Distillery Visit - The Macallan

The last five years have been extremely vibrant for the whisky industry. Many new distilleries and whisky-making projects of varying sizes have been proposed and built. Arguably one of the biggest and most controversial is the re-housing of The Macallan, the hugely popular single malt brand, in to a brand new production facility. This opened back in the Summer and Matt paid a visit to take a look on a recent visit to Speyside.

Review - Highland Park Twisted Tattoo

This whisky is a new single malt from the Orcadian distillery of Highland Park. It features spirit matured in first-fill ex-bourbon casks and ex-Rioja red wine casks - the first time they have used such wine barrels for maturation - and is bottled at 16 years of age. The packaging is inspired by the Nordic legend of the Midgard Serpent and features bespoke designs by tattoo artist Colin Dale. He is renowned for using traditional freestyle non-electric tattoo techniques and is inspired by the lost skin art of Inuit, Native American and Nordic cultures.

Inbox - The Week's Whisky News (November 30, 2018)

Welcome to Inbox.  For those new to WFE, 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.

Review - The Glenrothes Soleo Collection

The Glenrothes Soleo Collection represents a major revamp of the core range of the increasingly popular Speyside distillery. This sees the brand move away from its Vintage and Reserve expressions and towards more traditional age statements, which range from 10 to 40 years old. The Soleo Collection are all 100% matured in ex-sherry seasoned oak casks and is aimed to appeal to premium whisky drinkers.

The range features age statements at 10, 12, 18, 25 and 40 years of age, plus the no age statement Whisky Maker's Cut. All are of natural colour and are available through specialist whisky retailers globally. The 40 years old expression will not appear until early 2019.

Review - Highland Park Dragon Legend

The Dragon Legend is a new expression that has recently been released by the Orcadian single malt whisky brand of Highland Park. It is designed to have a 'richer and smokier flavour' than previous expressions of Highland Park and is initially exclusive to UK supermarkets, including Tesco. Dragon Legend will then be rolled out to key European markets in early 2018. The name takes inspiration from the brand's Viking heritage and the tale of the evil serpent Fafnir. It has been matured in a combination of American oak and European oak ex-sherry casks, and is bottled at a strength of 43.1% ABV. The recommended retail price is £40.

Review - Highland Park Valkyrie

Valkyrie is the first in a new trilogy of single malts from Highland Park. Named as the Viking Legend series, the packaging has been created by renowned Danish designer Jim Lyngvild. He is a 21st century Viking and lives in a traditional wooden Viking house that he constructed himself near Faaborg in Denmark. He also lives as an ancient Viking for two months of each year and his designs pull on the brand’s Viking routes. Valkyrie was created by Gordon Motion, the Master Blender of Highland Park, and will be followed by two further editions, named Valknut and Valhalla, in 2018 and 2019.

Review - Glenturret Fly's 16 Masters Edition

The Fly's 16 Masters Edition is a new limited edition single malt from the Highland distillery of Glenturret, the oldest official distillery that is currently in operation in Scotland. The new whisky is 16 years old and inspired by a recent discovery at the distillery - an old photo that was found at the back of a cupboard.  The photo (pictured below) was taken in 1905 and featured the 16 distillery workers and Fly, the Distillery Manager's dog.  The workers, nicknamed 'Fly's 16' feature on the bottle, which is the latest in Glenturret's Masters Edition series.  The whisky was launched in mid-May and some remains available for sale.

Review - Highland Park Ice Edition

This whisky is the latest limited edition single malt from Highland Park. The Ice Edition follows on from the recent Valhalla Collection and again pulls on the Nordic heritage of the Orkneys.  This expression is inspired by stories of the Ice Giants in Norse mythology and will be followed by the Fire Edition in 2017. The single malt is 17 years old and has been matured predominantly in ex-bourbon casks. It is presented in a blue glazed glass bottle, which in turn is housed in an bespoke wooden stand.  The bottle features an intricate circular design to represent the Viking circle of lifeand is accompanied by a booklet that tells the story of the Ice Giants.

Review - The Famous Grouse Mellow Gold

The Famous Grouse blended Scotch whisky brand has a new permanent addition to its core range named Mellow Gold.  The new blend has been created by Gordon Motion, the Master Blender for The Famous Grouse, and features a higher percentage of single malt and ex-sherry cask matured whisky than the regular expression of The Famous Grouse.  The bottling features a new packaging design, which is appearing across the core range, and is available now from supermarkets and independent retailers in the UK.  The Mellow Gold is bottled at 40% ABV and a bottle will cost £22.

Review - Glenturret The Brock Malloy Edition Cask #328

The Glenturret distillery, which is located in the Highlands and is the spiritual home of The Famous Grouse blend, has released this single cask bottling. The Brock Malloy Edition Cask #328 is named after legendary Glenturret stillmen Chic Brock and Hugh Malloy, who produced the spirit and filled it to cask in December 1986. It has been maturing at the distillery ever since and was identified by current distillery manager, Neil Cameron, as being one of the best and oldest remaining in the warehouses.  The decision was taken to bottle it to celebrate the work of the two men.  Bottles are only available via the The Famous Grouse Experience website or by visiting the distillery.

Review - Highland Park Odin

Highland Park Odin is the greatly anticipated (and already sold-out) fourth and final bottling in The Valhalla Collection. Each single malt whisky in this series is named after legendary figures from Nordic history and Odin follows the previous award-winning releases of Thor, Loki and Freya.

This limited edition whisky with only 17,000 bottles released globally is presented in a dramatic black ‘battle worn’ bottle and black Viking long ship inspired wooden frame that is a signature to the complete series. It is 16 years old, 55.8% ABV, and for those lucky enough to have managed to pick up a bottle, it was available at a recommended retail price of £180. The whisky itself is aged in 250 litre hogsheads previously holding sherry; starting with refill casks then transferred to fresh first fill casks for a final four years.

Review - The Macallan 'Masters of Photography : Mario Testino Edition'

This whisky is the latest in the cult Masters of Photography series of single malts by The Macallan. This is the fifth such release in the programme, which was started back in 2010/11.  Each bottling in the series is accompanied by a series of images from a highly regarded photographer and an exhibition of the work.  This year's edition is been completed in conjunction with Mario Testino and follows on from the previous four photographers Rankin, Albert Watson, Annie Leibowitz and Elliott Erwitt. 

Review - Cutty Sark 33 years old 'Art Deco Edition'

This whisky is the new limited edition expression from the famous Cutty Sark brand.  It has been created by Kirsteen Campbell, the Cutty Sark Master Blender, and is the follow up to 2011's award winning Tam o'Shanter 25 years old edition.  This blend has a minimum age of 33 year old whiskies used in the recipe and is named the Art Deco Edition.  The design of the packaging is inspired by the art deco period, when the brand was born, and features a bespoke bottle and label, a piano black wooden box, two commemorative glasses and a special book about Art Deco design.

New release - Highland Park 'Dark Origins'

The Dark Origins is the newest single malt release from the popular and multi award-winning Highland Park.  The distillery was founded in 1798 by David Robertson, although the legendary 'whisky priest' Magnus Eunson had been illegally distilling whisky on the site for years before that.  It is Eunson and those early shady dealings that they are saluting with this new 'no age statement' whisky. The Dark Origins is quoted as having "twice as many first fill ex-sherry casks as the classic Highland Park 12 years old".

Inbox - August 8, 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.

New release - Highland Park Freya

This whisky is the third installment in the popular Valhalla Collection from the Highland Park distillery.  The different expressions have been released annually and all are named after Norse Gods and Goddesses - 2012 gave us Thor and 2013 gave us Loki, with the fourth and final one coming next year.  This year's bottling is named after Freya, the Goddess of Love. The series has built up a cult following and is one of the major new single malt releases in the early part of each year. 

New release – Cutty Sark 'Prohibition Edition'

Today marks the 80th anniversary of the end of Prohibition in the USA. 2013 also marks the 90th birthday of the Cutty Sark blended whisky brand. The Prohibition Edition has been created as a celebration of the earliest days of Cutty Sark, when it was smuggled into the USA during Prohibition by infamous bootlegger Captain Bill McCoy.  This is the man whose name was lent to the term ‘The Real McCoy’, as you knew the product was genuine and not a fake when he delivered it. McCoy was teetotal so his cargo, unlike many others, could be assured not to be ‘sampled’ and, as a result, watered down.

Inbox - November 29, 2013

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 releases - Highland Park Warriors Series (part 2)

Earlier this year, we wrote about the Warriors Series from the multi award-winning highland Park distillery.  The series consists of six single malts, which are all named after figures from Nordic history, and three were launched back in February - Svein, Harald and Einar (pictured, above).  The final three whiskies, named Sigurd, Ragnvald and Thorfinn, have now been released and sees the full set together for the first time.  The Warriors Series is exclusive to the travel retail sector.

New release - The Black Grouse Alpha Edition

The Alpha Edition is the latest expression to be added to the hugely popular Grouse range of blended whiskies.  The whisky was launched back in August and is being marketed as a richer, smokier version of The Black Grouse.  It has been created using a higher percentage of peaty whisky, including some of much greater age, than in the rest of the Grouse range. Despite just being released, the Alpha Edition has already bagged a gold medal at the recent International Spirits Challenge 2013.