Whisky Bars Around the World: Alfresco 64

Sometimes drinking a dram in the comfort of your own home is exactly what you need. But sometimes – just sometimes – it doesn’t quite cut it. Sometimes you need something a little more sophisticated, stylish or just plain extravagant. And it doesn’t get more stylish, sophisticated or extravagant than Alfresco 64.

What’s so special about Alfresco 64?

First of all, you’ll be sipping your whisky at 800-feet. (If you’re afraid of heights, don’t give up just yet. There are a few more reasons to make you consider a trip to Bangkok…)
The bar is located on the 64th floor of a skyscraper. Not only that, but it’s been modelled on the design of a luxury yacht and juts out over the Bangkok skyline and the winding Chao Phraya river, offering incredible views to look out over as you sip a dram or two.

Alfresco 64 have also completely done away with the dark woods and Chesterfields that you’d normally associate with whisky bars. Instead, they’ve introduced a lighter, modern and fresher approach, and this ethos – of creating something new and exciting – has extended to their whisky selection too.

For starters, Alfresco 64 is the only place in the world that you can try the exclusive Chivas Regal Lebua Blend. The Chivas master blender, Colin Scott, has blended together a range of whiskies from before 1985 and from a range of casks, finalised and married the blend and then aged the blend for a further nine years in a first fill Sherry butt before bottling it at 40% abv. Oh yes. (We love whisky aged in sherry casks here at Whisky Foundation.)

Speaking of the collaboration between Alfresco 64 and Chivas Regal, Colin Scott said:

‘For Chivas Regal and lebua, this is a most exciting moment. It is a unique bottling of some of our oldest and rarest whiskies. They’ve all been distilled in 1985 or earlier, and individually hand-selected for this special blend. It was finished in a top-quality, first-fill sherry cask… and has notes of luxurious dark chocolate sweetness, liquorice and sweet toffee apples.’

Deepak Ohri, Alfresco 64’s CEO, added:

“It’s amazing. Out of this world. Who would have thought that Colin Scott would do something like that for a whisky bar? As unconventional as this blend is, so too is everything else about Alfresco 64. The design is very different – a place to really enjoy such a special blend. And we will only have 68 bottles of this whisky available.”

In addition to the Lebua Blend, Alfresco 64 also holds Bangkok exclusives over a dozen or so other whiskies, including the Yamazaki 25 and Royal Salute 38 (both of which are really rare and incredible whiskies).

To top it all off, you’ll be drinking your whisky from special glasses designed to ‘to highlight the soft hues of each beverage, intensify flavours and aromas, and chill drinks without the addition of ice’. Alfresco 64 have created a special range of tasting glasses that have been designed to include wide bowls and metal bases to chill the whiskies without diluting them with water or ice.

Is that all a little pretentious? Perhaps.

Is it also a little lofty and pie-in-the-sky? Perhaps. (Or are we just looking for an excuse to use some height-related puns?)

But if sipping a dram is all about the experience – the savouring of flavours (and we love a sherry-aged whisky here at Whisky Foundation, so the Chivas ticks that box), the feeling of elegance and the sense that you’re treating yourself to a well-earned dram – then Alfresco 64 seems to be well worth the trip to Bangkok.