Bowmore’s Queen Cask 1980 Bottlings

A cask at Bowmore was filled in 1980 to commemorate Her Majesty the Queen’s trip to the Bowmore Distillery. In 2002 the Queen requested it be bottled as it was the Golden Jubilee. The limited number of bottles were deposited in cellars at various Royal Palaces as well as leaving some in Bowmore’s vault.

Currently only a few bottles have been seen in public and they have only come out exclusively at charity auction events. This means the collectability of the bottle is huge and is one of the rarest whiskies in the world.

An example of the charity events where one of these exquisite bottlings goes up for auction happened last year. Beam Suntory donated a bottle to an online charity auction, with the permission of the Royal Family, to raise money for cancer care in Scotland.

Pryce Greenow, International President at Beam Suntory, stated: “Beam Suntory is honoured to support such an incredible cause and raise awareness of the work of the Beatson Cancer Charity in Scotland. The Queen’s cask 1980 Jubilee bottling is an exceptional single malt celebrating an iconic moment in Bowmore’s distilling history. Matched by some incredible donations from the wider scotch whisky industry, we’re anticipating a record sum to be raised for this world-leading cancer charity.”