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Top 50 innovative spirits launches of 2017: 10-1

As we reach the end of our world’s most innovative spirits list, we take in a rye Scotch whisky, a super-premium herbal liqueur and a Cognac finished in Sherry casks. But which product secured the top accolade?

Scroll on to view the final part of our top 50 innovative spirits launches of 2017

Counting down the top 50 inventive new spirits which grabbed the spotlight in the industry last year, this was the group that went beyond expectations.

A number of brands turned heads with interesting production methods, unusual ingredients and stand-out packaging designs, while many entered new categories with boundary-breaking expressions.

And be in no doubt – selecting this year’s front­runners was no easy feat, with brands hailing from all over the world, and even from the most niche of categories, making the cut.

Click through the following pages to see the fifth part of our top 50 innovative spirits launches of 2017, counting down from 10 to 1.

To view 20 to 11, click here.

To view 30 to 21, click here.

To view 40 to 31, click here.

To view 50 to 41, click here.

10. Method and Madness

Jameson maker Irish Distillers has designed its new range – Method and Madness – to “push the boundaries” of Irish whiskey, featuring a range of styles under the one title.

The range currently consists of four bottlings: Single Grain Irish Whiskey Finished in Virgin Spanish Oak; Single Pot Still Irish Whiskey Finished in French Chestnut; Single Malt Irish Whiskey Enhanced With French Limousin Oak; and the final bottling, the limited-­edition Single Grain Irish Whiskey 31 Year Old, matured in an ex-Bourbon cask.

For more information, click here.

9. Johnnie Walker Blenders’ Batch Espresso Roast

This was released under Johnnie Walker’s experimental Blenders’ Batch Series last August, and stands out with both its creative production and focus on flavour.

Launched alongside the range’s Rum Cask Finish and Wine Cask Blend, Johnnie Walker Blenders’ Batch Espresso Roast is the result of experiments by Johnnie Walker blender Aimée Gibson, using an inventory of whiskies distilled using barley roasted “more heavily than ever before”.

The whiskies have been matured in a combination of rejuvenated casks and first-­fill Bourbon casks. The whisky’s name is based on its flavour – said to be “deliciously rich, smooth” with “punchy notes of rich coffee and dark chocolate”.

For more information, click here.

8. Jägermeister Manifest

Last March, Jägermeister unveiled Manifest – the brand’s first super­-premium product that marked a move upmarket for the herbal liqueurs category.

The expression is based on Jägermeister’s original recipe of 56 herbs, roots and spices, but contains additional botanicals, and is made using five macerates rather than four. It is matured in both small and large oak casks for more than one year to intensify the flavour.

“Jägermeister Manifest not only reflects our leadership in herbal craft and our investment in the growing premium spirits category, it also signifies a shift in perceptions of the Jägermeister brand,” Nicole Goodwin, marketing director for Mast-­Jägermeister UK, said at the time of the launch.

For more information, click here.

7. Maturing Malt

A number of new whisky distilleries have released their new-make or partially-­aged spirit to give eager fans a taste of what’s to come. Spirit of Yorkshire’s Maturing Malt, however, stands out because of its ability to showcase the single-­estate distillery’s unique production methods.

Set up with the input from late whisky expert Dr Jim Swan, Spirit of Yorkshire distillery uses two distillation techniques: a traditional pot still and more experimental four-­plate column still system, both of which distil malted barley. Each type of distillation takes place for six months.

Maturing Malt is a marriage of the distillery’s two-­spirit styles, drawn from five casks filled in July and September 2016, making it just over one year old. Spirit of Yorkshire exclusively uses local barley and is seeking to offer “full traceability” in its products.

For more information, click here.

6. Ryelaw

Opened by Scotch whisky veteran Ian Palmer in 2016, there was always an air of excitement around Fife’s InchDairnie Distillery, which describes itself as having a “forward­-thinking approach to producing malt Scotch whisky”. And whisky boffins were not disappointed by the revelation that the distillery’s first product will be made with rye – marking the grain’s return to commercial Scotch whisky production for the first time in a century.

Since Ryelaw has not yet been released, its inclusion in this list of launches may seem unusual, but the significance of the product to the wider Scotch category means it is worthy of a place.

Distilled following a year of research, Ryelaw contains a high proportion of malted rye – meaning it will meet the legal definitions of both a single grain Scotch whisky and an American rye whiskey.

Before distillation, the grains are passed through a mash filter, rather than a traditional mash tun, because of their viscosity.

For more information, click here.

5. Collectivum XXVIII

The day that Diageo announces the line­up of its Special Releases is always a time of almost crazed excitement for hardcore whisky fans. But the annual line­up of limited-­edition whiskies – a showcase of Diageo’s rare Scotch stocks – is, arguably, not exactly a hotbed of innovation. Are the whiskies old? Yes. Rare? Yes. Interesting and educational? Certainly. But since the range focuses on more mature varieties, newness is not always abundantly obvious.

However, in 2017, Diageo unveiled something markedly different in the range: a blended malt containing liquid from all 28 of its active Scottish distilleries called Collectivum XXVIII. It is also only the fourth no­-age­-statement expression in the Special Releases series, and is the first blended malt included in the line­up.

In addition, it is one of the first whiskies to contain liquid from Diageo’s newest Scotch whisky distillery, Roseisle. Master blender Maureen Robinson says it has a waxy mouthfeel with a flavour of tangerines, aniseed and a hint of smoke.

For more information, click here.

4. Nikka Coffey Vodka/ Nikka Coffey Gin

Last June, Japanese whisky producer Nikka joined the Japanese white spirits trend with the launch of a vodka and a gin. Nikka swiped SB’s Most Innovative Spirit Launch of 2014 title for its Nikka Coffey Malt, which merged malt and grain whisky distillation.

Now the company has turned heads with the use of its towering Coffey still – a continuous column still – to create white spirits. While many gins and vodkas are distilled in a continuous still, Nikka’s products stand out with their innovative base spirits, which are blended in a similar way to whisky.

Nikka Coffey Vodka is created using a mix of malted barley and corn, which are distilled separately in the Coffey still before blending, dilution, and filtration using birch charcoal.

Similar to the vodka, the gin also uses two base spirits distilled from malted barley and corn in the Coffey still. The base spirits are blended and used to steep three batches of botanicals. The steeped spirits are then redistilled separately in three different types of pot stills before blending.

For more information, click here.

3. Courvoisier Sherry Cask Finish

In September, Beam Suntory unveiled Courvoisier Sherry Cask Finish, becoming the first major Cognac producer to make a serious move into cask finishing. While other smaller players have experimented with oak for finishing, Courvoisier is pioneering it at an international level, and is considering expanding into a range of cask-­finished expressions in the future.

The initial blend is a mix of liquid aged for two to eight years. This blend is then matured for a further two and a half years in French limousin oak casks before moving to PX Sherry casks for at least four months.

Courvoisier’s master blender, Patrice Pinet, experimented with various cask finishes before deciding on the PX cask.

For more information, click here.

2. Lone Wolf

Last year saw BrewDog take its renegade attitude to the world of spirits. The Scottish brewer, and now distiller, unveiled the first products from its Lone Wolf Distillery: a vodka, a gin, and an accompanying soda and tonic.

Unsurprisingly, given BrewDog’s history of ‘punk’ marketing, Lone Wolf’s messages can be viewed as somewhat bombastic and combative to the wider spirits industry (the brand boasts of a plan to “defend the truth, to the death”, and says spirits filtration is for the “lazy and vain”).

Nevertheless, its inaugural products are certainly innovative, and are indicative of a wider move towards transparency in spirits. Unlike the majority of vodka and gin brands, Lone Wolf’s products are described as “pure bloodline” – that is, they are distilled from scratch on the premises, without the use of neutral grain spirit.

Lone Wolf Vodka is distilled four times and “lightly filtered” only once to allow the grain character to “shine through”, while Lone Wolf Gin is unfiltered, allowing “all the flavour and spirit complexity to remain”.

The distiller will release a Scotch whisky in the future, and has also revealed plans to launch a beer-­based absinthe, and a rum. Lone Wolf Distillery, based inside BrewDog’s Ellon brewhouse, features what is said to be the world’s only triple­-bubble still.

For more information, click here.

1. Ballantine’s Single Malt Series

On the face of it, 15-­year-­old single malts from Chivas Brothers’ Speyside-­based Glenburgie, Miltonduff and Glentauchers distilleries do not scream innovation. However, consider that the whiskies have been released under the label of Ballantine’s – the world’s second­-best­-selling Scotch whisky, and one of the most well­-known blends in the sector – and they take on a decidedly more creative and interesting guise.

The whiskies – all key components in the final Ballantine’s blend – marked the brand’s entry into the single malt category. It is highly unusual to see a blend, and especially one as established as Ballantine’s, move into an entirely different category without deviating from its core branding. However, according to Ballantine’s, the whiskies stay true to its history while retaining their own distinct personalities.

The move represented Chivas Brothers’ bid to capitalise on the rapid growth of single malts by giving its key Scotch brand a footing in the category. In 2016, value exports of single malt Scotch whisky hit £1 billion (US$1.3bn) for the first time after growing by 12%. Blended bottled Scotch also grew for the first time in four years, but at the much slower rate of 1.4%.

“The single malts category is dynamic and continues to grow rapidly as more consumers become lovers of this iconic Scottish spirit,” Peter Moore, Ballantine’s global brand director, said at the time of the launch. “As a globally known brand, we are sure that consumers will have confidence in the quality and credibility of these new single malts as they are widely recognised as the signature malts that form the heart of Ballantine’s.”

The launches also seemed to serve a brand education purpose – demonstrating to consumers the three predominant flavours in Ballantine’s. Glenburgie, Miltonduff and Glentauchers whiskies have rarely been bottled as single malts, since the liquid is almost exclusively reserved for blending into Ballantine’s.

Speaking to The Spirits Business last year, Laurent Lacassagne, chairman and CEO of Chivas Brothers, said: “The three distilleries are those on which the whole Ballantine’s range has been built. They are intimately linked to the brand and its roots, its history. They are the heart of the Ballantine’s brand. A couple of years ago we launched into travel retail a limited edition called the Distillery Edition, which had a stronger component of one of the three distilleries. This gave us the idea to go a little bit further and offer a deconstructed Ballantine’s range to the public.”

For more information, click here.

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