New whisky honours forgotten Fife princess

The Winter Queen, the latest creation of the Fusion Whisky and Adelphi partnership that celebrates historical Scots, honours the legacy of Elizabeth Stuart, who it is thought was born in Falkland Palace in 1596.

The Scottish princess was the eldest daughter of King James VI and I, and goddaughter of Elizabeth I, who she was named after.

Fusion Whisky director Graham Langley said: “Elizabeth’s story is a superb one, and certainly deserving of a wider audience.

“Our Winter Queen whisky serves to honour this forgotten Scottish princess and to bring greater awareness to her remarkable life and influence.”

At 16 Elizabeth was married to Elector Palatine Frederick V and moved to Bohemia.

However, after less than a year the couple were forced to flee Prague, earning them the moniker of the Winter King and Queen.

Elizabeth spent the next 40 years living in The Hague, campaigning for her lost lands.

Dr Nadine Akkerman of Leiden University, a leading authority on Elizabeth Stuart, said: “More politically cunning than her grandmother, Mary, Queen of Scots, and more belligerent than her godmother, Elizabeth I, she never relinquished the title Queen of Bohemia, even though she spent upwards of 40 years in exile in The Hague after but a year in Prague.”

She added: “During her years in exile, she changed court culture in the Netherlands and was matriarch to a family that included artists, warriors, natural philosophers and one queen mother: George I was her grandson.”

The Winter Queen is the third character-led blend of international whisky launched by Fusion Whisky, in partnership with Adelphi.

Last year the firm released E&K whisky, in honour of the ‘Walking Viceroy’ Victor Alexander Bruce, 9th Earl of Elgin and 13th Earl of Kincardine.

The whisky was created using Scotch from Longmorn and Glenrothes distilleries, blended with malt whisky from the renowned Dutch Distillery Zuidam.