During his visit, the President met with the most successful Portuguese citizens abroad, to congratulate them on their achievements. Tiago was personally invited by the President and spoke with him, Portuguese ambassadors and top ranked state representatives about his work with The Craft Irish Whiskey Co. The President praised Tiago’s successes, awards and recognition, as well as the recent opening of The Craft Irish Whiskey Co.’s design department in Lisbon, which has brought jobs and opportunities to the country. He also praised Tiago’s return to Portugal, bringing a skill set obtained abroad and passing that knowledge to Portugal’s young designers. 

Commenting on the meeting, Tiago Russo said “It was an absolute honour and a privilege to be invited by the President himself, and to be able to speak to him and some of the highest Portuguese representatives about my career so far; design, awards, whiskey and the added value of using my skill set and know-how to bring it back to Portugal and further develop the design field in my native country. This truly represented a unique moment in my years as a designer, and one of the highlights of my career, to see my own work highly recognised by my country.”

Tiago’s personal invitation from the President of Portugal came after his recent wins at the prestigious A’Design Awards; a perfect score to win Platinum for The Emerald Isle, a Gold for The Taoscán – only the second single malt to win Gold, the first being The Devil’s Keep – and a rare Limited Edition award for The Aodh. These unprecedented wins made Tiago Russo the world’s number one designer and his personal invitation from Portugal’s President, his Excellency Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, was recognition of this achievement. 

Tiago Russo is the world’s number one luxury product designer, with an exceptional award-winning portfolio that includes the world’s most respected brands. This impressive portfolio spans the luxury lifestyle domain from spirits to cosmetics, automotive to timepieces including: The Macallan, Dewars, The Dalmore, Craigellachie, Bacardi, Louis Vuitton, Patek Philippe, Coty Inc. and McLaren, to name a few. His background is in supercar design and he cites Pagani as an inspiration.

As Gary notes, Jay started on a high with the sale of the company’s inaugural release, The Devil’s Keep, at auction for a record-breaking $60,000 in 2020. But it was The Emerald Isle that, in Gary’s words, went stratospheric. The first collection attracted record-breaking interest at auction in March 2021 with bidders clamouring to own the world’s rarest and oldest triple distilled single malt. When the hammer finally came down, The Emerald Isle had fetched a staggering $2,000,000, making it the most expensive whiskey in the world. But a collection soon to be auctioned is expected to reach $3,500,000. The article points out that Jay didn’t intend to start a whiskey company, but his past experience brought him to this point. From owning a bar in New Zealand to taking part in world championship BBQ competitions, his experience with spirits and wood have come together to result in world-class, world-record-breaking, and World Whiskies award-winning single malts. It’s this experience, and an obsessive drive for perfection, that have led him to create the innovative methods of maturation that have produced whiskeys such as The Devil’s Keep, The Emerald Isle, The Brollach and now, The Taoscán. 

Released on St Patrick’s Day 2022, The Taoscán is a blend of single malt finished in French Oak casks that once held Tawny Port, and virgin French Chestnut casks. Not only is it the first whiskey of its kind in the world, it’s also the first of our whiskeys to be available by the glass at 5* establishments such as The Ned, The Hand and Flowers and Frog by Adam Handling. With only 1,000 Collector’s Editions released for sale to the public through our website, and just 3,000 available to bars and restaurants, this is yet another of our award-winning whiskeys that won’t be around for long. 

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