80 Whisky Magazine | Issue 161WORDS JOE BATEST
he UK flag carrier
is partnering with
InchDairnie Distillery
to create a new whisky
to mark the airline’s
centenary, but don’t expect it to be
ready for a while
Data breaches, IT meltdowns, strikes
and the much-mourned loss of free
onboard meals and drinks, the last
few years has seen British Airways’
(BA) once envied public image take
a severe bashing. As for the airline’s
long-standing High Life shopping
programme, I have also been critical of
BA’s onboard spirits offer, which has
played it safe with often quite frankly,
boring middle-of-the-road-choices.
Yet I must give credit where credit’s
due, BA has celebrated its centenary
in 2019 in style by partnering witha range of British suppliers such
as Edinburgh-based gin distiller
Pickering’s, Kent winery Chapel Down
and Scottish craft brewer BrewDog
to create an assortment of genuinely
appealing exclusive products. The
airline also partnered with Fife-based
craft whisky distillery InchDairnie to
produce a commemorative dram, but
it won’t be ready for passengers to buy
until 2031.
The spirit is set to be matured for 12
years at InchDairnie in a hybrid cask
type: an American oak ex-Bourbon
cask with cask heads from a French
oak cask that previously aged red wine.
The use of American oak is a nod to the
many transatlantic flights BA puts on
every day, while the French oak cask
is a tribute to the first flight operated
by AT&T, the forerunner company oftoday’s BA, which first flew to Paris in- The whisky, which is expected
to run to 300 bottles, will be sold
exclusively to BA customers in 2031.
InchDairnie has also created a
Centenary Cask programme, which
will be showcased at BA’s luxurious
new First Lounge at New York’s JFK
Terminal 7. Twelve casks are being
offered exclusively to BA customers
from May to September this year; each
cask will have its own flavour profile
and buyers will get the chance to see
and taste how their spirit develops
during the 12 years of its maturation.
If 12 years seems a long way off, you
could always try buying a bottle from
BA’s existing High Life selection, which
has improved in recent times with the
introduction of several GTR exclusives.
Among them is Bowmore 18 Years Old
INCHDAIRNIE ONBOARD
New British Airways whisky will take flight in 2031
080-081-Travel-Retail-WM161.indd 80 26/06/2019 15:02