It’s a worldwide whisky mashup among this week’s newest releases.
Boutique blender Compass Box has unveiled its newest blend, created in honor of the company’s majority-female staff. Hedonism, The Muse is a special edition of Compass Box’s core blended grain scotch whisky and—if past limited editions have been any indication—should be a heck of a dram.
Meanwhile, Glendalough Distillery from County Wicklow, Ireland has three new expressions, which are rolling out with new packaging for the brand. Glendalough Double Barrel is a single grain whiskey aged first in bourbon barrels, then finished in oloroso sherry casks. Glendalough Black Pitts Finish 7 year old was finished in porter beer barrels from Dublin’s 5 Lamps Brewery. And Glendalough Mizunara Cask Finish 13 year old is the first Irish whiskey finished in casks made from Japanese mizunara oak.
Jura Distillery, located off Scotland’s west coast, is launching two new expressions to go with Jura 10 year old, which hit the market last year. Jura Seven Wood was aged initially in ex-bourbon casks, then finished in six different types of French oak. Jura 18 year old is a mature single malt that spent a finishing period in Premier Grand Cru Bordeaux wine casks.
Finally, Fusion Whisky has released its latest blend of scotch with international single malt. The Winter Queen, named in honor of Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Bohemia, blends Glenrothes and Longmorn scotches with single malt from Zuidam Distillery in the Netherlands. Read on for full details.
Compass Box Hedonism, The Muse
Style: Blended grain whisky
Origin: Scotland
Age: Not stated
Proof: 53.3% ABV
Price: $275
Release: March 2018
Availability: 3,060 bottles
Need to know:
Compass Box is releasing a special-edition expression of Hedonism, its blended grain scotch, that celebrates the fact that its blending team now includes more women than men—a situation that remains unusual in the scotch industry.
Whisky Advocate says:
Compass Box claims that Hedonism was the first scotch label to feature a woman’s image. We won’t argue with that, nor with the fact that Hedonism’s past special-edition bottlings have been extremely well received, with Hedonism Maximus scoring 90 points and Hedonism Quindecimus scoring 92 points.
Glendalough Double Barrel Single Grain Whiskey
Style: Single grain whiskey
Origin: Ireland
Age: Not stated
Proof: 42% ABV
Price: $30-$35
Release: March 2018
Availability: Widely available in CO, CT, DE, GA, IL, MA, MD, NJ, NY, RI, and Washington, D.C.
Need to know:
This single grain Irish whiskey aged for three years in bourbon barrels before being finished in 500-liter oloroso sherry casks for six months.
Glendalough Black Pitts Finish 7 year old Single Malt
Style: Single malt
Origin: Ireland
Age: 7 years old
Proof: 46% ABV
Price: $55-$60
Release: March 2018
Availability: 12,000 bottles in CO, CT, DE, GA, IL, MA, MD, NJ, NY, RI, and Washington, D.C.
Need to know:
Aged for seven years in first-fill ex-bourbon casks, this single malt whiskey was finished in barrels that previously held Blackpitts Porter from Dublin’s 5 Lamps Brewery.
Glendalough Mizunara Finish 13 year old Single Malt
Style: Single malt
Origin: Ireland
Age: 13 years old
Proof: 46% ABV
Price: $110-$120
Release: March 2018
Availability: 6,000 bottles in CO, CT, DE, GA, IL, MA, MD, NJ, NY, RI, and Washington, D.C.
Need to know:
A 13 year old single malt, this whiskey was initially aged in first-fill ex-bourbon barrels, then finished in virgin mizunara casks, sourced from Japan.
Whisky Advocate says:
Located in Ireland’s County Wicklow, Glendalough Distillery has been making whiskey (and poitín and gin) since 2015. That liquid is still aging, however (due for release in late 2018), so the whiskey in these bottles was made elsewhere. (Glendalough was able to purchase casks “before a big distillery buy out,” according to a spokesperson…There’s only been one of those in Ireland in recent history, so take an educated guess.)
The distillery’s aim with these new expressions is to create different flavor profiles than expected for Irish whiskey. So even though there have been beer barrel-finished whiskeys before, like Jameson Caskmates, putting a single malt into a porter barrel is fairly unique. And Glendalough is the only Irish distillery to have used the rare Japanese mizunara oak as a finishing wood. The results are sure to be interesting!
Jura Seven Wood
Style: Single malt
Origin: Scotland (Islands)
Age: Not stated
Proof: 42% ABV
Price: $75
Release: March 2018
Availability: Widely available
Need to know:
Initially aged in first-fill ex-bourbon casks, this non-age statement single malt then undergoes finishing in six types of French oak: Limousin, Tronçais, Allié, Vosges, Jupilles, and Les Bertranges.
Jura 18 year old
Style: Single malt
Origin: Scotland (Islands)
Age: 18 years old
Proof: 44% ABV
Price: $125
Release: March 2018
Availability: Widely available
Need to know:
This single malt spent 18 years in ex-bourbon casks before a finishing period in Premier Grand Cru Bordeaux red wine barriques.
Whisky Advocate says:
Jura Distillery announced a total rebrand and relaunch in 2017, starting with Jura 10 year old in the U.S. At the time that whisky was released, the company stated that it would add more expressions in the future, and here we get a double whammy. There’s a 12 year old and something called Journey also rolling out in the UK, but no word on if or when those whiskies will be hitting U.S. shores.
Fusion Whisky The Winter Queen
Style: Blended malt
Origin: Scotland (Speyside) and the Netherlands
Age: 9 years old
Proof: 52.7% ABV
Price: £125
Release: February 2018
Availability: 866 bottles
Need to know:
A blend of single malt from Glenrothes and Longmorn distilleries in Speyside and a single malt from Zuidam Distillery in the Netherlands, this whisky is named for Elizabeth Stuart, the daughter of King James VI of Scotland and Queen Anne of Denmark. She was queen of Bohemia for a brief period before spending most of her life in exile in The Hague.
Whisky Advocate says:
Fusion Whisky blends single malt scotch with single malt whiskies from around the world. Its first release, The Glover, combined Longmorn and Glen Garioch with Hanyu single malt from Japan, while its second release, The E&K, was a blend of Ardmore and Glenrothes and single malt from Amrut Distillery in India. Alex Bruce, managing director and master blender for independent bottler Adelphi, blends Fusion Whisky’s different offerings. Unfortunately, these whiskies are not for sale in the U.S.
