Luxury Scotch Brand Unveils 21-Year-Old Whisky Alongside Fashion Designer and Gender Fluidity Champion Harris Reed

Designer Harris Reed deep at work designing the labels for Royal Salute’s latest release within the brand’s Fashion Collection. (Photos: Royal Salute)

Luxury scotch brand Royal Salute announced the launch of Royal Salute 21 Year Old Harris Reed Edition as the latest release within the brand’s Fashion Collection. Reed is a celebrated designer who currently helms the brand Nina Ricci. He is also a champion of bringing gender fluidity to fashion. The rare decanter hosts a suggested retail price of $248 and an ABV of 40%.

“I always strive to focus my creativity on magnifying what’s on the inside, and diving into the depths of Royal Salute’s unique heritage and our shared passion for craft and pushing creative boundaries became a rich source of inspiration throughout our collaboration,” Reed said in a news release. “Luxury is something to collect and treasure, and I am so delighted to share such an exceptional whisky that can be enjoyed and talked about around the globe.”

The 21-year-old blend is the byproduct of Reed’s time spent with Royal Salute Master Blender Sandy Hyslop at the distillery in Speyside, Scotland. The bottle is an eye-catching piece, with a “striking halo of feathers” featured on the label, meant to be Reed’s modern take on the royal crown.

Reed told Forbes he was inspired by previous designs of his own for the distinctive feathers on the label.

“I revisited my past shows, my VIP projects and other significant moments to distill the essence of my brand into the bottle design,” he said. “I drew inspiration from my headpieces — particularly those I created for figures like Solange and Peter Lindbergh and a more recent feathered headpiece for Beyoncé.”

The bottles with their designed labels.

As for the juice inside, the 21-year-old scotch is balanced with sherry-matured Braeval whisky, which Royal Salute says has plenty of aromas of raisin and spice. The brand shared that he selected these flavors because they reminded him of specific moments from his childhood. The spirit is a marriage of malts that rested in American oak barrels for added fruit and sweet flavor. Grain whisky was added before the spirit finished in charred virgin oak, with layers of vanilla and a luxurious creamy texture.

The scotch whisky brand owned by Chivas Brothers shared that Reed designed a fashion collection that features three looks inspired by the scotch decanters, with matching custom headpieces. The looks were meant to “signify a new royalty coming to power in a theatrically magical way.” The scotch brand hired Ruth Hogben — a female director — to capture this journey and hired the supermodel Erin O’Connor to wear the looks.

The launch of Harris Reed’s scotch lines up with London Fashion Week, which begins Friday.

In April, Royal Salute unveiled the sixth release within the brand’s Polo Collection, another 21-year-old whisky. The scotch was matured in a mixture of first-fill bourbon and rye casks, which was the first time the brand ever chose an “all-American” mixture of oak for its maturation process. The whisky was housed in a flamingo pink flagon, meant to celebrate Miami, Florida.

Royal Salute 21 Year Old Harris Reed Edition Tasting Notes, Via the Brand

Nose: Red apples, hazelnut praline, cinnamon and sweet toasted oak.

Taste: Creamy vanilla fudge, raisin, gooseberry jam, ginger.

Finish: Rich, complex and spicy.

Here at The Daily Pour, we do more than write about current events in spirit. We are the only media property reviewing spirits and aggregating the scores and reviews of other significant voices in the spirit world in one place. If you’re interested in getting a shot of spirit in your morning email, sign up for our Whiskey Deal of the Day Newsletter