Inbox - July 26, 2013

Welcome to this week's Inbox.  For those that have recently discovered us, Inbox is our weekly round up of whisky news and PR material that has found its way in to our email inbox. 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 news that has attracted our attention this week ...

________

Glen Garioch -Like a virgin?
Morrison Bowmore Distillers, the owners of the east Highland distillery of Glen Garioch, have announced an innovative new limited edition expression to add to the brand's growing range.  The Virgin Oak is a rarity amongst single malts as it has been fully matured in virgin ex-American white oak casks.  Glen Garioch have been experimenting with these casks for a number of years and the first were laid down for maturation in 2000.

The new expression is limited to just 6,000 bottles worldwide in the initial batch, with just 720 bottles allocated to the UK market.  It has been bottled at 48% ABV and is non-chill filtered.  The Virgin Oak will be available in specialist whisky retailers from the beginning of August at a recommended retail price of £69.99.  We attended the recent launch in London, so look out for out full review and tasting notes which will appear shortly.

Rachel Barrie, the Master Blender for Morrison Bowmore Distillers, says: "Virgin Oak matured malts are not for the faint hearted and neither is Glen Garioch. It’s a malt for real aficionados. Glen Garioch’s intense flavour means it holds up well in a new fill cask, allowing the liquid to be fully matured in virgin oak and not just finished in the barrel. Each oak barrel was heavily charred to activate the wood’s vanilla and oak spices in readiness for the maturing spirit."

Jura - Life begins at 40?
The distillery on the isle of Jura have announced that they will be releasing a 40 years old expression of their single malt at the start of 2014.  However they are giving fans a chance to try a sneak preview sample of the whisky, named The 39 and Three Quarters,  by sharing the video below on Facebook and Twitter.  The video features a creative illustration of the distillery and the new expression, including tasting notes, and is drawn by Robbie Brown Shoes of The Puck Collective.  For more information, please visit www.jurawhisky.com.

Willie Tait, the Global Brand Ambassador for Jura, comments “This is certainly the first time I have ever seen a tasting brought to life with images rather than words. Robbie has done an amazing job of capturing my notes on the new malt and summing up the experiences. However, anyone wishing to snap up a bottle of the Jura 40 year old will have to wait a while longer, as it’s not scheduled to be released until spring 2014.”

Lagavulin (part 1) - Apprentice selected
It is not just Lord Alan Sugar that has recently selected a new apprentice ... some months ago, we reported on a competition that offered the chance to spend a day with Iain McArthur, the Master Distiller of Lagavulin distillery on the isle of Islay.  The winner from over 100,000 entries was John Parkinson from Newcastle, England and he has just had his day doing "the best job in the whisky world".  Iain showed John the ins and outs of whisky production which included cutting peat, distillation and warehousing.  Below is a short video of John's day as The Lagavulin Apprentice ...

Lagavulin (part 2) - Jazz it up again
Diageo, the owners of the Lagavulin distillery, have announced that the brand will again be sponsoring the Islay Jazz Festival later in the year.  This will be the fifteenth year that the festival has been held on the famous whisky island, and the fourth that Lagavulin have been the headline sponsor.

This year's festival takes place on 13-15 September and is set to attract hundreds of jazz fans from Scotland and around the world.  The gigs will be played at a variety of venues around the island, including one of the warehouses at the Lagavulin distillery.  Artists this year include Magnus Ostrom, Trio Libero and Stephanie Trick. As with previous years, the festival will be accompanied by a special limited edition Lagavulin single malt.  The details of this are yet to be announced. For more information and tickets, please visit www.islayjazzfestival.co.uk.