March Monthly Round up for the Whisky Drinker

Background – Here at The Cask Connoisseur, even though we’re not subscribed to every potential newsletter or source of information, we receive around four hundred emails over the course of a month with various promotions, new release information, distillery newsletter, updates etc. Add on social media posts and that amounts to somewhere well over 1000 pieces of information being reviewed per month. The aim of this monthly round up is to provide a summary of the most interesting bits along with upcoming events that can be gleaned from them. The downside to a monthly review is a lot of “special offers” will have come and gone.  

Summary of the Month

Starting with St David’s day and ending with Easter, there have been quite a lot of promotions and annual releases this month. As ever it is hard to read into the news what is happening to the whisky universe. But it would seem that continued expansion has stalled for now with existing players figuring out how to create more of a share for themselves of an existing space. An obvious example being there are more super-premium products being released, with increasing sales, whilst overall consumer sentiment seems poor with concerns over current costs and sales of everyday products decreasing. It looks quite tough for the industry at present, and the need for a long-term plan even more essential, not only for the industry but also for consumers. 

Highlights

The 1^{st of} March is St David’s day. To celebrate this here are the five leading Welsh “whisky” distilleries:

• Penderyn with three distilleries in the Brecon Beacons, Swansea and Llandudno.
• Aber Falls in Abergwyngregyn, North Wales.
• In the Welsh Wind distillery, Tangygroes, Southwest Wales. Their first release should be later this Spring. 
• Coles Distillery, Llanddarog, Carmarthenshire. 
• Mallows Distillery – slightly unusual in that their whisky production is a bourbon called “Charlie Parry’s”. To legally be called bourbon it must be produced in the USA and aged for two years, it is then shipped to Wales and diluted with local water.

The Whiskystats report states that for the third month in a row Scotch whisky prices of the 500 most trade whiskies remain stable, although the downward trend in Japanese whisky prices continue.

Compass Box limited annual release of Hedonism (43% ABV, £84.50) goes on sale using the last of their stocks of grain whiskies distilled in the 1990’s. 

Port of Leith starts production. Since October 2023 you could tour the distillery but now it will be accompanied by the smells of mashing and fermentation. 

Nc’Nean releases the first of their Aon single cask bottles. The first is an STR ex-red wine cask Aon 18-433 which is exclusively bottled for independent whisky shops in England. AON 19-137 which is described as a buttery, silky ex-bourbon cask goes to Switzerland. AON 17-234 in partnership with Gill Meller is an UK ex-rum cask from Two Drifters Distillery in the southwest of England will be sold via the Nc’Nean website. AON 18-642 will be launching exclusively in the USA.

UK spirits duty will be frozen until February 2025.

Tobermory launches a 26 year old whisky finished in oloroso sherry casks. This is the next but last whisky in the series which includes a 23,24,25 with the series originally launching in 2021.

Signatory launch a 31 year old “Old School Malts”. This is described on The Whisky Barrel website as, “containing whisky from these remarkable distilleries: Ardbeg, Balvenie, Bruichladdich, Banff, Brora, Caperdonich, Clynelish, Coleburn, Convalmore, Dallas Dhu, Dunglass, Dufftown, Glen Albyn, Glen Mhor, Glenfarclas, Glendronach, Glen Garioch, Glenugie, Glenlochy, Glenury, Imperial, Killyloch, Lagavulin, Laphroaig, Ledaig, Littlemill, Linlithgow, Lochside, Longrow, Macallan, Millburn, Oban, Pittyvaich, Pulteney, Port Ellen, Rosebank, Springbank, Scapa, Strathisla, Talisker and many more. Matured in sherry casks and bottled 2024. Batch #1 is limited release of 1,148 bottles”11. That is forty named distilleries!

Springbank release the 2024 bottle from the Countdown Collection via ballot. 500 bottles at 51.% ABV and 26 years old, priced at £2500. The 2024 release was created from three bourbon hogsheads. 

James Saxon is named as the new Compass Box whisky making director after the departure of John Glaser. James joined Compass Box in 2019 and has been the creator of Flaming Heart 2022, No Name, No. 3, Vellichor, and the Extinct Blends Quartet.

Torabhaig Cnoc Na Moine – the first official whisky from the distillery to include sherry cask maturation and part of the Legacy Series. 

Laphroaig update their Friends of Laphroaig offering which reaches 30 years old this year. The changes are the result of member feedback and are aimed at making things simpler, increasing value, and adding new ways to earn points. 

Diageo welcomed more than one million visitors to its visitor experiences across 12 distilleries and the Johnnie Walker Princes Street visitor experience in Edinburgh during 2023. The Edinburgh site saw 359,000 visitors over the year. Talisker was the most visited distillery with 184,000 visitors.

Royal Mile Whiskies revives its Dormant Distilleries brand with two new bottles, one an Imperial 1998 25 Year Old and the other a rum from Caroni 1999 24 Year Old. 

Bankhall Distillery which is based in Blackpool but rather confusingly refers to an “original distillery site in Liverpool” on it’s website, and also appears to only be a brand name (used for blended malt), has released Bankhall Cigar Malt, 43% ABV, £20. Bankhall is part of Halewood Artisanal Spirits (also known as Halewood International) which owns distilleries in England, Scotland and Wales and claims to be the only company to have distilleries in all three countries.  This might explain the brands pivot from an English malt to a British malt. Three further distilleries owned by Halewood Artisanal Spirits are Aber Falls (Wales), Bonington (Scotland) and City of London (England). If you’re somewhat confused, so are we, but it obviously works given the number of successful brands Halewood owns. 

The announcement In January by Diageo that it would no longer work with wholesalers who do not meet a minimum value order has been seen as an opportunity by other distributors to fill the gap. Wholesalers, of which there were 3,909 in 2021 are seen as essential in getting the conversation going around new brands.

Berry Bros & Rudd release their Spring collection. The range includes six whiskies and one rum, ranging in price from £75 for a Knockdhu 2012 to a Benrinnes 1979 Exceptional Cask at £1800.

Elsham Wold Distillery apologies for the delay in sending out their first release due to packaging problems. If you ordered a bottle, then you should have received it by the time you read this.

Port Ellen reopens after 40 years. Of interest are the four stills. The first two are exact replicas of the original Port Ellen stills – The Phoenix Stills, the second two are new and called The Experimental Stills. These “will explore ‘levels of precision’ in distillation ‘never before seen’ in Scotch” and are linked to a ten part spirit safe, compared to the three usually seen, and there is an on-site laboratory where their production will be recorded and analysed. 

Chivas Brothers announces a partnership with three river trusts in Scotland, “to protect and build a resilient network of Scottish rivers and riverbanks that support biodiversity for generations to come.” The projects will launch later this year and will focus on activities along the riverbank.

Several whisky auction sites have reduced their sellers commission to 0%.

Orkney Distillery starts whisky production with its first distillation run. The company will release two blends, Hoy and Fara, which will serve as “a brilliant introduction to what we’re looking to achieve with our diversification into Scotch.”

Royal Mile Whiskies offer the first release from Ballindalloch distillery which is the smallest distillery in Speyside. This is an eight year old single estate whisky which will become their core whisky along with two single cask expressions. 

Filey Bay Porter Cask. Somewhat unusual, this whisky arises from a parcel of PX and ex-bourbon casks which were bottled for previous releases. These casks were then filled with Wold Top Marmalade Porter to age the beer, before being returned to Filey Bay to be refilled with whisky. An interesting journey.

Another interesting piece of marketing is Livingstone Macbeth, a series of 42 whiskies selected in conjunction with Livingstone and Elixir Distillers along with illustrations from Sir Quentin Blake and character notes by Dave Broom. The full Macbeth Collection will be released “in six series of five acts”. Prices for the first six bottles vary from around £95 to £750.

Upcoming Whisky Events

Those without full dates, have occurred in 2024 without releasing 2025 dates at present. 

1^st-3^rd March 2024 – Fife Whisky Festival, various locations in Fife.

2^nd March 2024 – Whisky Birmingham – Birmingham

16^th March 2024 – Croydon Whisky Festival 

22^nd March 2024 – Whisky Fair – Cambridge

22^nd-23^rd March 2024 – Whisky Live London

6^th April 2024 – Clackmannanshire’s Whisky Festival, Alloa 

1^st-6^th May 2024 – Spirit of Speyside

18^th May 2024 – Summerton Whisky Festival, St Albans

20^st-25^th May 2024 – Campbeltown Whisky Festival

17^th – 18^th May 2024 – Whiskey Live Dublin

18^th May 2024 – Bladnoch Waterfall release day. This is the last release of the series.

24^th May – 1^st June 2024 – Fèis Ìle, Islay

2^nd June 2024 – The Whisky Event, London

15^th June 2024 – The Whisky Lounge: Edinburgh Whisky Festival

22^nd June 2024 – Stoke Whisky Festival – Stoke on Trent (cancelled)

28^th – 30^th June 2024 – Arran Whisky Festival, Arran

29^th June – National Whisky Festival, Inverness

6^th July 2024 – The Whisky Lounge: Bristol Whisky Festival

19^th – 20^th July 2024 – Southport Summer Whisky Festival, Churchtown & Southport

19^th – 27^th July 2024 – Belfast Whisky Week, Belfast

9^th – 11^th August 2024 – Whisky Fringe, Edinburgh

10^th August 2024 – Falkirk Whisky Social, Larbert

31^st August 2024 – Spirit of Alba Festival, Kirkintilloch

6^th September 2024 – Cadenhead’s in the Courtyard, Campbeltown

6^th – 8^th September 2024 – Whisky Show, London

6^th– 7^th September 2024 – Spirit of Speyside: Distilled, Elgin

9^th – 14^th September 2024 – Hebridean Whisky Festival

13^th – 14^th September 2024 – Whisky Indy Love Fest, Newcastle upon Tyne

14^th September 2024 – Scottish National Whisky Festival, Aberdeen

21^st September 2024 – The Whisky Lounge: Liverpool Whisky Festival

26^th September 2024 – Lagavulin Islay Jazz Festival

5^th October 2024 – Edinburgh’s Whisky Festival

5^th – 6^th October 2024 – Midland Whisky Festival, Birmingham

18^th – 19^th October 2024 – Manchester Whisky Festival

19^th October 2024 – Wee Dram Fest, Bakewell

25^th – 27^th October 2024 – Dornoch Whisky Festival 

26^th October 2024 – Whisky Social Belfast, Belfast

1^st – 3^rd November 2024 – Wales Whisky Fest, Llandudno

2^nd November 2024 – Leeds Whisky Festival

2^nd November 2024 – Stirling Whisky Festival

23^rd November 2024 – English Whisky Festival, Birmingham

7^th – 8^th December 2024 – Kendal Whisky Festival

10^th – 11^th January 2025 – Harrow Whisky Festival 

25^th January 2025 – Scottish National Whisky Festival, Glasgow

January 

• Southport Whisky Festival (Winter)

February  

• The Whisky Lounge: Newcastle Whisky Festival