'Royal Salute' Gallery Enters Art Market… "Get Intoxicated by the Domestic 1 Bottle, 100 Million Whiskey Works"

Participation in Royal Salute ‘Kiaf 2024’
21 bottles of whiskey from around the world and 1 bottle from Korea on display
Limited edition exhibition and sale, just like gallery works
Collaboration with British artist Conrad Shawcross
’53-year Time Chamber’, a top-shaped device containing space and time, debuts in Korea
Reminiscent of the space movie Interstellar and the time movie Inception
Top-of-the-line ’62-gun Salute’ new design unveiled for the first time in Asia

Royal Salute Time Chamber by Conrad Shawcross

Royal Salute has elevated whisky to the realm of art. They collaborated with famous international artists to create special whisky bottles and released a limited edition of only 21 bottles sold worldwide. They participate in the largest art fair in Korea throughout the year, set up a booth, and exhibit their whisky works, which looks no different from other galleries. They say that the 21 bottles of limited edition whisky are 21 pieces, like a work of art. The domestic allocation is 1 piece. The price is said to be around 150 million won. At this point, you might be confused as to whether it is a whisky made like a work of art or a whisky inside a work of art.

Pernod Ricard Korea unveiled its limited edition artist collaboration product, ‘Royal Salute Time Chamber by Conrad Shawcross’, for the first time in Korea, along with the opening of ‘KIAF Seoul 2024’, the largest art fair in Korea, held at COEX in Samseong-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul on the 4th. This 53-year-old whisky, created in collaboration with British artist ‘Conrad Shawcross’, is positioned at the top of the Royal Salute brand lineup.

‘Royal Salute’ Gallery Enters Art Market… “Get Intoxicated by the Domestic 1 Bottle, 100 Million Whiskey Works”

Since only one piece has been allocated to Korea, the product displayed at the Kiaf Royal Salute booth, like other works of art, will be sold and delivered to buyers. Since 2022, Royal Salute has been carrying out the limited edition whisky artwork project ‘Art of Wonder’ in tribute to and homage to art design, a realm of infinite creativity and innovation. In Korea, the Art of Wonder project was announced through ‘Art Busan 2023’ held at BEXCO last year. At that time, 21 limited edition whisky artworks (1 domestic) were presented in collaboration with British artist Kate Maguire, and it is known that the domestically allocated product displayed at the Art Busan booth was sold for around 100 million won.

This Royal Salute Time Chamber is the second work of Art of Wonder and debuted at the art fair ‘Frieze London 2023’ held in the UK in November last year before its domestic release. Through this artist collaboration, Royal Salute sought to convey the value of its high-age whisky lineup, which is completed through respect for time and skilled craftsmanship, in an innovative and creative way. Although unfamiliar to domestic consumers, this collaboration artist, Conrad Shawcross, is a genius artist who was selected as one of the few members of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in London at a young age. He is said to be the youngest member of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in London. He is said to be famous for mainly dealing with works that cross the boundaries of science, philosophy, and art, and for expressing abstract forms of theory and phenomena through physical sculptures and installations.

Introducing Conrad Shawcross, the youngest member artist of the Royal Academy of Arts in London, England

In Royal Salute’s second art project, Conrad Shawcross is said to have focused on ‘time’. For a whisky brand that deals with maturation years, time and history are also the most important elements. This is because the maturation time of the original liquor has a decisive impact on the value of the whisky product. In fact, Shawcross is said to have visited the Strath Islay distillery in Scotland, which produces Royal Salute’s core malt. Inspired by the maturation of high-age whisky at the distillery, as well as the time that determines the quality and flavor of whisky, he completed a time chamber work composed of various art pieces.

It features a design that is reminiscent of a spinning top that has stopped. Because it looks like a spinning top, it reminds me of the movie ‘Inception’. Because the end is pointed, it cannot be stood upright like a regular whiskey bottle. The whiskey is always stored at an angle.

At the booth, Oh Yeon-jung, Pernod Ricard Korea ambassador, introduced the Royal Salute Time Chamber. “The circular glass disc that makes up the main body was handcrafted,” Ambassador Oh Yeon-jung explained, “It symbolizes the star system in the endless night sky.” She also said, “The spin and arrow-shaped crystal decanter that penetrates the center of the disc express the vector of time, which signifies directionality.”

Oh Yeon-jeong, Pernod Ricard Korea ambassador, introduces Royal Salute Time Chamber by Conrad Shawcross.

When I hear this explanation, I think of the movie ‘Interstellar’ which is about space and time. I also think of the black hole that appears in the movie Interstellar. Inception and Interstellar are both representative works of director Christopher Nolan. I thought that this collaboration artist Shawcross was a fan of director Nolan’s movies or that he may have watched director Nolan’s movies when he was making the work. Shawcross’s work style, which focuses on science and philosophy, also seems to have something in common with director Nolan.

The piece was completed with Royal Salute whisky that was aged for 53 years. The 53-year-old whisky is the oldest whisky among the original whiskies that Royal Salute possesses. As it is a blended whisky, the minimum aging standard is 53 years, and the actual blended original whisky can be considered to have been aged for more than 53 years, explained Ambassador Oh Yeon-jeong. There is also a special reason why 53 years was set as the standard. Ambassador Oh Yeon-jeong said, “Royal Salute is called the ‘Queen’s Whiskey’ because it was dedicated as the coronation whisky of Queen Elizabeth II of England in 1953.” She added, “To symbolize the year 1953 when the coronation took place, Royal Salute Master Blender Sandy Hyslop personally selected and blended original whiskies that were aged for at least 53 years from all over Scotland.”

Anti-counterfeiting RFID sticker attached to Royal Salute Timechamber by Conrad Shawcross

If you look closely at the Royal Salute Time Chamber on display, you will be interested to see that it has an anti-counterfeiting RFID sticker attached. You wonder if it is possible to counterfeit it, and what happens if it breaks during display. You will also be interested to see whether the buyer of this product is closer to being an art collector or a whisky enthusiast.

The taste of the 53-year-old Time Chamber whiskey is actually interesting, but I wasn’t interested. It’s because it’s not realistic to taste a 150 million won whiskey, so it’s meaningless. Pernod Ricard Global Headquarters and Pernod Ricard Korea introduced the taste of Time Chamber as having a rich fruity aroma of berries, sweet walnuts, and a long aftertaste of roasted oak. However, it is known that even Frantz Hotton, the CEO of Pernod Ricard Korea, has not tasted it, and executives and employees in charge of sales and marketing have not had the opportunity to taste it either. In the end, it is practically impossible to value and evaluate the taste of the whiskey itself.

Royal Salute tasting booth. Three types of Royal Salute 21 Year Old products are sold.

Instead, you can experience Royal Salute 21 Years Old as a pint, on the rocks, or cocktail at the booth. Royal Salute 21 Years Old product Signature Blend, Malt Blend, and Miami Polo Edition are sold for tasting. The pink bottle design of the Miami Polo Edition catches the eye. The strawberry milk-like pink color looks stylish. Perhaps because of the gorgeous pink color, the sweet taste and aroma felt particularly strong when I drank it. It is a taste that even people with weak alcohol tolerance can enjoy quite well. It is said that the vanilla and coconut flavors were emphasized through first fill bourbon and first fill rye cask aging. First fill bourbon and rye aging means that the original whiskey was aged for the first time in oak casks that were used to mature bourbon and rye.

Royal Salute 62 Gun Salute with a new bottle design. It is the top product in the regular lineup, excluding the 53-year collaboration product.

Along with this, the ’62 Gun Salute’ with a new bottle design was unveiled for the first time in Asia. 62 Gun Salute is the top product in the regular Royal Salute lineup. Only a limited number are produced each year using the original liquid that has been aged for more than 40 years. It is known that about 30 bottles are supplied in Korea every year. The selling price is in the 4 million won range. 62 guns means 62 gun salutes, which is the highest courtesy given by the British royal family. Looking at Royal Salute’s recent moves, including collaborations in the fields of fashion and art and the redesign of its high-end line, it seems that it is attempting to transform from a luxury brand to a high-end brand.

Miguel Pascual, Head of Marketing at Pernod Ricard Korea, said, “Through the Art of Wonder project, Royal Salute is reinterpreting the birth of long-aged whisky and introducing a new genre in the field of art, expanding its territory as a contemporary art brand.” He added, “The Time Chamber, completed as our second project in collaboration with Conrad Shawcross, is expected to provide new enjoyment not only to whisky lovers around the world, but also to luxury consumers who enjoy fine art and art collectors.”