Friday, July 26, 2019

Inbox - The Week's Whisky News (July 26, 2019)


Welcome to Inbox, our weekly round up of whisky news and PR material that has found its way in to our WFE email. 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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Diageo


Scotland's biggest whisky producer has announced initial details of its annual Special Releases programme. This year sees just eight bottlings with a theme of 'Rare By Nature'. As with all previous years the whiskies are all cask strength. They have been selected by Dr. Craig Wilson, one of the Master Blenders at Diageo.

The full pricing, cask details, ABV strengths, tasting notes and availability will be revealed closer to the launch date, but what we have at the moment is listed below. Notable exclusions include a blended malt, which joined for the last two years in the form of the Collectivum and Cladach, an unpeated Caol Ila and the continued absence of Brora and Port Ellen, which had appeared every year until 2018.

  • Cardhu 14 years old - A 'unique expression' of the classic Speysider.
  • Cragganmore 12 years old - An 'intriguing bottling with a touch of spice and smoke'.
  • Dalwhinnie 30 years old - An 'extra matured and unusual older expression'.
  • Lagavulin 12 years oldA 'youthful truly spirited expression' from the iconic Islay distillery.
  • Mortlach 26 years old - A rare old bottling of the Beast of Dufftown.
  • Pittyvaich 29 years old - A 'rare sighting from this ghost Speyside distillery'.
  • Talisker 15 years old - A 'sweet, yet deep and spicy bottling' from the famous Skye distillery.
  • Singleton of Glen Ord 18 years old - A 'delicious and spicier bottling previously never bottled'.


John Crabbie & Co. 
The Edinburgh-based whisky company of John Crabbie & Co. have announced a new single malt that is designed to attract new spirit drinkers through mixing and making whisky cocktails. Crabbie's Yardhead, named after the area in Leith where Crabbie's original maturation warehouses were in Leith during the 1820s, is a young Scotch single malt aimed to take on and fit in to the ever expanding blended malt and 'no age statement' whisky category. The distillery of origin is un-named.

Crabbie's new distillery, which is based in Leith, is due to open and begin production in September. Crabbie's Yardhead, which was officially launched at events in Edinburgh and London this week, is bottled at 40% ABV and is available now in selected specialist whisky retailers and supermarkets. A bottle will cost £26/ $32 US.

"Crabbie’s Yardhead is a single malt made for mixing. We want to encourage consumers to look at single malt differently, and for bar staff to develop new ways of using single malt. John Crabbie was an innovator who challenged convention and he would have approved of the new Yardhead."
David Brown - Managing Director at John Crabbie & Co.


Tomatin


The Highland distillery of Tomatin have announced the release of their oldest ever single malt, which was distilled in 1967. The first-fill ex-Oloroso sherry butt (Cask #35817) was filled on November 24, 1967 and bottled in September last year. The cask, which was selected by Distillery Manager Graham Eunson, has yielded just 70 bottles and these are released at the natural cask strength of 45.3% ABV. Each bottle is a hand blown Glencairn crystal decanter and individually numbered. This is presented in a bespoke wooden casket hand crafted in Italy. It will be on sale at Schipol airport in Amsterdam. No details of price were given in the press release.



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1 comment:

Eric said...

The Diageo Special Releases are also missing an unpeated Caol Ila this year.