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…
Glenallachie
The Speyside distillery of Glenallachie has revealed the second trio of bottlings in its limited edition Wine Cask Series. For each bottling the rare oak casks used have been sourced and selected by Billy Walker, the Master Distiller of Glenallachie, and feature three fine wine producers from France, Italy and Portugal. Initial maturation was in American oak ex-bourbon barrels in each case, before a finishing period in the red wine casks.
The Glenallachie 11 years old Premier Cru Classé Cask Finish has influence from French oak barrels previously used to age Bordeaux red wine. The Glenallachie 10 years old Grattamacco Cask Finish features ex-Super Tuscan wine barriques sourced from a prestigious organic winery in Italy. The Glenallachie 9 years old Douro Valley Cask Finish sees the whisky part-matured in barriques from one of Portugal’s most esteemed wine making regions. There are just 10,800, 15,600 and 12,000 bottles available respectively.
The three bottlings in the Glenallachie Wine Cask Series Batch 2 will be available globally through specialist whisky retailers. All are bottled at 48% ABV and are non chill-filtered and of natural colour. The Glenallachie 9 years old Douro Valley Cask Finish will cost £57, Glenallachie 10 years old Grattamacco Cask Finish £58 and Glenallachie 11 years old Premier Cru Classé Cask Finish.
Mossburn
The independent distillers and bottlers of Mossburn have announced the launch of a new series of whiskies, and the inaugural whisky in that series. The Mossburn Cask Collaboration Series kicks off with the limited edition Mossburn Speyside 12 years old Foursquare Rum Cask Finish sees Mossburn’s blended Speyside malt matured in ex-bourbon casks, before a finishing period in ex-rum casks from the Foursquare distillery in Barbados.
Forthcoming releases in the series will see similar casks from around the world used to finish their blended malts, and these are expected annually. The Mossburn Speyside 12 years old Foursquare Rum Cask Finish bottling is released at the natural cask strength of 57.7% ABV. There are just 10,000 bottles and these will be available globally via specialist whisky retailers. A bottle will cost £65/ $US80.
Port Askaig
The Islay single malt brand of Port Askaig, which is owned by Elixir Distillers, has announced a total revamp of its core range. The trio of new whiskies come with the new tagline of The Gateway to Islay. The range kicks off with Port Askaig 8 years old (pictured, below centre), which features an intricate marriage of cask types. Initial maturation is in ex-bourbon casks with an extended five year finish in a selection of ex-bourbon and toasted American oak barrels, plus ex-Pedro Ximenez sherry butts and re-fill hogsheads. A bottle will cost £50.
Two other limited edition batched whiskies will join the 8 years old – Port Askaig Cask Strength (pictured, above left) and Port Askaig 17 years old (pictured, above right). The Cask Strength will evolve with each batch with Batch #01-2023 aged in first-fill toasted ex-bourbon barrels and re-fill American oak hogsheads. Each batch will never be made from more than 60 casks. It is bottled at 59.4% ABV and will cost £65.
The 17 years old rounds off the range and is planned to be an annual release. Each batch will consist of just 9,000 bottles. The first batch has been matured in American oak ex-bourbon casks and bottled at the natural strength of 51.8% ABV. Each bottle will cost £125. All three expressions are both non chill-filtered and of natural colour, and will be available globally from late-October.
