A flurry of snowflakes, set against a backdrop of tinkling sleighbells heralds in the festivities: the season of conviviality has arrived. As casks slumber deeply in the snowy landscape of Speyside, we gather, sharing gifts as tokens of our love and appreciation for the year gone past. Ensure you make the mark this Christmas and prepare to delight with the House of Hazelwood whisky gift guide.
The festive season is a sensory spectacle. Twinkling lights adorn fir trees, garlands drape fireplaces and stockings hang, diligently waiting to delight their owner. It is a season of indulgence, with lashings of dark fruits, chocolate, Christmas cake and more welcoming everyone for just one more bite or drink. Christmas classics hum lowly in the background, and the conviviality of reuniting with friends and family adds to the seasonal soundtrack, with peels of laughter set against a backdrop of carollers and brass bands.
A current of excitement builds over the weeks, before a moment of calm on Christmas Eve. The excitement of anticipated gatherings the next day holds is palpable, so much so, you can almost feel the jingle of sleighbells in the air.
At last, the seasonal celebrations - dipped in notes of cinnamon spice, roasted chestnuts, and sugar mice - build to one magnificent crescendo: Christmas Day, a day to cherish making memories in the company of our dearest loved ones.
From exchanging gorgeous gifts to indulging in a feast fit for royalty, this is one occasion that expense is rarely spared. Make this Christmas one to remember and mark the occasion with a bottle selected from our carefully curated whisky gift guide.
Get into the festive spirit with Spirit of Scotland
From rip-roaring ceilidhs to joyful parties, the festive period is often a time for returning to long-standing family traditions. Enter, the Spirit of Scotland, a 46-Year-Old Blended Scotch Whisky, which is as vibrant in its expression of flavour, as it is respected due to its incredible provenance and heritage.
The embodiment of whisky making traditions, this exceptional expression was first blended in 1994 to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the oldest reference to Scotch Whisky, before embarking upon an unconventional further maturation of no less than 28 years. The resulting Scotch Whisky is remarkable: a warming character of syrup, treacle, and home baking, offset against a backdrop of lemon pie – the whisky gift made for the life and soul of the party.
Welcome family home from travels afield with The Transatlantic
If there is one season to prompt the journey back to our respective homelands, it is the festive season. For many of us, it is the opportunity to reunite with old friends and family who we would rarely gather with otherwise. In the spirit of the pilgrimage home at Christmas, we turn our sights (and palates) to The Transatlantic, a 33-Year-Old Blended Grain Scotch Whisky.
Celebrating the ties between American and Scottish whisky making, this expression is a tribute to the transatlantic route forming a spiritual connection between the two lands, bringing home the best of Bourbon characteristics, tempered by whisky making techniques.
Expect intensely sweet spices, imparted from an eight-year finishing period in Virgin Oak casks, underpinned by rich buttery popcorn, drizzled in golden syrup and candy corn, with a hint of fresh oak. The ideal whisky gift for the well-travelled.
Enjoy the comforts of home with The Garden at Hazelwood
The roaring fire. Your favourite glass, tinkling as drops of golden amber fall to the bottom. A candle flickers upon the table. At long last, a moment to sink into your spot, admiring the festive décor laid on display. There really is nothing quite like the comforts of home at Christmas, especially for those whose lives whisk them away for months at a time.
The Garden at Hazelwood, for House of Hazelwood’s founders, the Gordon family, is such a cherished sanctuary for those returning to the ancestral home. On wintery visits, the budding flowers and fruits of the garden are long under the spell of dormancy, but a new frosty guest offers much beauty, enveloping the grounds in dew drop crystals, cold to the touch, but offering a comforting crunch under winter boots, putting to sleep the flora and fauna, an essential process to guarantee the revival of slumbering bulbs, corms, and rhizomes for the following season.
Those seeking home comforts need look no further than The Garden at Hazelwood, an appropriately named 47-Year-Old Blended Malt Scotch Whisky, abundantly fragrant and herbaceous, crafted in homage to the Gordon family home.
A brush of light lavender transitions into a bountiful earthy harvest, orchard fruits and perfumed Parma violets. Freshly cut grass alludes to the coming Spring days, with a chilling breeze of mint bringing a reminder that winter is here for now. The perfect whisky gift for the heart of the family.
Celebrate another year past with The Long Marriage
The conclusion of the festive season gives many of us pause to reflect on the year gone past – the lessons learned, the stories shared, and the journeys made. The passage of time shapes us as individuals, moulding our habits and quirks in day-to-day life, evolving us into better people, ready to take on the year ahead.
There is perhaps no expression greater at representing this passage of time than that of The Long Marriage, a 56-Year-Old Blended Scotch Whisky. Witness to over half a century of change, this exceptional expression has slumbered in a single sherry butt, only to awaken as an incredibly indulgent Scotch Whisky – the characterisation of how time can manifest progress.
Take a step back into the past and experience an evocative nose of candle wax, paraffin, and Victorian stately homes, underpinned by the generous decadence of a grain whisky character. The palate is vibrant and spicy, offering up sweetly cinnamon finish. The whisky gift for the changemakers.
The House of Hazelwood 2024 Festive Whisky Gift Guide
As custodians of some of the world’s rarest and oldest whiskies, any bottle selected as a whisky gift from our stocks is certain to delight the recipient. Delve into the deeply decadent with the Charles Gordon collection or explore the distinctly unusual within the Legacy collection. Why not explore our 2024 releases, and uncover your next exceptional expression in time for the festivities?
