Inbox - August 16, 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 ...

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Jameson - Celebrate city life

The best selling Irish whiskey brand of Jameson has announced a new collection, which will be available exclusively through travel retail shortly. The Jameson City Editions are designed to appeal to the 'international jet setter' and features eight specially designed labels.  Each label represents a city and the bottles will be on sale only in the key airport of the home city of each corresponding label.  The cities included are Amsterdam. Bangkok, Dublin, London, Moscow, Paris, Singapore and Sydney.  The first to be introduced will be the Amsterdam edition.

The promotion is backed up by social media activity, which will see purchasers of the collection invited to take part in a Facebook City Editions photographic competition - they will be asked to submit a photo of their bottle or the corresponding city and this will be possible via smartphone or in situ iPads within promotional spaces at each participating airport.  For more information, please visit www.jamesonwhiskey.com/cityedition.

Daniel Lundberg, the Global Brand Director for Jameson, comments “With the Jameson City Editions, we wanted to celebrate the different cultures and personalities of some of the great cities around the world. We are hopeful that this special collection will capture the imagination of international jet setters and provide them with a unique memento of their travels for them to enjoy with their friends or keep as collectors’ items.” 

Penderyn - Expansion progressing
A few months ago, we reported on a major two stage expansion plan at Penderyn, the only Welsh distillery. The expansion, which totals around £1 million, is funded by Penderyn and the Welsh Government and is aimed at increasing capacity and developing new markets.

Stage one is now almost complete and includes the installation of a new still, which is an exact copy of the innovative Faraday still currently in operation there. The second stage will be completed by January 2014. The short video below shows Stephen Davies, the Managing Director of Penderyn, explaining about the expansion and showing the progress of the works.

Tullamore Dew - Oldest release to date
The Irish whiskey brand of Tullamore Dew have announced the release of their oldest whiskey to date - the Tullamore Dew 14 years old.  The regular Tullamore Dew's are blends, but this one is a single malt and is part of a strategy to move the brand towards the premium sector.  It has been aged for 14 years, with the final eight months being finished in ex-Oloroso sherry casks.

The new bottling will appear in one litre bottles (unfortunately no price has been included with the press release) placed within a presentation box.  It will be a travel retail exclusive and available in selected European airports initially including Antalya, Geneva, Lisbon, Malta, Stockholm Arlanda and Zurich.

André de Almeida, the European Regional Director for William Grant & Sons (the brand's owners), says “We believe that global travel retail is the ideal route for driving premiumisation of the brand, with exclusives such as this 14-year-old enhancing the perception of Tullamore Dew as a premium, unique Irish whiskey, with strong whiskey credentials.”