced and demand for the offerings of both North West companies being high, those keen should move fast to secure a bottle.Greg adds that “this cask has a phenomenal story behind it too; originally it was destined for a China exclusive release, but when Covid hit I felt it would make sense to pivot and instead fill half the original Sherry butt into a first fill Oloroso Hogshead I had made especially for this whisky, then left it for a longer-than-you-probably-should amount of months for the finish to take hold and perfect this awesome whisky”.