Inbox - February 21, 2014

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.  The whisky world and PR departments are slowly waking up in February.  Here are a couple of bits for this week ...

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Glendronach - Grandeur Part Quatre
The independently owned Glendronach distillery in the east Highlands has announced the next release in its Grandeur series.  This fourth version of the limited edition single malt is bottled at 24 years of age, and replaces the previous 31 years old version.  It has been matured in ex-Oloroso sherry casks and bottled at the natural cask strength of 48.9% ABV.

The casks used were hand selected by Master Distiller and owner of The Benriach Distillery Co (Glendronach's owners) Billy Walker.  Each bottle is individually numbered and presented in a wooden casket.  The Grandeur 24 years old is available now to pre-order through numerous specialist whisky retailers for £350 a bottle.

Alistair Walker, Sales Director for The Benriach Distillery Co says: "The Grandeur 24 Years Old encapsulates the perfect harmony of exquisite sherry oak casks, masterful maturation and traditional crafted Highland single malt. It's a truly memorable and captivating Glendronach expression. This is a wonderful dram is luscious, long and lingering." 

Jim Beam - Booker's Bourbon 
To celebrate the 25th anniversary since the launch of Booker's Bourbon, the guys at Jim Beam have announced a special limited edition bottling. The original Booker's Bourbon was bottled from casks selected by former Master Distiller at Jim Beam, Booker Noe.  He gave these to family and friends as holiday gifts.  The traditional carried on and spread to become what it is today.  This special release is labeled Batch #2014-1.

The casks for the 25th anniversary bottling were selected from the favoured position in Booker's favourite warehouse by his son Fred Noe, the current and 7th Master Distiller at Jim Beam.  He was aided by his son Freddie Noe.  It has been bottled at the natural cask strength of 121 Proof/ 60.5% ABV and has not been filtered.  The age of the casks selected range between nine and eleven years.  It will be available across the USA in selected stores for $99.99 a bottle.  For more of the story behind Booker's Bourbon, watch the short video below ...