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Bloomsday 2025: Celebrating the Release of Ulysses Whiskey x Art, Episode 2, Nestor. Our Journey Continues...
- Paul Dubsky
- 1 day ago
- 2 min read
June 16th dawns again. Across the world, readings echo from Ulysses, glasses are raised in pubs from Dublin to Trieste, and the spirit of James Joyce stirs in books, voices and minds. Today, on this day that circles the globe like a lit match along a trail of paper, we proudly release Episode 2: Nestor, the next chapter in the unfolding story of Ulysses Whiskey x Art.
Each year, for eighteen years, a new whiskey. Each one named for an episode of Joyce’s Ulysses. Each one an homage to a different place, a different artisan, a different note in this grand polyphonic novel. This year we invite you to step into the classroom, into the stillness of thought before the storm of youth.
Episode 2, Nestor, draws on the themes of memory and mentorship, of history and hesitation. In Joyce’s novel, it is the episode where Stephen Dedalus, surrounded by schoolboys and shadows, reflects on the burden of inherited knowledge, and the hollowness of its keepers.
Our whiskey, like Stephen’s lecture on Pyrrhus and Troy, is steeped in the past but defiant of it. Aged high in the Appenzell Alps, where time moves differently and the air smells of malt and woodsmoke, our second edition in the Ulysses Whiskey x Art odyssey draws its spirit from Switzerland, a place of sanctuary, reflection and resolve.
Our partner for this release, Säntis Malt, crafted by Brauerei Locher AG, is no ordinary distillery. Since 1886, the Locher family has brewed beer in the village of Appenzell, nestled beneath Mount Säntis. When they turned their mastery toward whisky in the late 1990's, they did so with quiet innovation: maturing their malts in old beer barrels, infusing them with a deep, alpine complexity. The world took notice. Säntis Malt has since claimed gold at the World Whiskies Awards and was named European Whisky of the Year by Jim Murray’s Whisky Bible.
Säntis Malt uses Swiss-grown, high-altitude barley, cultivated specifically for its Alpine distilling needs. They source two-row malted barley from Swiss mountain regions, up to 1,200 – 1,700 m above sea level, grown in partnership with alpine farmers. This highland barley is known for its high diastatic power and robust flavor profile, reflecting the harsh mountain conditions. After malting, it's distilled and then aged in their signature used oak beer barrels, imparting both malt sweetness and complexity.
Naturally, we had to take it to the next level! Working in close collaboration with Säntis Malt, we focused our efforts on a novel, potentially impossible finish in casks from the shuttered Löwenbräu Zurich brewery. It was here, in Zurich, during the years of the Great War and again at the end of his life, that Joyce found rare stability, and where much of Ulysses was written. Zurich was where Joyce was laid to rest in 1941. It is, in many ways, the spiritual home of the book.
Further details will be shared first with our newsletter subscribers, including tasting notes, behind-the-scenes stories, and how to secure a bottle of Nestor before it’s gone. Make sure your subscribe to our newsletter to stay informed.
Welcome to the journey.
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