CHIVAS ULTIS 5 GENERATIONS

OVERVIEW

How do you celebrate 5 generations of blending excellence and the gentlemen who have mastered the art of blending the signature house style? When you are Chivas Regal, you simply do it with style, introducing; Chivas Regal Ultis. In the same pioneering spirit with which the Chivas Brothers set out over a hundred years ago, the House of Chivas launched their first blended malt whiskey.

Five of Chivas Regal’s most precious single malt whiskeys from their Tormore, Longmorn, Strathisla, Allt A’Bhainne and Braeval distilleries are masterfully brought together into this luxurious and refined blend. Each of the single malt’s is there to represent the five generations of master blenders, and only one percent of Chivas’s cask collection is used in the Ultis blend.

Chivas Regal Ultis (a combination of ‘Ultimate’ and ‘Fortis’) is a celebration of all the above, and now that you have this wonderful whiskey how do introduce it to the world in a way that will allow people to truly appreciate it in all its sensory glory?!

Again, when you are Chivas Regal, you simply do it with style and call in Kitchen Theory 😉

THE CHALLENGE

In October 2016, Chivas Regal debuted the first blended malt whiskey in the brand’s history: Chivas Regal Ultis. As a premium product, Chivas wanted to create a series of experiential events that would be worthy of the whiskey’s history and prestige.

When the House of Chivas approached Kitchen Theory to launch their premium and first ever blended malt whiskey their main objective was to design a mentoring session or a senseploration which would allow a select number of hand picked members of the press to experience the luxurious product and brand with all of their senses through a series of global multisensory tasting sessions guided by Chef Jozef Youssef.

THE DEVELOPMENT

Our first step was to understand each one of the individual single malts and what they contribute to the luxurious end product. We found that each of the single malts and their individual unique characteristics of colour, aroma, body and taste were combined through the delicate art of blending to create a perfectly balanced product both on the nose and on the palate.

It was through understanding this blending process that the inspiration to immerse guests into being acquainted with each malt through their senses to fully appreciate the wonderful symphony they create when so skillfully blended. Our goal became to ensure those in attendance would have the opportunity to experience each of the five single malts, individually paired with crossmodally congruent aromas, textures, colours and soundscapes.

It was time to draw from the experience and talents of our collaborators, taking from Professor Charles Spence’s research into the senses and gastrophysics we designed an immersive tasting experience congruently matching each malt with an aroma, texture, tasters, coloured lighting and most notably sound. The audio tracks were composed by audio branding agency and specialists IV Group, run by our collaborator Steve Keller who also draws from Professor Spence’s research which allows him to understand the ‘sounds of tastes’.

Once attendees experienced each one of these single malts with all their senses the Chivas Regal Ultis was revealed and paired with the ‘Ultis Opus’ in which the tracks of each single malt was craftily blended into an exquisite symphony much like the exquisite blend. Watch the brilliantly produced video posted by the IV Group to find out more.