Friday, February 4, 2022

Inbox / The Week's Whisky News (February 4, 2022)



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. 
 
Here is the round-up of the news from this last week ... 
 
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Caol Ila
The Islay distillery of Caol Ila has continued its 175th anniversary celebrations with the release of a limited edition single malt - the Caol Ila 24 years old. The distillery was founded in 1846 and therefore the anniversary was last year, but the release was delayed by the ongoing Covid pandemic. The whisky is created from casks hand-selected by Sam Hale, the Distillery Manager at Caol Ila, and his team. There are just 3,000 bottles and they are released at the natural cask strength of 52.1% ABV. 
 
The Caol Ila 24 years old 175th Anniversary Edition will be on sale at selected specialist retailers within the UK, via www.malts.com and at the Lagavulin distillery shop (this is due to ongoing renovation works at Caol Ila as it prepares to become the fourth and final Johnnie Walker Four Corners of Scotland centre). A bottle will cost £295.
 

 
Johnnie Walker
 

The popular blended Scotch brand has announced the release of three limited edition whiskies to mark Chinese New Year. One is a special bottling of the prestigious Blue Label, with two further expressions in the super-premium John Walker & Sons range. All three editions feature artwork from Chinese artist Shan Jiang that is inspired by the Year of the Tiger and other Chinese fables. 
 
The Blue Label and XR21 are repackaged versions of the regular bottlings, while the King George V has been created for the release. It features a collection of rare and old whiskies including the closed Islay distillery of Port Ellen.

The Johnnie Walker Blue Label Year of the Tiger Edition is bottled at 40% ABV and will cost £195/$265 US. The John Walker & Sons XR21 Lunar New Year Edition is also 40% ABV and will cost £100/$135 US. The John Walker & Sons King George V Lunar New Year Edition is bottled at 43% ABV and will cost £545/$740 US.
 

 

Mossburn
Independent bottlers and whiskymakers Mossburn Distillers have announced the launch of two new blended malts under the Caisteal Chamuis name - the 12 years old Sherry Barrelled and the no age statement Double Barrelled. The range is named after the ancient Caisteal Chamuis (Castle Camus in English). The ruins are located on the southern tip of the Isle of Skye and close to Mossburn's single malt distillery of Torabhaig. Both whiskies are heavily peated and bottled at 46% ABV.

The Double Barrelled has been matured in first-fill American oak hogsheads before being transferred to smaller ex-bourbon barrels for a finishing period. It has been created using single malts from Islay, Orkney and Skye. A bottle will cost £39/$53 US.
 
 
The 12 years old Sherry Barrelled features single malts from Islay and Orkney, all of which have been matured in ex-Oloroso sherry casks. A bottle will cost £49/$67 US. Both Caisteal Chamuis blended malts will be available in selected world markets including France, Germany, the UK and the USA.
 

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