Whisky is Coming...

The Game of Thrones Single Malt Collection

The fantasy TV-series Game of Thrones (GoT) has millions of fans worldwide. The first seasons of this TV series are based on the books 'A Song of Ice and Fire' by George R. R. Martin. The filming of these books was commissioned by the US cable TV network HBO (Home Box Office).

Like with all successful films, a merchandising scene is being built in parallel with the distribution via the media. Star Wars has shown what power there is in brands. Disney bought the rights to inventor George Lucas’ life's work in 2012 for $ 4 billion. As early as December 2017, Disney's revenue was over $ 10 billion.

Change of scene. While the fictional, future war amid the stars has been captivating fans for over 40 years, Game of Thrones is about a no less fictional war that takes place in a European, medieval world. A small, interesting side note: The creators of the Game of Thrones TV series, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, will develop a new Star Wars series.

If you have a lot of fans, you also have a lot of potential for merchandising. And so GoT and the world's largest Whisky producer Diageo (Lagavulin, Talisker, Dalwhinnie, ...) joined forces to create joint actions. They launched the Johnnie Walker - White Walker, which caused a huge stir in the Whisky scene. The supernatural being White Walker from the GoT world becomes a dandy-clad Johnnie Walker in a white bottle. The two characters have little in common indeed ... unless one concedes the contents of the bottle a similarly evil intention for humans as the threat of humanity by the White Walker. That certainly was not intended. It was simply about the identity of the name (Walker) and the fact that the white label was not yet assigned by Johnnie Walker.

After this kick-off in October 2018, a whole series of Single Malt Whiskys from famous distilleries will follow. The series GoT lives from the seven royal houses that fight for the Iron Throne. As an analogy, Diageo uses seven Malt Whisky distilleries, each of which corresponds to a royal family in GoT:

• Lagavulin – House Lannister
• Talisker – House Greyjoy
• Dalwhinnie – House Stark
• Cardhu – House Targaryen
• Glendullan – House Tully
• Clynelish – House Tyrell
• Royal Lochnagar – House Baratheon

But what would GoT and this Whisky collection be, if the element that unites the royal houses - the Night’s Watch - does not have its place? The Oban distillery stands for The Night's Watch and, in contrast to the other seven bottles, carries a black label.

The author of these lines has so far watched only a few of the GoT episodes. After consuming the first season, uncut and in the original language, I was very irritated. Too big for my tender soul was the number of dead among the main actors. But there are parallels to the Single Malt Whisky series. Each manufacturing Whisky distillery was assigned a noble family with their kings and heirs. And when a bottle of Whisky is emptied (dead), there is still fresh supply of 'heirs'.

In the current GoT Whisky series, the number of 'heirs' is unfortunately limited in some Whisky distilleries. Some of the bottles are already sold out before the public launch. The quantities allocated to us already went away in a week's presale. While for the TV producer a fresh actor is cheaper than a protagonist of several years, there is no supplies at several distilleries. Thus, only the bottles of Lagavulin, Talisker, Dalwhinnie and Oban are available in larger quantities from 15 Feb 2019. Clynelish, Cardhu, Royal Lochnagar and Glendullan are likely to be out of stock for the foreseeable future. Whether there will be a new edition, possibly at the start of the new and last season, is uncertain and for me also unlikely.

Nevertheless, these bottles have a double benefit. On the one hand, they are a collector's item and, on the other hand, they are companions in terms of enjoyment when you sit in front of the monitor in the evening and watch the bloodshed.

Does it all make sense? The question does not really arise to the connoisseurs of taste or appearance. The selected Single Malt Whiskys of the famous distilleries are an enrichment of the Whisky world and two new, interesting bottles of the distilleries Lagavulin and Talisker are a nice emotional balance to a fictitious regicide.