Bowmore and Aston Martin’s Whisky Partnership Ends With a 54-Year-Old Classic

The partnership between Bowmore, the venerable Islay distillery founded in 1779, and British automotive titan Aston Martin was always a curious one. How to combine luxury cars and luxury whisky without evoking thoughts of drinking and driving? But the collaboration, which began in 2020, quickly silenced any doubters. 

A half-decade of exemplary releases combined some of the finest and rarest whiskies from Bowmore’s vaults with packaging that evoked Aston Martin’s legendary cars. The series began with the release of the legendary 1964 Black Bowmore single malt, housed in a bottle made in part from an actual piston from Aston Martin’s iconic DB5, better known as James Bond’s vehicle.

The Bowmore-Aston Martin partnership is coming to an amicable close, but they’re dropping the mic with ARC-54, the second and final installment in their ARC series. The whisky is a 54-year-old Bowmore, distilled in November 1968 — with 61.8% of the blend sourced from a second-fill European oak sherry butt, while the remaining 38.2% matured in a third-fill American oak hogshead. The whiskies were married for 18 months before bottling at a cask strength of 44.3% ABV. 

Bowmores laid down in the 1960s are famed in part for their exceptional aging qualities. Calum Fraser, master blender of Scotch whisky at Suntory Global Spirits, Bowmore’s parent company, explains, “Bowmore ages like no other. After 30 years we start to see this beautiful development of tropical fruit intensity famed by 1960s Bowmore.” 

ARC-54, Fraser says, possesses these qualities as well. “Beyond that, we see such incredible complexity and balance. Zesty citric tones and delicate floral notes flow together with salty caramel sweetness, spiced ginger, and cinnamon,” he notes. “And with this bottle, a surprising hint of herbal freshness that makes a delicious combination with the tropical fruits, the nuttiness, the toasted oak — and just in the back, you get the signature whisper of Islay peat smoke.”

Casks that can age for more than a half-century without becoming overly tannic and astringent are the unicorns of the whisky world, partly because no one knows the exact conditions needed to produce one. 

“We perhaps won’t be able to explain why the whisky possesses memorable attributes showcasing an exceptional Bowmore,” Fraser says. “But there will always be those special moments when a sample being nosed surprises and excites us in equal measure.” He notes that the casks that make up ARC-54 have been on the distillery team’s radar as standout whiskies since before he joined the brand in 2022. “The two casks, the whiskies of which have been brought together in a specific ratio to create this expression, were highlighted by my predecessors as containing whiskies very special indeed, which in the decades since have been protected and further evolved to deliver an extraordinary whisky.”

The glass-and-metal decanter is designed to be as striking as the liquid it holds, inspired by the aerodynamic form of the Valkyrie, Aston Martin’s Formula One-inspired “hypercar.” 

“What makes this bottle particularly interesting is that the design takes inspiration from both the flow of air underneath the iconic Valkyrie car, and the natural fluid forms of the landscapes and terroir of Islay,” Fraser explains. 

The metal top separates from the glass decanter via a distinctive magnetic locking system, also influenced by the Aston Martin design team. For the auto-minded whisky enthusiast, it's worth noting that the Valkyrie’s design generates approximately 1,100 kilograms of downforce, giving it a racing-like performance without being restricted to the racetrack.

This victory lap for the Bowmore-Aston Martin collaboration is the sequel to 2022’s ARC-52 release, a 52-year-old single malt distilled in 1969. That edition was limited to 100 bottles; the ARC-54 will, in theory at least, be a marginally easier to locate, with 130 bottles to be made available globally through select retailers — which means you likely won’t find one at your corner liquor store. To find out more details, including how to purchase a bottle, visit Bowmore online.