Friday, October 31, 2014

New Whiskey Labels: New Ardbegs, an MGP Label and More


This week's most interesting new labels from the federal TTB database:

Ardbeg released a number of new labels for committee bottlings: Continuum, Bicentennial, Atmosphere and Anniversary.  These are all NAS and appear to be the same whiskey (they all have the same tasting notes listed on the back label).

William Grant cleared a label for Ghosted Reserve, a 26 year old blend of whiskies from the closed Ladyburn and Inverleven distilleries (hopefully they will correct the misspelling of Inverleven before it comes out).

Dewar's cleared a label for something called Scratched Cask.  A variant on their White Label, it was apparently finished in "charred & scratched American oak casks." No telling if this scratching was intentional or if this was one of those disaster whiskeys resulting from a cat that got loose in the warehouse.

Is MGP planning its own label?  The Indiana distilling giant has previously only done contract work, but this week a label cleared for Metze's Medley, an MGP bourbon named for MGP Master Distiller Greg Metze.  It's bottled by Distilled Spirits Epicenter in Kentucky.  It could, of course, be a limited release for employees or customers, but it's interesting.

And barbecue and bourbon are a traditional combination, but barbecue flavored bourbon may be taking it too far.  Bar-B-Q Bourbon is "infused with natural flavors, colored with caramel and paprika."

Note:  The fact that a label appears on the TTB database does not necessarily mean it will be produced.  In addition, some details on the label, such as proof, can change in the final product.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

"(hopefully they will correct the misspelling of Inverleven before it comes out)." [Innerleven...as opposed to Outerleven?]

Ol' Jas said...

Is it just me, or do the interchangeable Ardbeg labels just take the piss out of the idea of these special releases that Ardbeg does? "Hey, think of a name for this a new bottling. Doesn't matter what. Just make sure to say it's 'forever Ardbeg' or something similarly insipid."

It's nothing more special than any random single cask IB you might come across, but the branding machine tries to convince us otherwise. "Oooh! 'Atmosphere!' It's atmospheric."

I appreciate Sku's TTB snooping for lifting the curtain on this stuff.