The NED x Greg Murphy whisky release represents a collaboration between NED Australian Whisky's Sounds Of Bathurst series and Greg Murphy’s “Lap of the Gods”.

While longtime NED fans will be familiar with Sounds Of Bathurst and motorsport fans around the world familiar with Lap Of The Gods (and why Kiwi Murphy is dubbed the 'King Of New Zealand'), there might be some gaps in the Venn diagram we need to fill in.

Here's a quick explainer on both magical moments and creations, and why they fit so well together.

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Every Australian motorsport fan, and a lot of global ones, remember where they were 11 October 2003. Qualifying day for the Bathurst 1000 at the Mount Panorama circuit.

Following veteran John Bowe's excellent lap in the Top Ten Shootout, where each driver gets the track to themselves for a one-lap dash, no one was expecting Murphy to beat the time - let alone obliterate the track record with a 2:06.859.

In a 2021 article, Supercars.com's James Pavey wrote, "For all the drama of 126 seconds, the lap will stand for a lifetime, and it's not just that he took a massive bite out of his competitors' laps, or that he went below the record so emphatically.

"He did it at such a venue, on such an occasion, under so much pressure, with the lap record not broken for another seven years... Murphy's remarkable lap, and celebration, with his rivals applauding him as he cycled down the lane, stands tall above Bathurst’s most revered moments."

In a sport that is unrelentingly tribal and in 2003 was the subject of fierce Ford vs Holden rivalry, uniting the mountain was truly a biblical feat. 

Hence 'Lap Of The Gods'. 

In a rare moment where YouTube comments are worth reading, the top one on the video above sums it up: "This is like those fake stories that end 'and then everyone stood up and applauded', except it’s real."

In a career that saw four Bathurst 1000 wins, one Bathurst 24 Hour win and 21 Supercars wins... it is still the Lap of the Gods that grants Murphy his title as the 'King Of New Zealand'.

We've always tried to push the boundaries at NED. While we make a bourbon-style whisky (a corn, wheat, barley mashbill, matured in 200 litre white oak for starters), as an Australian whisky we have the freedom to push the boundaries. 

As the Official Whisky Of Supercars, a few years back the NED distilling team started thinking about what the impact of intense sound would have on maturing barrels. Particularly the guttural roar of a V8 and the gunshot-like bang of gearchanges.

Only one way to find out, right? In 2021 the distillers strapped speakers to a couple of NED barrels and blasted the in-car engine audio into them and found that it did indeed change the maturation. Those barrels became the first Sounds Of Bathurst release (see the below video).

Scaling up from 2022, and to save the ears of our distillers, we sound-proofed a shipping container and placed speakers into the floor so we could 'sound age' the barrels for longer.

If you stand inside the container while the Bathurst laps are playing you can't hear the person next to you speak but placing your hand on a barrel, you can feel it vibrate. It means that the whisky inside is permeating into the oak, but it's also being agitated and aerated.

Over the course of four years and multiple 'sound aged' products we've found this to be much more than a marketing gimmick, on average it gives our whisky richer toffee and maple notes and a deeper texture. 

Releases have won multiple medals, most notably a best-in-class and Gold Medal at the 2023 Australian Distilled Spirits Awards.

The Greg Murphy 'Drop of the Gods' certainly showcases these hallmarks, but with a particularly austere floral grain top note.   

We couldn't be more excited to partner with Greg on this release. The Lap Of The Gods was as close to perfection as we're likely to see, and while there's a lot of science behind whisky there's a touch of alchemy to it.

We won't stop innovating and pushing the boundaries in the pursuit of flavour, from the entry level to our most premium expression.