La Maison du Whisky was founded in Paris in 1956, and it's no exaggeration to say it built the French — and much of the European — market for single malt Scotch. Its 1977 catalogue already listed 150 labels at a time when most distilleries still sold their malt to blenders; a 1978 distribution deal with Gordon & MacPhail made it the continent's gateway to independent bottlings. In 2011, LMDW stepped behind the cask itself and launched the Artist series: the house's own independent bottlings, and among the most coveted in the world. The idea came from longtime team member Marlène Léon, and it was deliberately disruptive for a tradition-bound category — pairing micro-selections of exceptional single casks with label artwork by up-and-coming visual artists, in a style that nods to the cult Italian bottlings of the 1960s and '70s. Every release is bottled at full cask strength, non-chill filtered, natural color, in tiny quantities that often run under 200 bottles from a single cask. The selections span the map: 30-year Auchentoshan, decades-old Bunnahabhain found in the back of a Signatory warehouse, Ben Nevis, Clynelish, Bushmills, plus rums, Armagnacs, and Cognacs. A new Artist collection arrives each year, and a dedicated Artist #11 series was created exclusively for the American market — five cask-strength single malts chosen by the team that taught Europe to drink Scotch.

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