Red Fruit

Ardbeg Blaaack

2020 marked the 20th Anniversary of the Ardbeg Committee, a fan club of Ardbeg enthusiasts and a way for the distillery to stay in touch with fans of the brand. Every year in the spring, the distillery will release a special Committee Release. While available to non-Committee buyers, members hear about the upcoming whisky first and sometimes have a chance to buy it before retail. The 2020 Committee Release is the Ardbeg Blaaack. The name references a black sheep, depicted on the cover amidst a sea of white sheep. The sheep are there because the whisky was matured in ex-pinot noir casks from New Zealand, another island nation known for having an extremely high number of sheep.

By Adam | March 20, 2022 | Islay | No Comments |

Many an American single malt (and those the world over) take a variety of cues from scotch. Wanderback is tapping into a different tradition, one found in both Ireland and in the Bourbon world here in the United States, somewhere between a distillery and an independent bottler. This is where a brand works with a distillery to create the whisky, which is then handed over to the brand for anything else like maturation and blending. This isn’t because the company wants to shortcut the normal process, moreso that they want to explore all the prospects American whiskies currently produce already offer and take them in new directions. The first four batches, The Evergreen Collection, were distilled just a few hours to their north at Westland Distillery. The Wanderback Batch 3 has been aged in high toast, low char new American oak and finished in French oak port casks.

By Adam | October 30, 2021 | Foreign | No Comments |