A Wolf, a Weapon & Whisky
In Legend, it is written that the younger son of the Robertson Chief of Struan saved the life of the King from a savage wolf using only his sgian-dubh.
The King gifted him with land in Aberdeenshire which he named Sgian, or Skene, in honour of the weapon. The family thereafter took the name of the land.
In the early 1800s the same land became infamous throughout Scotland as the route for smugglers, and their clandestine transportation of whisky from the Highland Distilleries to the lowlands.
As a result, the name Skene has been inextricably linked with whisky for two centuries and we continue that proud tradition today.
Sourcing Whisky
In the centuries over which the Skene name has been associated with whisky, surprisingly little has changed, particularly finding high quality, aged single cask spirit. In 1822 King George IV visited Scotland, and even he found it difficult to source whisky that was “lang in wood, lang in corked bottles and true contraband”. Eventually some was found for the king in a private store, inaccessible to all but the very select few.
Today, accessing rare aged scotch remains just as difficult. Which is why, over the past decades, we have worked very hard to build up a network of whisky professionals who come to us to sell and buy unique single casks. Some are held or sold as full casks, but when we see something really special, we create very limited editions to sell to the wider market.
Of course, scotch need not be rare and expensive to be of high quality, and we don’t just focus on those whiskies. We do however focus on that pursuit of excellence, which combined with our long experience of the market, informs all of the whisky we sell. From younger, blended malt through to 40 year old casks, we ensure that whatever whisky carries our brand, carries the same dedication to quality and attention to detail that our heritage demands.
