Inbox - The Week's Whisky News (August 14, 2015)

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 what has caught our attention this week ...

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Johnnie Walker - Catcher On The Rye?
The world's biggest selling Scotch whisky brand has announced the release of the first in a new limited edition series of bottlings named the Johnnie Walker Select Casks.  Each bottling will feature a different and experimental wood/cask finish and the other expression will be released over the next couple of years.  The first is the Rye Cask Finish.

The special blend, which has been crafted by Jim Beveridge, the Johnnie Walker Master Blender, has been matured in first-fill ex-bourbon American oak casks before being transferred to ex-American rye whiskey casks for six months.  The Rye Cask Finish has been bottled at the higher strength of 46% ABV (92 proof) to allow it to stand out in cocktails or with a mixer.  It will be available from September in the USA only and will cost $45 a bottle.

Jim Beveridge said: “Johnnie Walker has always thrived on experimentation. I believe that whisky is ever evolving and experimental in nature and I am pleased to present the first rye cask finished blended Scotch whisky. This Johnnie Walker is a unique style of Scotch that blends the flavor characteristics of bourbon and rye with some of the classic signature notes and smoothness of Johnnie Walker Scotch whisky”.

Shetland Distillers Co - Gets reel
The first ever single malt to be bottled on the Shetland isles, the most northerly part of the UK, has been announced by The Shetland Distillery Company.  The whisky was not distilled on the islands but on the mainland.  It was matured in 50 litre octave casks before being transported to the northern isle of Unst.  Here they were 'rested' for a short period before being bottled.  The result is the Shetland Reel bottlings.

Four casks have been bottled - two re-fill Scotch casks and two virgin German oak casks.  One was filled with peated spirit and this has yielded just 21 bottles.  The other three casks were filled with non-peated spirit and there are 151 bottles available of this.  All are bottled at their natural cask strength, are non chill-filtered and of natural colour.  The peated Shetland Reel will retail for £130 a bottle, while the non-peated will be £100.  They go on sale on September 1.

Stuart Nickerson, Director of The Shetland Distillery Company, said: “This a hugely exciting development for us. It literally puts Shetland on the whisky map for the first time. These four casks represent a start to whisky production in Shetland and we have plans to introduce more ‘Bottled in Shetland’ Scotch whiskies, with the long term plan being to install our own distillery and start distilling Scotch whisky on Unst.”