Friday, November 29, 2019

Inbox - The Week's Whisky News (Nov 29, 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. Of course, today is Black Friday so there are a couple of items related to this.

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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Aberfeldy


The Highland distillery of Aberfeldy have announced the release of the Aberfeldy 40 years old, but with a twist. The new expression is the oldest single malt ever from the brand but will only be available at the distillery as a bottle-your-own experience. The single American oak ex-bourbon hogshead cask (cask #5029) was filled on 22 September 1979 and contains approximately 160 bottles at a natural cask strength of 50.1% ABV. This will be followed by two further similar casks for a second and third release.

Each bottle will cost £2,500 with those purchasing one being taken through a hands-on premium experience. This will include drawing your whisky directly from the cask in the distillery's warehouses, before bottling it and sealing with gold wax.  It then comes presented in a specially designed display box. The experience is exclusive to the distillery or via the new Aberfeldy website - click here to view and for more details.


Douglas Laing


The family-owned independent bottler of Douglas Laing & Co. have announced two rare and old releases under their Xtra Old Particular 'Black Series' - the Caol Ila Vintage 1979 and the Macallan Vintage 1989. The pair of whiskes are designed to showcase antique stock from the two most famous single malt regiosn of Scotland - Islay and Speyside.

The Caol Ila Vintage 1979 has been bottled at 40 years of age and has matured for that time in an ex-bourbon hogshead cask. This has yielded just 160 bottles and is released at its natural cask strength of 51.1% ABV. They will cost £1,500 each.

The Macallan Vintage 1989 has been bottled at 30 years of age and there are just 230 bottles available. These are presented at the natural cask strength of 46% ABV. A bottle will cost £4,000. Both new XOP Black Series releases will be available worldwide in selected specialist whisky retailers

"Our new XOP Black Series releases represent the absolute pinnacle of antique Scotch Whiskies from two of Scotland’s best known and loved distilleries, and from casks selected at their peak of perfection by Fred Laing himself."
Chris Leggat - CEO at Douglas Laing & Co.



Glencairn
The leading whisky glass manufacturer has produced a special limited edition glass for Black Friday. There are just 1,000 jet black crystal glasses made and these are in the classic Glencairn shape. It is the first time that the family-owned company, which has seen growth for an impressive 15 consecutuive years, has produced a product using black glass. Each glass cost £7.

At the time of writing on Friday morning, all 1,000 glasses had already sold out! However, Glencairn are offering 20% off all Glencairn products over the Black Friday/Cyber Monday weekend on their website - www.glencairn.co.uk.



Glengoyne
The Highland distillery of Glengoyne has announced details of its annual Tea Pot Dram expression. The name refers to an old distillery tradition that saw workers pour their daily ration of whisky in to an old tea pot for others to share. The Glengoyne Tea Pot Dram Batch No.007 has been made using just 10 first-fill European oak ex-Oloroso sherry casks and these have yielded just 3,993 bottles at a natural cask strength of 59.9% ABV. Each bottle will cost £120 and is exclusively available at the distillery shop or via www.glengoyne.com.


The Whisky Exchange


Leading spirits retailer The Whisky Exchange has bottled a single malt for Black Friday for the third year running.  The Black Friday 2019 Edition is from an un-named Speyside distillery (the only clues given are that it is located between Elgin and Forres, and was founded in 1810 - with a little research you will learn which distillery it is) and is bottled at 21 years of age.

As with previous years, the whisky has already sold out after going on sale at 6am this morning (Nov 29). The Black Friday 2019 Edition had just 1,800 bottles available, which were released at the natural cask strength of 53.1% ABV. The price per bottle was £79.95, which is great value for a whisky of this age. Look out for our review of it on the blog shortly.


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