Welcome to Inbox, our weekly round up of whisky news and PR material that has found its way in to our WFE email. It was created as we cannot write full articles or do justice to every piece received. It features items from around the world of whisky an…
Welcome to Inbox, our weekly round up of whisky news and PR material that has found its way in to our WFE email. It was created as we cannot write full articles or do justice to every piece received. It features items from around the world of whisky and is published by us each Friday. Within Inbox we aim to write a few lines detailing each press release/piece of news/PR event that we have received and provide links, where possible, for you to find out further information.
Here is the round-up of the news from this week.
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The Islay distillery of Ardbeg have announced their latest limited edition - Ardbeg BizarreBQ. The barbeque-inspired whisky is a first for the distillery and has seen Dr. Bill Lumsden, the Director of Whisky Creation at Ardbeg, collaborate with expert griller DJ BBQ (AKA Christian Stevenson). The whisky has been created using ex-Pedro Ximenez sherry casks, plus double charred American oak barrels and extra-charred 'barbeque' casks. The limited edition is bottled at 50.9% ABV and will initially be available from the visitor centre shop on Islay and in Germany from April 3. Other global markets, including the UK, will see stock from June onwards. A bottle will cost £75.
"Ardbeg BizarreBQ is certainly a hare-brained idea, but with DJ BBQ’s help I was able to cook up something truly incredible. Puffs of charcoal and soot mingle with smoky wood and the undeniable smell of bonfire and BBQ embers linger in the background."
Dr. Bill Lumsden.
Caskshare
The whisky company of Caskshare has released four special bottlings that has seen them collaborate with artists from around the world. The Caskshare Collective Series feature specially commissioned artworks from three artists on the labels.
Collective Series 310031 'Bothy' (pictured, above right) is a 14 years old single malt from the Dailuaine distillery in Speyside. It has been matured in a single ex-bourbon cask which has yielded just 215 bottles. The artwork has been created by Evie Grace, a Scottish freelance artist and designer whi drew inspiration from drinking whisky while staying in a Scottish bothy. A bottle costs £85.
Collective Series 4033 (pictured, above second right) and 4067 (pictured, above left) both feature artwork by Somerset-based artist and screen printer Pheobe Phillips. Both whiskies are from Agitator in Sweden - 4033 is a peated single malt matured in casks made from chestnut with 180 bottles, while 4067 is a four grain whisky matured in ex-white Port casks with 310 bottles. Both are £75.
Collective Series 72013 (pictured,
above second left) is exclusive to Caskshare Collective members only. It is a nine years old blended malt and features artwork from Martha Duncan, a former student at the Glasgow School of Art. She often depicts Scottish motifs in her illustrations. All bottlings are available from
www.caskshare.com.
The English distillery of Cotswolds has announced the fourth edition in their limited edition Hearts & Crafts series - the Cotswolds Hearts & Crafts Banyuls Cask. The new whisky has experienced a full maturation in a small batch of French oak casks that were previously filled with Banyuls, a sweet dessert wine from the south west of France. It is bottled at 55.1% ABV and is both non chill-filtered and of natural colour. There are just 1,510 bottles and these will be available exclusively from
www.cotswoldsdistillery.com. A bottle will cost £95.
Glenallachie
The Speyside distillery of Glenallachie has added three new limited edition expressions to its Virgin Oak Series - the Glenallachie 7 years old Hungarian Virgin Oak Finish, 8 years old Scottish Virgin Oak Finish and 10 years old Spanish Virgin Oak Finish. Each new whisky was initially matured in American oak ex-bourbon barrels before undergoing an 18 month finishing period in the different oak varieties.
The Glenallachie 7 years old Hungarian Virgin Oak Finish features casks constructed of Quercus Petraea sourced from the Zemplén forest in north eastern Hungary. Glenallachie are one of the first Scottish distilleries to use virgin Hungarian oak. The 8 years old Scottish Virgin Oak Finish has seen secondary maturation in rare Sessile Oak sourced from the west coast of Scotland.
The 10 years old Spanish Virgin Oak has been matured in casks made of Quercus Robur sourced from the Cantabrian mountains in northern Spain. All three single malts are bottled at 48% ABV and are non chill-filtered and of natural colour. They will be available in limited quantities through specialist retailers worldwide. The Glenallachie 7 years old Hungarian Virgin Oak Finish will cost £63, the 8 years old Scottish Virgin Oak Finish £66 and the 10 years old Spanish Virgin Oak Finish £70.
"Virgin oak of varying provenance presents endless possibilities to me as a whisky maker. Exploring a variety of oak types, toasting and charring the casks to particular levels, and then closely observing the spirit development over time has been a truly joyful experience."
Billy Walker / Master Distiller at Glenallachie.
Douglas Laing & Co, the family-owned independent blender and bottler, have announced a new limited edition expression of their Rock Island blended malt - the Rock Island 14 years old Sherry Edition. As with all expressions of Rock Island, the whisky is created using single malts from Scottish islands. These include Arran, Islay, Jura and Orkney. All have been aged for a minimum of 14 years and predominantly in ex-sherry casks.
The Rock Island 14 years old Sherry Edition is bottled at 46.8% ABV and is both non chill-filtered and of natural colour. It is presented in a blue foiled tube and will be available via specialist retailers in Asia, Australia, Europe and North America. A bottle will cost £65/ $US80.
The English distillery of White Peak has announced its first permanent whisky following a successful year-long series of small batch and single cask bottlings. Wire Works Caduro, named after a brand of cable made at the Johnson & Nephew factory that is now home to the distillery, has been matured in American and French oak casks. These are first-fill ex-bourbon and ex-red wine STRs (shaved, toasted and recharred), which were filled with White Peak's lightly peated single malt.
Wire Works Caduro is bottled at 46.8% ABV and will initially be available selected specialist retailers in the UK. It will also be available from the distillery with the option to refill the bottle at a 15% discounted price. A new bottle will cost £60, while a refill will cost £51.
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