As you may know, the shutdown of the US government also has consequences for the whisky industry. The Tax & Trade Bureau is not accepting submissions of new alcohol labels, which means no new whiskies can be approved for sale in the US. As their COLAs listing is an interesting sources for upcoming releases, we now have less to announce…
Ardmore 30 Year Old
Ardmore has bottled a 1987 vintage 30 Year Old exclusively available from The Whisky Exchange. Matured in refill barrels and then finished in first-fill ex-bourbon barrels, it is said to have lots of fruity notes alongside the smoke.
The reasonable price makes this an attractive offer. Check The Whisky Exchange if you’re interested.
Suntory Ao World Whisky
Suntory Ao is a blended whisky made with spirit from five countries: Scotland, Ireland, America, Canada and Japan. Beam Suntory obviously owns Suntory but also Yamazaki, Bowmore, Laphroaig, Kilbeggan and Cooley, among others.
As you may know, a lot of whiskies marketed as ‘Japanese’ are already blended with spirit from Scotland or Canada – a creative solution for the general shortage of true Japanese whisky. Regulations in Japan are quite flexible, and as long as the spirit passes through Japan at some point, it can be sold as Japanese whisky. Let’s hope this Suntory Ao is a step towards more transparency for the entire Japanese industry.
Royal Lochnagar 30 Years
A cask of Royal Lochnagar was gifted to Prince Charles to mark the 140th anniversary of the first royal visit to this distillery by Queen Victoria. Recently in November, the Prince turned 70 and and requested the contents to be bottled, with proceeds being donated to his own charity foundation.
Cask number #1129 (refill American oak) yielded 206 bottles and 186 of these will be sold via ballot through The Whisky Exchange.
Enter here to get a chance to grab a bottle
Also interesting
Things that may not have been widely announced but that grabbed my attention in shops recently…
- Compass Box Stranger & Stranger
- Highland Park 2002 single cask (Loch Fyne exclusive)
- Kavalan Vinho Barrique 2012 (TWE exclusive)
- Springbank Local Barley 9 Years
- Laphroaig 25 Years (2018 release)
- Dingle Second Single Pot Still release
- Ardmore 19 Years (TBWC)
- Orkney 2007 First Editions (cask #15538)
- Daftmill 2006 Summer Batch
- Ardbeg Twenty Something 22 Years