Get ready Game of Thrones fans, Diageo single malt whisky is headed your way, which was inspired by the acclaimed HBO series, Game of Thrones. We are all anticipating the eighth and final season of the outstanding series, but some delicious whisky should do the trick while we wait. Karla Alindahao, a contributor to Forbes, had the chance to experience a tasting this month with Diageo’s master of whisky, Ewan Morgan, who presented all eight single malts.
“A little backstory as to how these whiskies were picked: the whiskies were all picked here in New York—Scotland sent us over a large amount of samples to myself and a guy called David Graham.”
He continued saying, “We sat in a room together drinking a lot of whisky for multiple days. The room smelled phenomenal—we probably didn’t. But we walked out of there with a wish list of what we really wanted. We then got back to the team in Scotland and said, ‘Here are the whiskies we want.’ They said no and we said, ‘Please?’ And they said, ‘Okay you can have very very small amounts of it.’ And so that’s really how this project came around: us sitting in a room with a wish list of whiskies that we really wanted or whiskies that we wanted to bring into the U.S., for example a high-strength Clynelish, which is wonderful. And for the first time you guys are getting Royal Lochnagar. So the HBO partnership has really been a phenomenal one for us—and for me, specifically, because we got to take some of the best whiskies available in Scotland and bring them to the market. It’s an amazing collection we have here.”
Alindahao believes all of the expressions could have held a higher price tag, as GOT has encountered massive success. As it currently stands, none of the expressions are higher than an SRP of $70. Thanks to the considerate pricing, Diageo and HBO have the potential to sell out the limited-edition line rather quick.
Every aspect of the GOT single malts were delicately thought out, resulting in every major Game of Thrones House to have an expression dedicated to it, as does the order of the Night’s Watch. Diageo chose teams across all the distilleries involved to work with and linked with archivist Joanne McKerchar to precisely match the Houses to the histories of the distilleries. Rather than choosing a flavor to symbolize a single malt to a House, the company used distillery history and geographic location.
While many Game of Thrones fans will probably attempt to collect them all, others are faced with choosing their favorite single malt associated with their favorite House, or will they choose based off flavor? It seems the only real solution would be to purchase them all, which shouldn’t cost more than $500 plus tax.
