Friday, April 20, 2018

Inbox - The Week's Whisky News (April 20, 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.

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.  This is the news that has grabbed our attention this week.

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Diageo


Diageo, the leading Scotch whisky producer, has announced a new state-of-the-art visitor experience that will be built in the centre of Edinburgh. This will focus on their famous Johnnie Walker brand and will offer visitors the opportunity to take part in an interactive tour that covers all aspects of the brand and bring it to life. This will also allow them to investigate the key single malt distilleries that contribute to Johnnie Walker.

In addition, Diageo has announced a programme to upgrade their 12 distillery visitor centres across Scotland with particular focus on their new 'Four Corners' initiative. This highlights four key distilleries, one each from the four main whisky production regions - Caol Ila (Islay), Cardhu (Speyside), Clynelish (Highlands) and Glenkinchie (Lowlands). The total investment in both projects will be £150 million woith the aim to drive food and drink based tourism in Scotland. Below is a promotional video showing the plans.



Gordon & MacPhail

The prominent independent whisky bottler of Gordon & MacPhail have revealed a modern new look for their range of single cask single malts. The company, which has remained family owned since it was founded 122 years ago, have also streamlined their extensive portfolio to five key ranges in order to give consumers a clearer message. These five ranges are Discovery, Distillery Labels, Connoisseur's Choice, Private Collection and Generations. Each is designed to celebrate Gordon & MacPhail's single-minded and historical commitment to the art of Scotch whisky maturation and bottling.

The first range to launch with the new branding is Connoisseur's Choice, which this year celebrates its 50th anniversary after first hitting the market in 1968. The new packaging features a large central G&M logo, with details of the single cask (age, ABV, cask type, year of distillation etc) shown more prominently than before. There is also a basic colour coding to aid customers with gold used for the regular bottlings at 46% ABV, silver for cask strength and red for wood finishes.

The brand new Discovery range, designed for new whisky drinkers, will then appear in late Spring with the new look Distillery Labels and Private Collection coming in the Summer and Autumn respectively. The launch of Generations is yet to be announced.


Tomatin 


The Highland distillery of Tomatin has seen its oldest ever single malt released via luxury provider Wealth Solutions. The single ex-sherry cask was distilled and filled in 1967, and this has yielded just 88 bottles. It was the oldest cask remaining in Tomatin's warehouses. The whisky is bottled at cask strength and is non chill-filtered and of natural colour. Details of the ABV strength and price were not given in the press release.

The Tomatin 50 years old Black is presented in a specially designed wooden box and decorative decanter, along with a book by leading whisky writer Martine Nouet. The book includes information and history of the Tomatin distillery and the cask involved, plus Nouet's tasting notes and suggestions of food pairings to compliment the whisky.


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