Glenfiddich Gallery Offers Semi-Customizable Very Rare Scotch Bottlings

We all love a good glass of Scotch, right? Of the various whisky distilleries out there producing this fine spirit, one of the most liked of them all is Glenfiddich. This distillery is known for producing some rare drams, sone of which are down right expensive. Now, in a move that is rather unique to the whiskey industry as a whole, those behind Glenfiddich have launched a new website giving drinkers access to semi-customizable rare and unreleased single malts that can be purchased directly from the distillery.

This new online portal, known as the Glenfiddich Gallery, launched this week with a range of 40 limited edition choices to select from. Esquire reports this portal currently only allows for ordering from UK customers, sadly, but there is still a lot on the website for the rest of us to play with and perhaps drool over as you take look at some of the very rare whiskies available from the vaults of this distillery.

Of the 40 whiskies up for purchase, 36 are semi-customizable online (the other 4, owing to how expensive they are, get white glove treatment should you buy one). What this means exactly is that you can use the site’s “Taste Profiler” to help in choosing the best Scotch for you based upon taste information you provide in some online questions prepared by Glenfiddich master distiller Brian Kinsman.

These questions, for example, ask if you prefer lighter white wines or more robust red ones, prefer citrus fruits or ripe summer fruits, what the level of spiciness of your food typically is and whether for desert you prefer cheese (savory) or something more sweet. You use a drag bar to rate your answers along a graphic associated with each question, and based upon your answers you see what your flavor map looks like as well as which of the whiskies are best suited to your tastes.

After choosing a whisky you can customize the bespoke packaging that comes with your bottle, choosing such items as colors, the name of your whisky on its label and messaging for a copper plaque set on the box. There’s also an “inspiration gallery” to help you get started with color schemes if you are unsure.

Should you want to skip the whole taste profiler thing, you can also just choose a whisky from the range and go from there. As I had mentioned earlier they are all very limited edition, including the four ultra rare ones that date back to 1958 in terms of when they were put into barrel. And, speaking of barrel, all types of casks are represented amongst the choices, including sherry butt, refill hogshead, bourbon barrel, rum cask and more.

In terms of pricing, the low end starts at £390 ($611) and ranges up to £100,000 ($156,485). This is truly a bold and interesting experiment to see Glenfiddich trying in creative curation of its older stock and it will be fascinating to see if it sets a new trend in how distilleries interact with their customers.