Inbox - The Week's Whisky News (March 10, 2017)

Welcome to Inbox.  For those new to WFE, 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.  This is the news that has grabbed our attention this week ...

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Ardbeg

The Islay distillery have sent out a teaser for their Ardbeg Day (June 3) activities and announced the name of the annual limited edition bottling.  The release will be called Kelpie, the name given to the water spirits that are said to change form and inhabit the shores around the south of Islay.  Further details of the bottling will be announced nearer to the launch date of March 16.  More information about Ardbeg Day can be found at www.ardbeg.com.

Bushmills
The Northern Irish whiskey brand of Bushmills has announced a new addition to their core blended whiskey range - Bushmills Red Bush.  This joins the popular Original and Black Bush expressions in the range.  The new blend is a combination of Bushmills triple distilled single malt and Irish single grain whiskey.  This has been matured in first-fill American oak ex-bourbon casks.  The Red Bush will initially be launched to on and off trades this month, before being rolled out to further world markets throughout the year.  No indication of price was given in the press release. More info can be found at www.bushmills.com.

“While we’ve been innovating with our aged whiskeys for centuries, we’re excited to embark on a journey with the millennial drinker. This is an extremely smooth spirit that will resonate with frequent bourbon fans and first time Irish whiskey drinkers.”
Colum Egan - Master Distiller at Bushmills.

Tomatin

Highland distillery Tomatin have announced the launch of a new range of limited edition single malts named Tomatin Five Virtues.  The five whiskies draw inspiration from five natural elements - Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water - and each expression is limited to 6,000 bottles.  Each also comes with a unique piece of artwork on the packaging created by contemporary abstract Scottish artist Eva Ullrich.

The Wood expression has been matured in French, American and Hungarian oak casks while Fire has been matured in heavily charred oak casks.  Both are available through selected specialist retailers from now and prices begin at £49.99 a bottle.

Earth is a peaty expression and has been matured in peat-dried malted barley casks, Metal is inspired by the distillery's 12 copper pot stills and Water is a winter-distilled spirit with water taken from the Alt-na-Frith burn.  These three expressions will be released later in 2017.  Further information can be found at www.tomatin.com/5virtues.