ASCEND Elysia

Elysia was born of an ambition: to create the first great Mediterranean single malt, under the blazing sun and on the arid lands of Cyprus. At its origin lies a meeting between Alexandre Sakon, creator of the NEOC cask, and Aristide Aristidou, an experienced distiller recently returned from the United States. Elysia took shape on wind-swept heights, between sea and dry-stone walls. Distilled in Cyprus and crafted with exacting care at every stage, this whisky embodies the promise of a sun-drenched, ancestral South. Here, the gentleness of the climate meets the patience of the hand, giving rise to a spirit with a slow, almost mineral rhythm. The deliberate choice of an island as its place of production brings constraints that shape Elysia’s singularity. Its Kythrea barley is grown locally according to ancestral practices, then malted and roasted within the distillery itself. There, an iconoclastic still equipped with the latest technologies allows for goldsmith-like precision, adjusting every detail to capture the essence of Cypriot barley. Finally, maturation in recycled NEOC casks that previously held great wines concentrates the aromas, in a climate whose low humidity tightens the wood’s fibers. Its bespoke distillation grants a rare balance: breadth, tension, and a vibration unique to Mediterranean silence. An ode to resilience, Elysia is a return to the source—an immersion in a terroir both arid and fertile. A whisky born of an island where everything remains to be written, where the expression of the land leaves its mark unfiltered, in a raw and sincere harmony. Elysia is a breath of island air captured in a glass; a whisky that does not seek to impress, but to leave a lasting trace.