Welcome to Inbox, our weekly round up of whisky news and PR material that has found its way in to our WFE email. Inbox features items from around the world of whisky and is published by us each Friday. Here is this week’s whisky news …
Blair Athol
The Highland distillery of Blair Athol has launched a limited edition single malt that will be exclusive to the distillery visitor centre and malts.com. The Blair Athol 20 Years Old is restricted to just 1,002 bottles and features a rare four-cask maturation. The whisky has seen initial matured in re-fill casks and then part-finished in a combination of classic rejuvenated casks, wine-seasoned American oak and wine-seasoned European oak.
The Blair Athol 20 Years Old is bottled at the cask strength of 52.8% ABV and will only be available at the distillery in April. A bottle will cost £400. From May 1, it will be also available via malts.com. A launch event hosted by Charles Maclean will take place at the distillery on April 11. Tickets are £55 and also sold via malts.com.
Glenburgie
The popular blended Scotch brand of Ballantine’s has announced the relaunch of a trio of single malts from its Glenburgie distillery in Speyside. Glenburgie is one of the key ingredients in the Ballantine’s range and its spiritual home. This trilogy of whiskies celebrates that. The Glenburgie Travel Retail Exclusive Collection features age statements at 12-, 15- and 18 Years Old.
The new packaging features redesigned labelling, further reaffirmations that this is a single malt rather than blend, and more prominent Glenburgie name. The range is exclusive to the global travel retail market and is currently being showcased in Incheon, South Korea and Narita, Japan airports. A global roll out will appear in the coming months.
Glen Scotia
The Campbeltown distillery of Glen Scotia has announced its annual limited edition bottling for the Campbeltown Malts Festival, which happens each May. The Glen Scotia Campbeltown Malts Festival 2025 Edition is 9 Years Old heavily peated single malt, a style of spirit they produce for just one month every year. The whisky has been initially matured in first-fill ex-bourbon barrels, before being finished for five months in ex-Ribera del Duero red wine casks. These are directly sourced from the prestigious wine-making region in Spain.
The Glen Scotia Campbeltown Malts Festival 2025 Edition is bottled at the natural cask strength of 54.6% ABV and is both non-chill filtered and of natural colour. It is available at the festival at the end of May and also via selected specialist whisky retailers worldwide. A bottle should cost £68. The exact number of bottles was not revealed in the press release.
Scotch Malt Whisky Society
The Scotch Malt Whisky Society has launched a new series of small batch whiskies with each combining two casks of single malt from the same distillery. These have been married before bottling. The SMWS Two To One series kicks off with six bottlings. Each experimental whisky in the series has undergone a different journey from cask to bottle, creating a huge variety of styles, textures and flavours. The whiskies are available now directly via the SMWS website.
The six bottlings are:
- 10.284 Ginger Rollmop Sushi Phantasmagoria | 11 Years Old | Islay | 59.1% ABV | first-fill American oak ex-Pedro Ximenez sherry + second-fill ex-Oloroso sherry hogsheads | £80
- 80.62 Strawberry Sumac Scones | 14 Years Old | Speyside | 58.1% ABV | first-fill Spanish oak ex-Oloroso sherry + first-fill American oak ex-Oloroso hogsheads | £80
- 95.109 I’ve Got A Lovely Bunch of Coconuts | 14 Years Old | Highlands | 62.4% ABV | re-fill Trinidadian rum + new American oak barrels | £75
- 18.76 Moroccan Pastilla Anyone? | 15 Years Old | Speyside | 55.4% ABV | new American oak + first-fill Spanish oak ex-Oloroso casks | £80
- 46.152 The Fruit Merchant | 16 Years Old | Speyside | 51.6% ABV | new American oak + first-fill American oak ex-Oloroso hogsheads | £90
- 70.63 Interdimensional Patisserie | 16 Years Old | Highlands | 54.7% ABV | first-fill American oak ex-Pedro Ximenez hogshead + new American oak medium toast barrique | £85.
Tomatin
The Highland distillery of Tamatin have announced a new whisky that is exclusive to the global travel retail market. The Tomatin Double Cask 13 Years Old is matured in a combination of ex-bourbon barrels and ex-Oloroso sherry casks. It joins other expressions at 8-, 16-, 21- and 45 Years Old in the range. The new whisky also features refreshed packaging, which will be introduced to the other bottlings in time.
The Tomatin Double Cask 13 Years Old is released at 43% ABV. It will be available in UK initially, plus other major world airports including Amsterdam, Frankfurt and Istanbul. Other markets will be introduced throughout the year. A one litre bottle will cost £55/ €65.
