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Top 10
Top 10 spirit launches in May
May 2013 saw an influx of premium whisky launches along with a few flavoured spirits, limited editions and travel retail editions thrown in for good measure.
These brands make up our top 10 spirit launches in May. Can you guess them all?
Tamdhu single malt has been reinvented as an exclusively sherried whisky after Ian Macleod Distillers bought the distillery in 2011 while other whisky launches include a limited edition coronation package by The Macallan and a commemorative whisky for Ardbeg’s annual day of celebration, Ardbog Day.
Bols has come up with a solution to many bartenders’ creative woes by creating a honey liqueur that imparts the honey taste without the problem of it sticking to the bottom of the glass.
Hapsburg Absinthe is also trying to crack the Brazilian market with its new range of Quartier Latin flavoured absinthe at a lower abv to conform with Brazilian alcohol content guidelines.
Meanwhile Berry Bros & Rudd are celebrating the launch of their first travel retail-exclusive range of The Glenrothes.
Have we missed any out? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
The Macallan Coronation
Commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Queen’s coronation, The Macallan has released a limited edition celebratory package to mark the occasion.
The package, which is presented in a Gold, WIndsor Red and Blue box inspired by the Queen’s coat of arms, contains two bottles of The Macallan single malt. The first is aged in an American Oak cask and has a citrus-led taste, while the second is aged in Spanish sherry casks and has a fruity but nutty flavour.
Both bottles feature images of the Queen in 1953 and 2004 by royal photographer Cecil Beaton and portrait photographer Julian Calder.
This package completes a trio of releases celebrating recent royal celebrations, firstly, the royal marriage between Prince William and Kate Middleton in April 2011, and the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee in June 2012.
The bottlings are retailed for £350 and are available in limited quantities.
Read more about The Macallan Coronation bottling here.
Glenrothes Manse Brae
Manse Brae is an exclusive travel retail trio of single malt whiskies by The Glenrothes. Rothes House, or the Manse, is the inspiration for this collection. The former Minister’s house is the focal point of Manse Brae, the street in which the families that own the Glenrothes live and according to Ronnie Cox, brands heritage director of Berry Bros. & Rudd Spirits: “It has always been and remains a welcoming place for kindred spirits who appreciate the exceptional quality of our whisky.”
The Manse Brae collection was commissioned in response to high interest in Glenrothes in the travel retail sector and consists of: Manse Reserve, an American oak aged whisky, retailed at £33; the Elder’s Reserve, a whisky aged for a minimum of 18 years, retailed at £80 and the Minister’s Reserve, which is matured for a minimum of 21 years and available for £115.
Find out more about the Glenrothes Manse Brae collection here.
Tamdhu 10-Year-Old
Speyside single malt distillery Tamdhu, which was taken over by Ian Mcleod in 2011, has released its first new expression under its new owner.
Tamdhu 10-year-old marks the first release from the brand under its new focus on producing purely sherried whiskies. The distillery is maturing all its whiskies for Tamdhu in first and second-fill Spanish Oloroso sherry casks, a focus which has become their new unique selling point.
The bottle is weighty and broad-shouldered, with a columnar base and its design comes from the Victorian era in which the Tamdhu distillery was originally built.
Tamdhu intends to follow up the 10-year-old, which retails at around £33, with an older expression next year.
Read more about Tamdhu’s future plans here.
Paul John Brilliance and Paul John Edited
Brilliance and Edited are the names of two single malt whiskies from India’s John Distilleries, which has chosen the UK as its launch country in a bid to introduce western consumers to Indian whisky.
Paul John Brilliance is a non-peated single malt using barley grown in the north of India and aged in ex-bourbon barrels for a light, fruity taste.
Paul John Edited however, is a whisky made using 15% Islay-sourced peated barley, which gives it rich chocolate and vanilla notes.
The whiskies are aged at its coastal distillery in Goa where, due to the annual evaporation rate of 13%, the whiskies are no older that four or five years.
Read more about Paul John’s move on the Western world.
Ardbeg Ardbog
The Ardbeg Ardbog is a limited edition release paying homage to the peated bogs of Islay, the Scottish Isle in which the Ardbeg Distillery sits.
The 10-year-old whisky is matured in both ex-bourbon barrels and rare ex-Manzanilla sherry butts, is not chill-filtered and is bottled at 52.1% abv.
The result is a salty texture, reminiscent of the salty peat bogs, combined with the classic Ardbeg notes of smoke, toffee and leather.
Ardbog is one of Ardbeg’s many limited edition releases, which have previously included Ardbeg Galileo, an experiment to see if a whisky could be matured in space.
Ardbeg Ardbog is available at select retailers for an RRP of £79.99.
Find out more about Ardbeg Ardbog here.
Bols Honey Liqueur
Honey has always been a particularly difficult addition to cocktails due to its irritating habit of settling at the bottom of a glass instead of mixing properly, however, Dutch liqueurs company Bols claims to have developed a solution.
Their creation is a honey liqueur made from a blend of honey from three different ‘landscapes’ including Acacia, Manuka and Blossom.
With input from bartenders from all over the world, it is hoped the convenience of the liqueur, which is 17% abv and has buttery, vanilla notes, will give bartenders a viable alternative to using pure honey.
It will be launched in September to 15 markets, including the UK, Poland, Holland and Scandinavia with a retail price of around £13.
Find out how Bols Honey proposes to solve bartenders’ sticky honey problems here.
The Glenlivet Alpha
May saw the launch of The Glenlivet Alpha, a single malt whisky that was released without details of age, colour, cask or taste.
The idea behind the limited edition is to challenge consumers’ preconceptions of whisky, without the influence of age, cask or colour.
Only 3,500 bottles have been produced and aimed mainly at existing The Glenlivet and single malt enthusiasts. Purchasers were challenged to discover their own notes, which were eventually revealed on 6 June.
The Glenlivet’s master distiller, Alan Winchester, revealed that the whisky had been aged in first-fill Scotch barrels unlike the more commonly used Bourbon or Sherry, resulting in a vibrant colour with sweet notes of orange and clove.
The age of the whisky remains a secret as guidelines set by the Scotch Whisky Association forbid the reveal of an age if it has not been printed on the label.
It is available on the global market for £95.
Get more tasting notes for The Glenlivet Alpha here.
Jura’s Turas Mara
Gaelic for ’long-journey’ and inspired by the Diurachs, the inhabitants of Jura, Turas-Mara is the new travel retail exclusive from the Jura Distillery.
The Diurachs were forced to emigrate to countries such as Canada and the US in the early 18th and 19th centuries in what is known as ‘The Clearances’, making Turas Mara’s position as a travel retail exclusive quite fitting.
The whisky is 42% abv and is aged in oak casks sourced from America, Spain, France and Portugal with vanilla, toffee and black cherry notes.
Jura’s Turas Mara will be available throughout 2013 in select travel retail locations at an RRP of £40.
Find out where you can get Jura Turas Mara here.
Hapsburg Quartier Latin
Hapsburg has launched a new low-strength range of absinthes for the Brazilian market to appeal to the ‘younger generation of consumers’.
With alcohol content in Brazilian spirits limited to 54% abv, the core range of Hapsburg Absinthe, which varies between 72.5% and 89.9% remains unavailable.
However, the new Hapsburg Quartier Latin, which comes in at 53.4% will be available in four flavours including Original, Black Fruits of the Forest, Red Summer Fruits and Cassis from July.
Hapsburg currently produces a number of absinthe-flavoured liqueur shots with a 33% abv, which the group say are already making an impact. The flavours come in Vanilla, Peach, Apple, Espresso, Liquorice and Blackberry.
Corazon Bourbon Tequila
US drinks group Sazerac, owner of Corazon Tequilas, has launched five limited edition Tequilas aged in ex-whiskey barrels, including those previously holding Buffalo Trace and George T. Stagg.
The Tequilas are aged for different periods of time and include a Reposado, aged in Buffalo Trace barrels for 10.5 months, a George T. Stagg añejo, aged for 22 months, a Sazerac Rye añejo aged for 24 months, an Old Rip Van Winkle aged for 23 months and a Blanco. All of them are bottled at 40% abv except for the Sazerac Rye, which is bottled at 45% abv.
There are only 6,000 bottles of each expression that be released nationwide in the US in mid to late June. They will be priced between $59.99 and $89.99.