Private Viewing of the Diageo Claive Vidiz Whisky Collection

[bifter]

During the summer I attended a BBQ thrown by a friend and colleague, Marco Trevisan, who's wife, Julie, just happens to be Marketing Manager of the Scotch Whisky Experience. Julie is very passionate about whisky so we soon got to chatting and sampling a few drams from her cabinet, including some stellar whiskies such as Dewar's Signature and Highland Park 30. I mentioned that I maintain a small whisky community at work and was telling her about our visit to Daftmill distillery when, quite unprompted, she offered to host a private viewing at the SWE of the Diageo Claive Vidiz Whisky Collection - the largest such collection in the world. After a consultation with my community and some emails we arranged our visit for 1st November.



The Scotch Whisky Experience is located on Castlehill at the top of the Royal Mile (on the right in the picture above) and represents the Scotch whisky industry. Some whisky enthusiasts may regard it as a 'tourist magnet' and it certainly caters for that side of the market, not least by dint of its location. Many of the visitors are foreign tourists and the 'experience' is a barrel ride through a replica distillery that covers the basics of whisky production. However the shop is very well stocked with prices that are not uncompetitive and there are very few places that one can obtain some of the more prestigious bottles on offer. Additionally the company has worked hard to provide first class dining with an award-winning restaurant, Amber, and, since 2008 there has also been the attraction of the Vidiz collection.



Our visit began in the shop where we perused some everyday bottles and some rather special ones, including some examples from the Dalmore Constellation range (top left is a 45yo retailing at £18,500). Julie told us she had worked with Richard Paterson and had been lucky enough to sample the entire collection! Also on display was the recently released Dalmore 25 (at a price of £600).



Some other bottles that caught my eye were the Chivas Regal 62 Gun Salute and a bottle of Johnnie Walker Odyssey, released to honour the journey of the company's yacht around the world and which comes, appropriately enough, in a self-righting frame. Unfortunately, befitting the name, it also comes with an epic price tag of £595!



The shop also hosts a flavour profile wheel with a difference. Each distillery profile was scientifically analysed and then located on the wheel according to its characteristics. This leads to some distilleries being in, perhaps, unexpected proximity to each other given their geographical locations and suggests that we should look beyond lazy categorisations such as 'terroire'. Alphabetically arranged buttons around the side allow one to illuminate individual distilleries on the map and thus identify kindred distillery profiles (according to the wheel Oban and Clynelish are the most balanced).



After we had browsed the shop we were led upstairs to the collection. There are many pictures online that probably give a better impression than my phone camera snaps but I doubt any are really a substitute for viewing the collection in person. There are apparently 3,384 bottles including the very popular to the extremely rare and stretching back in time as far as 1897.



Reflecting the nature both of the whisky market as it was traditionally and the international market as it remains, the great preponderance of bottles are blended Scotch with only one wall (and a further cabinet besides) containing single malts. Our browsing was accompanied by a pour of Mortlach 16.



Julie explained how the collection was established. Claive Vidiz is a Brazilian who began his working life in the mail room of the pharma giant Wellcome. He worked his way to the top of the company and was known for a love of whisky, in particular Johnnie Walker. The story goes that Whenever his staff travelled abroad they were expected to purchase bottles. Upon their return they would be remunerated and treated to a drink at Vidiz' private bar. Apparently he collected blends exclusively until a Scotsman brought him a series of single malts, whereupon he began collecting those also. Vidiz decided that he wished for his collection to remain together even after his death and began to seek a buyer who would maintain it. The collection has been described as "invaluable" and the SWE were unable to fund a purchase independently (merely to house it required an investment of £600,000 on their part). It fell to Diageo to step in and acquire it for an undisclosed sum. Vidiz himself was very happy to see the collection return to Scotland, saying "We have an expression in Brazil, 'the good son returns home', and in my view the collection is back with its family now."



The last cabinet is located in a separate function room with a bar and hosts the more unusual bottlings, ranging from Bell's decanters and McGibbons golf caddies to a bottle in a grandfather clock case! Our tour wound up in this room with some delicious canap?s served from cask staves and another dram. This time the whisky was a pour of the SWE's own 25 year old blend which retails at £100 a bottle in the shop and was blended from casks belonging to each of the stakeholders of The Scotch Whisky Experience. Some of us signed up to the SWE ambassador card, which (if I recall the detail correctly) allows you to visit the collection free of charge and also obtains a 10% discount in the shop and Amber restaurant. All in all our viewing took an hour and a half. It was extremely generous of Julie to accommodate us and she is a very knowledgeable and engaging host, our thanks go to her and the SWE for a wonderful evening!


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"Whisky is liquid sunshine."
[George Bernard Shaw]

[Quaich1]

Olie, what a great whisky adventure! Your description provided a wonderful vicarious journey along with you during your exclusive visit. I would love to see such a collection. It's like being a kid in a candy store.
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"Always carry a large flagon of whisky in case of snakebite and furthermore always carry a small snake."
W.C. Fields (1880-1946)

[albo]

Very well written up mate. It captures the evening well.

It was an excellent evening in very thankful to Bifter for arranging this and especially to Julie who made the evening die is all.

[Cuba]

I am sure it was a great evening, i was at the whisky experience a few year ago before the Vidiz Collection was there it was ok very touristy but i would visit again if i was in Edinburgh just to see the Vidiz Collection.

[Brummie]

[albo]

[Blakey]

[bifter]

[albo]

[bifter]

Here are a few promotional snaps that I have from our visit. I wanted to double check that it was OK to upload them here before posting them:

1. Exterior Shot




2. Barrel Ride




3. Sensory Room




4. McIntyre Gallery




5. Tasting in The Collection




6. VIP area of Whisky Shop




7. Whisky Shop




8. Amber Whisky Bar




9. Amber Food and Whisky




10. Amber Space




11. Castlehill Room




12. Castlehill Boardroom Set Up




13. Dining in The Collection




14. Dining in The Collection Overhead Shot




15. Castlehill by Night


_________________
"Whisky is liquid sunshine."
[George Bernard Shaw]