Thursday, July 3, 2014

New Whiskey Labels: Balvenie, Craigellachie, Balcones and some Brandies


It looks like Balvenie's popular Tun 1401 will be joined by Tun 1509.  Unlike the 1401, this new whisky's label doesn't have any details about its components.

This week saw label approvals for a new line of malts from Craigellachie.  A Speyside malt that is mostly made for use in Dewer's, Craigellachie's only regular bottling has been a 14 year old that isn't available in the U.S., but labels were cleared for a 13, 17, 23 and 31 year old.

Balcones Distillery in Texas cleared a label for a single malt finished in French oak casks.

There's another new Germain-Robin label for the brandy lovers out there; the Small Blend No. 1 is a blend of Colombard and Pinot Noir brandies, the youngest of which is 17 years old.

The George Washington Distillery at Mt. Vernon, which has previously made rye whiskey, cleared a label for an apple brandy.


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

That Balcones in French Oak looks very nice. Hope its not too limited.

Andrew said...

I'm feeling very cynical about the Balvenie. After the slam-bang reception 1401 got, 1509 will sell faster than they can keep it on the shelves, no matter what's in the bottle. Which makes me worry about why they didn't bother to tell us what was actually blended for this release.

numen said...

Germain-Robin apparently released their Small Blends 2 & 3 already. I was less impressed by the blend 1 (still excellent) than the single varietals, but I've yet to have a G-R that I didn't like.

I'm more surprised that, per the mailer, the Maison Surrenne Ancienne Distillerie Petite Champagne cognac is now going for $135, nearly a *$100* increase from the cost last year. They say that it's the demand from Asia, but that still seems utterly extreme. The borderies is still $100, but the Ancienne was the VSOP release. It seems a bit... odd... to say the least that just that one release went up in price.