MALT, GRAIN & CANE Saudade Irish Whiskey 18 Year Old 2002
With every ending, there is a new beginning…
As we close out on Year 1: Foundation Year ; We at Malt, Grain & Cane, present you, Year 2 & the launch of our artist-collaboration series, the Curated Range. We will be working with various artists to incorporate their artworks into our future bottlings. We start off the Curated Range, with @WarrenKhong and a privately commissioned artwork to the @HampdenPirate, from his Portrait series.
The backstory behind the Portrait series is an introspection into one’s extent in the pursuit of beauty. In this series, the various subjects have their various parts of their face “enhanced”, such as their chins, cheekbones, and eyes. One would often wonder, how far would we go in the pursuit of beauty, through plastic surgery and other various aesthetic procedures.
The @HampdenPirate wanted to explore a different angle of this obsession over beauty; “What If… it was a third-party pursuing over beauty ( a person ) ?”
Hence, the title, Saudade 我紫在乎你 ; a play of words on a Teresa Teng’s (鄧麗君) classic, 我只在乎你 ( I Only Care About You ) , where the word “only” or「 只 」is replaced with the word for purple 「 紫 」, as both of them are homonyms (both words sounding the same).
Saudade (English: /ˌsaʊˈdɑːdə/, European Portuguese: [sɐwˈðaðɨ], Brazilian Portuguese: [sawˈdad(ʒ)i], Galician: [sawˈðaðɪ]; plural saudades) is a deep emotional state of nostalgic or profound melancholic longing for something or someone that one cares for and/or loves.
Moreover, it often carries a repressed knowledge that the object of longing might never be had again.
It is the recollection of feelings, experiences, places, or events that once brought excitement, pleasure, and well-being, which now trigger the senses and make one experience the pain of separation from those joyous sensations.
However, it acknowledges that to long for the past would detract from the excitement you feel towards the future. Saudade describes a feeling both happy and sad, and might be most closely related to the English expression ‘bitter sweet’.
Additional artwork requests include: the replacement of the signature birthmark on the cheekbone with a heart-shaped symbol; and an additional flower on the subject’s hair.
The flower is the Artist’s impression of a Tsubaki つばき flower「 椿 」, also known as Camellia Japonica, a species of camellia flower commonly found in Japan. A scentless flower that blooms beautifully & quietly, while proclaiming nothing. The flower normally blooms from early winter or spring, and usually lasts for 4-5 months, before once again, quietly shedding its petals when its time is up.
The red variant of the Tsubaki flower is often viewed to symbolise Love, Passion & Desire.
