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. Inbox will take a break over the festive period and will return in early-to-mid January 2025. Here is this week’s whisky news…
American Single Malt Whisky
The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) has officially recognised American single malt as a whiskey category after years of campaigning by leading craft distillers in the American Single Malt Whiskey Commission (ASMWC). The ruling sees American single malt named as a government-recognised and protected style.
Key provisions from the ruking include:
The whiskey MUST be made from a fermented mash of 100% malted barley produced in the US
It MUST have a distillation strength of 160 Proof/ 80% ABV or less
It MUST be distilled at the same distillery in the US
The whiskey MUST be stored in used, charred new, or uncharred new oak barrels, with a 700-litre maximum capacity and only stored in the US
No neutral spirits permitted; and no allowable colouring, flavouring, or blending materials permitted except E150 caramel colouring. This MUST be disclosed on the label.
The final ruling establishes a standard for straight American single malt whiskey – this MUST be aged a minimum of two years. The rule is scheduled to take effect on 19 January 2025. The decision has been widely welcomed by the American whiskey industry including the leading craft distillers of Balcones in Texas, Stranahan’s in Denver and Westland in Seattle.
See our posts about American Single Malts
Glenfiddich
The popular Speyside distilllery of Glenfiddich has announced a set of single malt whiskies that will celebrate the Lunar New Year in 2025. The Glenfiddich Lunar New Year 2025 Editions releases feature a collaboration with leading contemporary in artist Zhang Yu. Yu’s work pulls strongly on ancient Chinese tales. The three whiskies form part of Glenfiddich’s ‘Great Encounters’ initiative.
The whiskies include the Glenfiddich 21 years old Gran Reserva, which will be available to domestic markets worldwide. The Glenfiddich 15 years old Vat 03 and Glenfiddich 18 years old Vat 04. The travel retail exclusives come with a free glass and will be on sale in several Chinese airports including Guangzhou, Hong Kong and Shanghai, plus Kuala Lumpur, Melbourne and Singapore.
