Review | Lochlea Harvest Edition (Third Crop)

This whisky is the latest small batch single malt from the Lowland distillery of Lochlea. The Lochlea Harvest Edition (Third Crop) is released as the award-winning field-to-bottle distillery celebrates its sixth birthday and has been created by John Campbell, the outgoing Director of Production at Lochlea. Harvest Edition forms part of a wider series inspired by the farming year and features Sowing, Fallow and Ploughing Editions also. The Third Crop will be the final bottling for each.

Review | Lochlea 5 years old

This whisky is a special limited edition from the award-winning Lowland farm-to-bottle distillery of Lochlea. It has been released to mark their fifth birthday. The whisky is a vatting of just five casks, each showing a different side to the house spirit. Two of them included are from the very first distillation and cask filling in August 2018. It is the oldest whisky released by Lochlea to date and the first to carry an age statement. 

Inbox | The Week's Whisky News | January 19, 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 | Lochlea Fallow Season (Second Crop)

The Ayrshire farm distillery of Lochlea has revealed its latest seasonal bottling - Lochlea Fallow Edition (Second Crop). The new whisky has been matured exclusively in ex-Oloroso and ex-Pedro Ximenez sherry casks. This is in the ratio of 45% and 55% respectively. The Fallow Edition pays homage to the period of the year where farmland naturally rejuvenates itself after crops have been harvested. The whisky has been created by John Campbell, the Director of Production at Lochlea. 

Review / Lochlea Cask Strength Batch 1

This whisky is the inaugural cask strength single malt from the Lowland distillery of Lochlea (pronounced lock-lee). The Lochlea Cask Strength Batch 1 has been aged in first-fill ex-bourbon and ex-Oloroso sherry casks in a ratio of 70:30 respectively. These were selected by John Campbell, the Master Blender at Lochlea. All barley used to make Lochlea spirit is grown on the Ayrshire farm where the distillery is located making it a true grain-to-glass operation. The Lochlea Cask Strength Batch 1 is bottled at 60.1% ABV and is both non chill-filtered and of natural colour. It is available through selected specialist retailers in selected global markets. A bottle will cost £65. 

Review - Laphroaig 16 years old

This whisky from the famous Islay distillery of Laphroaig has been created and bottled exclusively for online retailer Amazon in Europe and the UK. It has been maturing in first-fill ex-bourbon casks since the early 2000s and these were hand selected for the exclusive release by John Campbell, the Distillery Manager at Laphroaig. The whisky has been bottled at 16 years of age and 48% ABV. It is non chill-filtered, of natural colour and was released in August last year. No indication of the number of exclusive bottles has been released. Laphroaig 16 years old will cost £89 per bottle.

Distillery visit - Laphroaig

Laphroaig (pronounced la-froyg) is one of the most famous names in the world of Scotch whisky and is known for its very peaty and smoky style of single malt.  In fact the 10 years old expression is the biggest selling malt in this category and helps put Laphroaig in ninth place for total sales in 2013*. The name is derived from the Gaelic meaning 'beautiful hollow by the broad bay'.  Laphroaig was one of the whiskies that got us in to the peaty flavour, so Matt C was delighted when he recently got invited for a special tour as part of Beam Suntory's Peated Malts of Distinction launch.