Inbox / The Week's Whisky News (September 8, 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. 

 

Please Note - there will be no Inbox next week (September 15, 2023) as we are away on a much needed holiday. Anyway, here is the round-up of the news from this week. 

 

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Highland Park

 

The Highland Park distillery from the Orkney islands has announced a new bottling to enter its Single Cask Series - the Highland Park London Edition No.1. The new whisky is an 18 Years Old single malt that has been matured in a single re-fill European oak ex-sherry cask. The cask was filled in 2002 and has been maturing on Orkney until bottling. It was hand selected by Gordon Motion, the Master Whisky Maker at Highland Park. The cask has yielded just 632 bottles and these will be available in UK specialist whisky retailers from late September. A bottle will cost £390.

 

"Some of our most outstanding single cask bottlings come from refill casks, as they have often previously held whisky for only a short period of time, so have much to give in subsequent maturation."

Gordon Motion.

 

Lagavulin

 

The Islay distillery of Lagavulin is celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Islay Jazz Festival with a new limited edition bottling for this year's event, which runs from 15-19 September. The Lagavulin Jazz 15 Years Old has been finished in ex-Oloroso sherry casks and will only be available from the distillery shop on a first come, first served basis. 

 

The festival, which is organised by Jazz Scotland and the Islay Arts Foundation, will feature some of Scotland's best known jazz artists including Graeme Stephen and Fergus McCreadie. The Lagavulin Jazz 15 Years Old is bottled at the natural cask strength of 53.9% ABV and is limited to just 3,000 bottles. These will be available until sold out and will cost £250 each.

 

"To celebrate the festival we have created an expression of Lagavulin that is influenced by the thriving Spanish jazz scene by finishing our whisky in Oloroso sherry casks. The result is an exceptional bottling that introduces sweet, red-fruity notes to Lagavulin’s signature smoke."

Jordan Paisley / Distillery Manager at Lagavulin.

 

Powers 

 

The Irish whiskey brand of Powers has announced a new permanent expression for its core range - the Powers John's Lane Cask Strength. The new whiskey has been developed to celebrate the 12th anniversary of the launch of the original Powers John's Lane and as a result is bottled at 12 years of age. It is planned to be released in annual batches. 

 

The inaugural 2023 edition pays homage to the John's Lane distillery in Dublin where Powers was originally distilled and matured. It is now produced at the Midleton distillery in Co. Cork. The Powers John's Lane Cask Strength 2023 Edition is bottled at 57.8% ABV and will go on general release from October 2. It will initially be available in Ireland, the UK and Dublin airport. A bottle will cost €90.

Tomatin

 

The Highland distillery of Tomatin has revealed a new series of whiskies and details of the trio of bottlings. The Italian Collection celebrates the distillery's long history of importing Italian wine casks and its success in the Italian market.  Each of the three whiskies follows the same path - 10 years of maturation in American oak ex-bourbon casks before being tranferred for a two year finish in a different Italian wine barrel.

The Amarone Edition 12 Years Old uses casks sourced from the Veneto region, the Barolo Edition 12 years Old features casks from the Piedmont region and the Marsala Edition 12 Years Old sees the whisky finished in casks from a Marsala winery in Sicily. They are all bottled at 46% ABV and are both non chill-filtered and of natural colour. The Italian Collection is available now from the Tomatin website and selected specialist whisky retailers worldwide. A bottle will cost £70.

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