Glen Scotia announced recently that they'd be doing away with the short lived "Seasonal Releases" in favor of the new, marketing friendly "Icons of Campbeltown Collection." The inaugural world wide release of the five part, annual series titled "The Mermaid" consists of unpeated 12 year old ex bourbon casks, finished for 8 months in Palo Cortado. Suggested RRP is £90, which means it'll probably land in the states for around $120 or so.
In a more, modern than usual turn of events over at Laphroaig, the distillery has expanded their portfolio to include a new exploratory series looking to highlight some of the new production projects they've been working on recently. The first release is a NAS expression labeled "Elements 1.0" or "Elements L 1.0...little confusing here...and priced at £170.00, sold out immediately on the website, but should be coming to selected retailers this week). There's no word on any future releases at the moment, nor do we know if they will carry an age statement.
After initial plans to build a distillery on Islay's Gartbreck Farm property fell through, back in 2017...Chivas Brothers, the Scotch whisky arm of Pernod Ricard, is currently in talks to purchase the land and submit final plans for approval to open their first Islay distillery. The move, which coincides with their other recent announcement of investing £10 million into its Dumbarton bottling plant, would essentially ensure a streamline of peated single malt whisky to be used presumably for their blended malt portfolio. The moves would also allow them to expand into the greatly anticipated Indian market with their already, world famous brands of Chivas Regal, Ballantine's and Royal Salute.
as plans were submitted to the Highland Council, on behalf of Compass Box for the construction of a new distillery with an accompanying visitor and blending center to be built on the Inverlochy Castle Estate. Information is still very bleak at the moment, with the plans being initially appearing as reported rather than announced straight from the company. The general outlook it seems though, is that blending will remain a large part of the company's identity, and even showcased through the visitor experience.
is hitting the shelves now at the UK Duty Free shops. The Ardbeg Smoketrails Côte Rôtie Edition is said to be a "punchy and full-bodied spirit with a heart matured in Côte Rôtie red wine casks, then married with classic bourbon barrels." Following up on last year' impressive and reasonably priced 1st release, the Ardbeg Smoketrails Manzanilla Edition...fans, I'm sure will find something to complain about, since that's unfortunately, been the case for some time now with Ardbeg.
**Disclaimer**
I have no affiliation or ties to any of the following retailers found in the links below. The bottles mentioned are meant to be represented from my own personal, market consumer point of view, and should not be seen as any suggestion, or recommendation of purchase. These are merely bottles that spiked some genuine curiosity from myself, and I felt some fellow whisky nerds would find intriguing. I also don't work for any shipping service and as such, would highly recommend that any reasonable human being who may find one or more these bottles interesting enough for purchase, reach out to the retailer to confirm shipping to their country is possible at this time.
