Inbox > July 1, 2011

Inbox is our weekly round up of whisky news and PR type material that has found its way in to our email inbox. Sadly, we cannot write full articles or do justice to every piece that we receive, so Inbox was born! It features items from around the world of whisky and is published by us each Friday. Within Inbox we will 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 if you want to. Here's the news that caught our attention this week ...
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CaskStrength > Bloggers release a whisky
Our good friends and co-London whisky bloggers Joel and Neil of CaskStrength have announced the release of their first ever whisky - Cask Strength and Carry On.  The bottling is to celebrate the blog's 3rd birthday, which was in March, and they have teamed up with the innovative Isle of Arran distillery for this release.  The whisky was distilled by Arran in 1998 and bottled in May at an age of 13 years.  It has been drawn from an first fill ex-bourbon cask (cask no.1554 to be exact!) and has been bottled at the natural cask strength of 49.9% ABV.  There are only 92 bottles and each will retail for £48.95 - it can be purchased only through online retailer Master of Malt. They are also selling 3cl sample bottles as part of their Drinks by the Dram collection for £3.95.  Click here to go directly to the product page.

Johnnie Walker > Exclusive bottles for China
Diageo, the owners of the famous Johnnie Walker brand, are close to finishing a new design concept in the Chinese city of Shanghai. They have created an interactive four storey 'whisky house' in the city, in which they will have a whisky bar, hold tastings and educate the growing Chinese consumer market about all things whisky. The project incorporates cutting edge design and part of this includes a limited edition of Johnnie Walker. This is to be presented in a Chinese white porcelain bottle, which is decorated with traditional blue ink designs and iconography (pictured, below). The designs hark back to the famous Chinese pottery from centuries ago. There are only 1,000 bottles of this 1910 Commemorative Edition whisky, which will be for sale 'by invitation only' from the house.

Port Ellen > Maltings on film
The famous Port Ellen Maltings is situated on the famous whisky island of Islay and supplies malted barley to most of the distilleries on the island.  The peaty nature of the malt is a major contributing factor to the distinct smoky style of Islay's whiskies.  Diageo, who own the Maltings plus the Caol Ila and Lagavulin distilleries on the island, have opened up the Port Ellen facility for the first time via YouTube.  The Maltings are not open to the public but this new short film shows the workings of the facility, as described by the people that work there.  It is a fascinating insight in to this often overlooked but vital part of the whisky making process.  Enjoy ...



Tomatin > Celebrate 50 years service
The independent Highland distillery of Tomatin have announced the release of a special single malt whisky.  Decades has been created to celebrate the 50 years service at the distillery of Douglas Campbell, the current Master Distiller.  He began working at Tomatin in 1961 and has done most jobs there, before becoming Master Distiller in 2008.  Douglas has created a whisky using casks from each of his five decades of service, with the oldest being from 1968 and the youngest from 2005. There is also a mix of ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks - this, plus the combination of youthful and very old whiskies has created a unique whisky.  There are 9,000 bottles available at 46% ABV and each will cost £70/€80. For further information, visit www.tomatin.com.