Bold new Scotch Whisky brand revealed by Loch Lomond Group

Independent distillery welcomes Spearhead to growing portfolio

Multi award winning drinks distiller, Loch Lomond Group, has revealed a new Single Grain Scotch Whisky: Spearhead.

The new expression showcases pioneering craftsmanship and whisky-making techniques which create a lighter spirit, aiming to encourage more drinkers to enter the world of whisky.

The whisky is bold and has a sweeter style, similar to a Bourbon, and is crafted at Loch Lomond’s distillery using a continuous Coffey style still, allowing for a lighter spirit to be created. The spirit is then aged in ex-bourbon barrels before finishing in a combination of fire and infrared-toasted virgin American oak barrels.

The innovative infrared barrels allow for an exact level of toast that extracts natural properties in the barrel, releasing a range of flavours from the wood that are then caramelized to give a complex range of sweet notes. Using a combination of traditionally fire toasted and infrared toasted barrels, the result is ultra-smooth, with a depth and complexity to the flavour. Loch Lomond Distillery is currently the only distillery in Scotland to use infrared barrels to finish whisky.

This process is unique to Scotch Whisky making, making Spearhead a pioneer in the field, and creates a bold yet light and sweeter taste, perfect for new whisky drinkers or those who enjoy long serves.

For those looking to try a new, fun cocktail,  Spearhead’s take on a Clover Club, which replaces the traditionally-used gin base for Scotch, is a wonderfully sweet yet sour serve. Alternatively, whisky drinkers can enjoy a spritzer-style serve, swapping wine for Spearhead and serving with Pêche de Vigne and ginger ale, or try a Spear and Beer, serving 50mls with a can of craft beer.

Displayed in a striking Bourbon-style bottle, Spearhead offers notes of vanilla pod, blackberries and dark chocolate, making it a deliciously light neat dram, or an exciting base for longer drinks and cocktails.

Priced at £30 RRP with an ABV of 43% and available to purchase online, Spearhead is an ideal expression for those who enjoy American and Irish Whiskey and are keen to venture into the world of Scotch.

Calum Leslie, Head of Innovation at Loch Lomond Group, said: “We have been working very hard to create an innovative new Scotch Whisky and we are pleased to finally launch Spearhead to market.

“While this style of whisky is very popular in the Irish and American markets, there isn’t anything comparable in the Scotch sector. Spearhead is one of a kind, championing the single grain, and taking a non-traditional approach to whisky making that will resonate with people new to Scotch. It’s the perfect whisky for those who prefer the sweetness of a bourbon or enjoy a long-whisky based serve, with Spearhead taking a twist on some classic cocktails.

“Adopting our 200-year history of distilling, Spearhead has been created with the same level of care and expertise that goes into each and every one of Loch Lomond Group’s expressions, but it has its own unique journey. The end result is a bold, highly versatile liquid characterised by its sweet and light flavour.”

Spearhead will be available globally from summer 2021.

For more information, please visit www.spearheadwhisky.com

Tasting Notes

Nose – Violet floral notes, dark berries – blackcurrant and blackberry –  vanilla pods, caramel and dark chocolate

Palate – Velvety mouthfeel rolls over the tongue, red apple with lime citrus, vanilla fudge and light brown sugar

Finish – Long smooth and sweet with melted brown sugar

Additional serves 

Peach Head

Ingredients: Spearhead – 35ml

Pêche de Vigne – 15ml

Lemon juice – 10ml

Mint leaves – 10

Orange bitters – 2dsh

Method: Fill glass with ice, then add all ingredients, top with ginger ale and garnish with a wedge of peach

Rusty Spear

Ingredients: Spearhead – 50ml

Ginger Ale – 150ml

Method: Fill glass with ice, then add all ingredients and garnish with a wedge of lime

Spear Med

Ingredients: Spearhead – 45ml

Campari – 10ml

Lemon juice – 15ml

Simple syrup – 10ml

Mandarin juice – 20ml

Method: Add all ingredients into tin with ice, then shake and double strain into highball or tumbler over ice. Top with premium tonic and garnish with bay leaf or pineapple leaf.

About the Loch Lomond Group

• Loch Lomond Group is an independent distiller based in Alexandria and is home to several award-winning brands that are sold in more than 125 countries worldwide.
• Loch Lomond distillery has been producing the finest single malt whiskies since 1814.

NEW OLD & RARE

Glen Grant 44 Year Old – 1976 | Cask 12403 | Private Collection

It’s just incredible the stock of old and rare whisky that Gordon & MacPhail have ageing within their magnificent warehouses and this well aged Glen Grant is another fine example.

Distilled in 1976 and matured in single cask #12403 for 44 years, only 40 bottles have been filled and released as part of the Private Collection series.

£1250.00

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1989Bunnahabhain 28 Year Old “Antique Lion’s The Butterflies” Refill Sherry Butt Single Malt Scotch Whisky (700ml) (Pre-Arrival, Elsewhere $400) $299.99 View

Auchroisk 10 Year Old Burns Malt 59.3%

2010 vintage from the Speyside distillery matured in a first fill sherry hogshead. Expect juicy raisins, hot chocolate, marshmallows and a long fruity finish. Auchroisk 10 Year Old 2010 vintage Speyside single malt Scotch whisky. Single first fill sherry hogshead bottled 2021 by The Whisky Barrel for the Burns Malt series.

Auchroisk Distillery is a relatively modern malt whiskey distillery which was established in 1972 by Justerini & Brooks (Scotland) Ltd. Auchroisk Distillery is situated at Mulben in the heart of Scotland’s Speyside whiskey region and is equipped with eight copper stills. Only a small proportion of production is released by the distillery for bottling as official single malt whiskey, much of the remainder is destined for blending. Morrison & MacKay are among the independent bottlers to release expressions of Auchroisk single cask malt whiskey and Auchroisk single malt features in the Gordon & MacPhail’s Connoisseurs Choice series.

Shop Now – £70 / €68* / $80* / c$101*

THE OXFORD ARTISAN DISTILLERY LAUNCHES ITS SECOND BATCH OF RYE WHISKY 

Oxford, 12^th July 2021 – The Oxford Artisan Distillery, the UK’s first certified Organic Grain-to-Glass distillery*, has announced the launch of its second release of Oxford Rye Whisky.

The distillery produces superior English rye whisky using ancient heritage grains**, grown by the distillery’s certified organic and regenerative farming partners. These grains require no pesticides, fungicides or herbicides, supporting sustainability and biodiversity in their fields.

The first batch of The Oxford Artisan Distillery’s inaugural rye whisky, Batch #1, released at the end of April, sold out on the day of its launch and received outstanding acclaim.

Oxford Rye Whisky Batch #2, bottled at 47.4% ABV, has the distillery’s classic Oxford Rye house-style: herbal and floral with creamy butterscotch notes, nutty and spicy banana bread, but with an elevated sweet wine flavour of berry jams, dried fruits, leather and tobacco.

The whisky in this batch was matured in virgin American oak casks and freshly emptied Vintage Port casks. Having spent many years in production the Port casks bring the very best characteristics of Portugal’s famed Douro wine valley to the Thames valley, and the character of Oxford’s only Rye Whisky.

Master Distiller, Chico Rosa comments: ““The goal with this whisky was to bring you to Oxford; which for me is rye fields and old libraries. It’s herbal, nutty and cured. Like our diverse fields of grain, this is a diverse experience of sensations.”

Adding: ”The first release was our pure expression of rye – virgin oak, fruity, with a herbal and bready character. With this batch, I wanted to highlight a different side of our rye – the herbal nuttiness and rye goodness, while also bringing a decadent and musky hint of Vintage Port. Showing their years the Port casks add a layer of complexity, without overtaking, only complementing.” 

The Oxford Artisan Distillery is the only distillery in England to use populations of ancient heritage grains; painstakingly sourced, revived and bulked up over many years and grown sustainably using methods last used back in the 19th century. As a result Oxford Rye Whisky has a flavour that cannot be achieved from commercial grain.

To create this expression, the grain ratio was made up of 90% maslin (a mix of 70% rye and 20% wheat from populations grown together in the same field) and 10% heritage malted barley – which was harvested in the summer of 2017. The grain was not milled, but instead flattened in a very loud, eccentric traditional mill from the 1920s. The resulting course flakes were then made up in to an 8,000L watery porridge.

Spring fermentation – which has delivered richer fruit characters compared with Batch #1’s winter fermentation – was undertaken in 5000L Hungarian oak vats. The porous oak helps the distillery to have a consistent and stable in-house fermenting culture, allowing microflora to give fruitier flavours and creamier notes. The mash was then double distilled in the distillery’s bespoke custom-made stills, named Nautilus and Nemo, where the grains get baked into smoky sourdough notes. Then finally, the new make spirit was matured in virgin American oak casks and freshly emptied Vintage Port casks.

Oxford Rye Whisky Batch #2 consists of 973 bottles, priced at £95, and will be available from specialist retailers including Master of Malt, Harvey Nichols, The Whisky Exchange, The Whisky Shop, Oxford Wine and the distillery’s website from 13^th July.

Following this second release, the third batch of Oxford Rye Whisky will be released on 31^st July to celebrate the distillery’s fourth anniversary. This is a truly seasonal edition matured in Moscatel de Setúbal and distilled with grain from the 2017 Harvest. More information will follow.

www.theoxfordartisandistillery.com

Notes  

Oxford Rye Whisky Batch #2 Tasting Notes by Master Distiller, Chico Rosa: 

Aroma: Aniseed and violets with an incredible herbal freshness and a touch of banana and praline leading

to toffee. Red apples and hazelnut, peppery.

Taste: Creamy butterscotch, strawberry jam and blackcurrant with raisins, cobnuts and walnuts, honey

and ginger cake.

Finish: An intensely sweet and spicy finish of banana bread, berries, tobacco, leather and peppermint

with creamy caramel wrapped in an old dusty leather, library book. 

The Oxford Artisan Distillery:

The distillery opened for business at its purpose-built site in Oxford on 27th July 2017.

It is Oxford’s first ever distillery and produces a range of spirits, including gin, absinthe, vodka and whisky, all with total provenance from grain to glass. The Oxford Artisan Distillery is rare amongst UK distilleries in producing its own organic spirit, rather than purchasing Grain Neutral Spirit (GNS) from other sources.

The distillery has a licence to produce spirits for the University of Oxford and has a notable partnership with the University of Oxford’s Botanic Garden.  

*UK’s first certified Organic Grain-to-Glass distillery

According to the latest figures released by WSTA in 2020, the number of the distilleries registered in the UK grew to 560 from over 414 in 2019. Out of these The Oxford Artisan Distillery is the only distillery cultivating, distilling, and bottling its own organic heritage grains. 

**About Organic Heritage Grain:

Certified Organic in April 2020, The Oxford Artisan Distillery is the only distiller to use genetically diverse populations of ancient heritage organic grains – revived from historical sources by a leading archaeo-botanist and grown sustainably on over 350 acres, known as land races, both close to Oxford and on prestigious estates such as Highgrove and Sandringham. The distillery’s grain contributes to biodiversity and soil health in the English countryside. The grains are the result of John Lett’s lifelong research on ancient grains: John has spent a large part of his life sourcing and growing ancient grains together, as polycultures. John takes 30-100 varieties of grain, mixes them up, and grows them together in the same field, at the same time. These sustainable fields are similar to what you would have seen in medieval times – the grains are grown specifically for the distillery, making The Oxford Artisan Distillery the only distillery in the world with a license to use John’s grains, grown exclusively for flavour and not yield.

Laphroaig 10 Year Old, Cask Strength Batch 13

The latest release in the hugely popular 10 Year Old cask strength series – batch 13. Bottled January 2021′

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Emphatic, full bodied and utterly unforgettable, 10 Year Old Original Cask Strength Laphroaig is the authentic way to experience the rugged character of their uncompromising Scotch whisky.

Tasting notes:
Colour: tawny

Nose: Sweet cereals with biscuit notes, fresh oak, smoked cedar and manuka honey. Amsterdam pipe tobacco, shoe polish and old leather combined with a touch of waxy church candle, vanilla cream, nutmeg and oak extracts.

Palate: Sweet and spicy, with burnt oak staves, barbecued ,arshmallows, toffee and sea salt, vanilla and belgian caramel waffles. Notes of Roasted coffee fudge cream on sticky toffee pudding, with a hint of white pepper and crushed cinnamon.

Finish: Floral with spicy oak tannins, iodine and sea salt.

GlenAllachie 11 Year Old 59.0%

2009 vintage single Sauternes Barrel from the Speyside distillery. 299 bottles exclusive to the United Kingdom market. Expect heather honey, peaches and apricots with ginger on the finish. Glenallachie 11 Year Old 2009 vintage Speyside single malt Scotch whisky. Single cask Sauternes Barrel #3728 bottled August 2020 for the United Kingdom market. 299 numbered bottles.

NOSE: Heather honey, peaches, apricots and notes of ginger.
TASTE: Brimming with heather honey, peaches and apricots, fused with hazelnuts and grapefruit.

Glenallachie Distillery is a Speyside distillery sitting on the eastern edge of Ben Rinnes mountain where it is rather exposed to the elements and is often to be see sitting within the snowline. A modern building and its architect William Delmé-Evans created a distillery which is rather pleasing on the eye. Glenallachie was commissioned in 1967 with two stills which increased to four in 1989 in order to meet blenders ever increasing demand for Glenallachie malt whisky. Whilst official releases are few independent releases are more numerous with those from Signatory Vintage and Cadenheads proving popular.

Shop Now – £70 / €83* / $98* / c$124*

New 2021 batch of Laphroaig 10 Year Old Cask Strength!

Bottled at 57.9% abv, this is the authentic way to experience the rugged nature of this classic Islay dram. Add a splash of water to open up sweet and spicy waves of rich peat smoke. Secure a bottle of this iconic limited edition malt today!

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Our 1st North Star
TyndrumWhisky Exclusive

We are really proud to have partnered with North Star Spirits for this release, it’s part of their Series 015. Tasting notes were provided by the team here: “Susie & Craig”

It’s hailing from an Orkney distillery, which we can all assume is that one, and not the other one…

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Gleann Mòr Lagavulin 9 Year Old
£90.00

A smoke bomb fit for any fan of Islay whisky! Bottled exclusively for us at Loch Fyne by indie bottlers Gleann Mór Spirits – Lagavulin isn’t a liquid you’ll see all that often as a single cask and we are delighted with it. And with Lagavulin being popular with connoisseurs all over the world this one is a great addition to anyone’s collection. A highly limited release!

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