The Cutty Sark brand was created in March 1923, allegedly following a lunch between the owners of the famous London wine and spirits merchants Berry Brothers & Rudd (Francis Berry and Hugh Rudd) and Scottish artist James McBey. It was named after the Cutty Sark, the famous tea clipper, and legend has it that McBey started drawing the logo of the boat on a napkin.
McDowell's Reserve No.1 is the biggest selling whisky brand in India. Not only that but it is officially the largest seller in the world (source - Drinks International 2022 report) with an incredible 30 million 12-bottle cases sold every year. Infact, the first four whiskies on the world sales list are all Indian - McDowell's is joined by Imperial Blue, Officer's Choice and Royal Stag. These four brands push Johnnie Walker into fifth place. McDowell's sells six million more cases than its closest rival. The brand is engrained in Indian culture and regularly features in Bollywood movies and cricket sponsorship. McDowell's also release popular brandy and rum expressions, plus a ready-to-drink whisky and soda.
The House of Hazelwood is a premium collection of Scotch whiskies blended malt. It has been created by William Grant & Sons, which has been operated by the Gordon family for much of the last century. The collection is named after the family home, Hazelwood House, which is located in Dufftown - the unofficial whisky capital of the Speyside region.
The bottlings were originally created for family consumption at special occasions from some of the company's oldest and rarest stocks. It was only recently decided to expand this out to bring these fine super-premium whiskies to whisky consumers.
The Glenallachie Distillers Company have just released this new blended Scotch whisky. The White Heather 15 years old joins the 21 years old expression in the White Heather range, which was first launched last year, and forms part of the wider MacNair's Boutique House of Spirits. This includes the Lum Reek blended malt and Exploration Rum brands. The White Heather is blended by Billy Walker, the Master Distiller and co-owner of Glenallachie. It features single malts from Islay, the north Highlands and Speyside plus single grain whisky. These have been matured in a combination of virgin oak, ex-bourbon, ex-Oloroso and ex-Pedro Ximenez sherry casks.
This is a permanent addition to the core range of the famous Ballantine's blended Scotch whisky range, released in September 2020. The Ballantine's 7 years old Bourbon Finish has been created by Sandy Hyslop, the Master Blender for Ballantine's. He blended single malts and single grain whiskies for a traditional Ballantine's expression with a minimum age of seven years, before then finishing them in ex-bourbon casks sourced from Kentucky. The new whisky is inspired by founder George Ballantine, who started selling his own 7 years old aged whisky in the 1870s. It was also a time when Ballantine's were one of the first companies to be importing ex-bourbon casks from America.
The Bicentennial Blend is one of three special bottlings by Johnnie Walker, the world's best selling Scotch whisky, that have been created to celebrate its 200th anniversary. The other two new whiskies are the Celebratory Blend and the Blue Label Legendary Eight. There is also a special commemorative pack for the regular Blue Label bottling. The three new whiskies are all limited editions and have been created by Jim Beveridge OBE, the Master Blender for Johnnie Walker, and his team at Diageo. John Walker opened his grocery shop in King Street, Kilmarnock in 1820 and began blending his own whiskies in the cellar.
