Inbox | The Week's Whisky News | March 8, 2024

Welcome to Inbox - our weekly round up of whisky news and PR material that has found its way in to the WFE email. We started Inbox several years ago 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. 

Review / Diageo Special Releases 2022 : Elusive Expressions

 

 

The Special Releases are an annual set of bottlings released by Diageo - Scotland's largest producer of whisky. The collection of whiskies appears each Autumn and has been given a theme for the last couple of years. The 2022 edition has been named Elusive Expressions and is designed to push the boundaries of cask strength whisky through the innovative use of casks and cask finishes. Each whisky has been created by Dr. Craig Wilson, Master Blender of the Special Releases programme.

Review / Diageo Special Releases 2021

The arrival of Autumn is always signalled by Diageo, Scotland's largest whisky producer, announcing the line-up for their annual Special Releases programme. Each year these bottlings are designed to highlight rare or old whiskies from within Diageo's extensive portfolio of maturing stocks and are eagerly anticipated each year since the series was first started with just three expressions in 2001. The 2021 collection marks the 20th anniversary of the Special Releases.

This year is one of the smaller recent collections and sees just eight bottlings. The eight have been put together to show the stories of whisky from different environments and terrains across Scotland. This incorporates a set of mythical creatures that reside in the sea, lochs and mountains and  can be seen on the packaging. The 2021 collection is subtitled Legends Untold as a result. The striking artwork has been created by illustrator Ken Taylor.

Inbox / The Week's Whisky News (June 18, 2021)

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. 

Review - Diageo Special Releases 2020

 

 

It is that time of the year again - Diageo, Scotland's largest whisky producer, has announced the line-up for the 2020 edition of its Special Releases programme. The annual bottlings are designed to highlight rare or old whiskies from within Diageo's extensive portfolio of maturing stocks and are eagerly anticipated each year since the series was first started with just three expressions in 2001.

This year is one of the smaller recent collections and sees just eight bottlings with a theme of 'Rare By Nature' running through them. This includes the same eight brands as the 2019 selection and is designed to be 'an encore to what was a very successful and well received set of whiskies'. As with all previous years the whiskies are all bottled at their natural cask strength. This year's selection has been curated by Dr. Craig Wilson, one of the Master Blenders at Diageo.

Review - Diageo Special Releases 2019

It is that time of the year again - Diageo, Scotland's largest whisky producer, has unleashed the 2019 edition of its Special Releases programme. The annual bottlings are designed to highlight rare or old whiskies from within Diageo's extensive portfolio of maturing stocks and are eagerly anticipated each year since the programme was first started with just three expressions in 2001.

This year is one of the smaller recent collections and sees just eight bottlings with a theme of 'Rare By Nature' running through them. As with all previous years the whiskies are all bottled at their natural cask strength. This year's whiskies have been selected by Dr. Craig Wilson, one of the Master Blenders at Diageo.

Inbox - The Week's Whisky News (July 26, 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.

Review - The Game of Thrones Single Malt Range

Back in the Autumn leading Scotch whisky producer Diageo announced that they would be releasing eight new single malts to celebrate the eighth and final season of hit TV show Game of Thrones. These have been created in partnership with HBO, the show's producers. Eight of Diageo's 28 single malt distilleries have been selected to be paired with each of the seven Houses of Westeros in Game of Thrones, plus the Night's Watch.

The whiskies were initially released in America last Autumn and have now been released in the UK and Europe. Six of the whiskies have been specially created for the collection, with the exceptions being the Cardhu and Royal Lochnagar expressions - these are the whiskies that are regularly on sale but have been repackaged for this collection. Many retailers have now sold out of their allocations so you will need to search to buy bottles now, probably through auction sites.

Inbox - The Week's Whisky News (January 23, 2015)

Welcome to this week's Inbox.  For those that have recently discovered us, Inbox is our weekly round up of whisky news and PR material that has found its way in to our email inbox. 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.

New release - Cardhu 'Amber Rock'

The Amber Rock is the latest single malt to be released by the popular Speyside distillery of Cardhu (pronounced car-doo).  It will sit alongside the 12, 15 and 18 years old expressions, plus the Special Cask Reserve in the brand's core range.  To create this new release, the whisky has been double matured in toasted American oak casks and is designed to deliver extra hits of citrus, honey, vanilla and wood spice.

Inbox - February 28, 2014

Welcome to this week's Inbox.  For those that have recently discovered us, Inbox is our weekly round up of whisky news and PR material that has found its way in to our email inbox. 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.

Have just tried - Cardhu Special Cask Reserve

This whisky was first released to the UK market back in November and is made in small batches using hand selected 'very old rejuvenated American oak casks' from Cardhu's maturing stock. Cardhu is relatively difficult to find in the UK, despite being in the world's Top 10 for single malt sales. The majority is exported to southern Europe - Spain is the main market, along with France, Greece, Italy and Portugal. Other batches have been available in these markets for some time.

New releases - Diageo Special Releases 2013 (Part 1)

The annual Special Releases programme by Diageo, Scotland’s largest producer of single malt, is one of the most highly anticipated releases in the whisky calendar. This programme, which started back in 2001, is designed to showcase some of the most exceptional single malt stock from within their portfolio of 28 working distilleries, plus selected remaining stocks from closed ones. Some of these stocks have dwindled to almost critical levels. A few weeks ago they announced the line up and details for the Special Releases 2013 and they will be available from specialist retailers from early November.

Inbox Special - Diageo Special Releases 2013

Around this time each year, there is always a ripple of anticipation around the whisky industry as people wait to see what Diageo, Scotland's largest producer of single malt whisky, are to release in their annual Special Releases programme.

 This programme is designed to showcase some of the most exceptional single malt stock from within their portfolio of 28 working distilleries, plus remaining stocks from those which have been closed. Some of these stocks have dwindled to almost critical levels. Now the waiting is over for this year, as they have announced the line up and details for the Special Releases 2013.  They will be available from late October.

This year's selection of whiskies (pictured, above) are bottled at the natural cask strength, are non chill filtered and all are limited edition. The collection again places well known flagship distilleries, such as Cardhu, Lagavulin and Talisker, alongside very rare stock from the iconic closed distilleries of Brora and Port Ellen. The details are below ...

New release - Cardhu 15 years old

This whisky has just been released on to the UK market and is the older sibling of the popular Cardhu 12 years old.  The brand is relatively difficult to find in the UK, despite being in the world's Top 10 for single malt sales.  The majority of the whisky released is exported to southern Europe - Spain is the main market and it is also popular in France, Greece, Italy and Portugal. This 'new' 15 years old has been available in selected European markets for some time, but now is its time to go global.

Have just tried (Spanish edition) ... Cardhu 12 years old

On our recent trip to Spain, we just had to try Cardhu. In a land where the blended whisky is king, Cardhu 12 years old is the single malt of choice and outsells any others by a large amount. The brand is hard to find in the UK, despite being in the world's top 10 for single malt sales, as the majority of the whisky released is exported to southern Europe. Spain is its main market and it is also popular in France, Greece, Italy and Portugal. The distillery is currently owned by drinks giant Diageo and only 30% of the whisky produced at Cardhu (around 2 million litres per year) is released as a single malt. The other 70% contributes as a major ingredient for Diageo's famous Johnnie Walker range of blended whiskies.

Cardhu means ‘black rock’ in Gaelic and is located in the heart of the Speyside region, close to the village of Knockando. The distillery was founded in 1824 by farmers John and Helen Cumming. Previous to this, they were famous in the local area for illegally producing a particularly potent whisky and this was sold from the farm’s kitchen window. Once legalised, their whisky was sold as Cardow, from which today's name is derived. The distillery remained in the Cumming family until 1893, when it was sold to blender John Walker and Cardhu has been involved in the Johnnie Walker blended range that he invented ever since.

The colour of this Cardhu 12 years old is golden amber and the nose is robust and has an interesting combination of aromas. There is lots of sweet caramel and vanilla with some honey (imagine honeycomb biscuit), citrus (think of lemon zest) and something herbal (imagine dried grasses or hay) creeping in underneath. On the palate, this is lighter and fresher than the nose suggests with the caramel element becoming more sugary and the honey and citrus notes particularly prominent. There is also some nuttiness and a grainy cereal note that comes through. The finish is disappointingly short and is gone in an instant, however this is refreshing and palate cleansing - perfect for hot climates.

Upon adding water, this became very refreshing and easier to drink. There is a pleasant combination of sweet vanilla, caramel and zingy citrus. It would also be good with ice, in a cocktail or in a long drink with soda water and a slice of lemon as this would compliment its characteristics well. This must be why it is so popular in warmer countries. When drunk straight it is just a bit flat and one dimensional. A bottle should cost about £35-40 from specialist retailers in the UK or for around €25 from anywhere that sells alcohol in Spain.