Luminous label lights up new whisky release

In-house designer Hannah Sneddon has created a distinctive luminous label now seen on bottles released by Cask 88 in their series of single cask whiskies sparked by Scotland’s history of witchcraft. ‘The Book of Daemonologie’ is a 13-year-old single malt distilled at a secret distillery (52% ABV, RRP £98).

Hannah’s label features an illustration inspired by the Book of Daemonologie written by King James VI, from which the bottle takes its name. This whisky is available in a limited run of 165 bottles.

The Scottish Witchcraft Series depicts the tensions between Christian and pagan beliefs which resulted in the prosecution of women throughout the 16th and 17th centuries and spotlights some of the most influential players in this dark part of history.

The latest bottling is inspired by the 1597 publication by King James VI of the same name, a tome categorising a wide variety of supernatural phenomena, based on anecdotes and dubious tales extracted under duress.

The whisky was distilled on Orkney, an island surrounded by the North Sea which experiences storms so tempestuous that King James VI was convinced they must have been summoned by witchcraft.

The first release in the Scottish Witchcraft Series, ‘The Trial of Isobel Gowdie’ commemorated the life of the 17th-century woman who gave one of the most vivid and detailed ‘confessions’, extracted over a six week period of interrogation and torture in 1662. Her descriptions have greatly impacted our modern conceptions of witchcraft.

The 14-year-old single malt was finished in a Château Lafite Brq. and distilled at the Linkwood distillery, situated 20 miles from Auldearn, the hometown of Isobel Gowdie and her husband before the fateful trial of 1662.

Cask 88 will re-open what is claimed to be the World’s Smallest Whisky Bar on Edinburgh’s Princes Street for Hallowe’en weekend from 4pm to 8.30pm on October 28, 29 and 30, offering free samples of ‘The Book of Daemonologie’. Herbalist and storyteller Amanda Edmiston (Botanica Fabula) will be there.