Friday, June 16, 2023

Inbox / The Week's Whisky News (June 16, 2023)



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 week. 
 
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Benriach
 

The innovative Speyside distillery of Benriach has announced two of its oldest bottlings in the form of a pair of 40 year olds - The Forty and The Forty Octave Cask Matured. The pair have been created by Dr. Rachel Barrie, the Master Blender for Benriach, and are designed to show the distillery's rich distilling heritage. Both will be available shortly - The Forty in specialist whisky retailers worldwide and The Forty Octave Cask Matured in travel retail outlets.

Benriach The Forty (pictured, above left) features several casks of rare peated single malt that have been matured in ex-bourbon casks and ex-Port barrels. This makes it one of the oldest peated whiskies ever released by a Speyside distillery. It is bottled at 43.5% ABV and will cost £3,200 per bottle.

Benriach The Forty Octave Cask Matured (pictured, above right) was initially matured in first-fill and re-fill ex-bourbon casks before being transferred to small octave casks, which are one eighth the size of a regular cask, made of American oak. It is bottled at 51.5% ABV and will cost £3,800 a bottle. There are just 134 bottles available.
 
 

Clydebuilt
The Clydebuilt range of whiskies, owned by the Ardgowan Distillery Co. Ltd, has revealed the latest new bottling - the Clydebuilt Riveter.  It joins the Clydebuilt Collection, which is inspired by the rich heritage of the Clyde shipyards in Glasgow. It is the first single grain release in the series and follows several blended whiskies which have already collected several accolades in world whisky and spirits competitions.
 
Clydebuilt Riveter pays homage to the crucial work carried out by riveters in the shipyard and is created from just 15 ex-bourbon casks from a single Lowland grain distillery. They were married by Max McFarlane, the Master Whisky Maker at the Ardgowan Distillery Co. Ltd. It has been bottled at 50% ABV and will be available via www.ardgowandistillery.com and selected specialist whisky retailers in the UK. A bottle will cost £52.50.

 

Highland Park
The Orkney distillery of Highland Park has announced the fourth release of its popular Cask Strength bottling. The Highland Park Cask Strength Release No.4 represents the distillery's spirit in its purest form - it is bottled at natural strength and is both non chill-filtered and of natural colour. The new whisky uses a combination of ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks, plus ex-Port barrels for the first time in the series. It has been created by Gordon Motion, the Master Whisky Maker for Highland Park. The Cask Strength Release No.4 is bottled at 64.3% ABV and will be available in selected markets worldwide. A bottle will cost £80.
 
"For me, a cask strength whisky really celebrates an individual’s whisky journey and is best enjoyed with your own personal level of water added. The peat from our home in Orkney gives the whisky a different character with aromatic heather smoke and unexpected contrasts of sweet and smoky."
Gordon Motion.
 

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