This Week in COLAs: A New Old Forester, New Malts and More

Brown Forman cleared a label for Old Forester 1870, a 90 proof bourbon with no age statement.

Lowland Scotch distillery Auchentoshan cleared two new labels: the 1988 Wine Cask Finish, a 25 year old aged for 8 years in bourbon casks followed by 17 yeaars in Bordeax casks an earlier version of which appears to have been previously released in Europe, and a second batch of the Virgin Oak, a no age statement malt aged in virgin oak.

Bowmore cleared the label for the second release of their Devil's Casks.  Like the Bowmore Devil's Casks first edition, it is a 10 year old malt aged in first fill sherry casks.

Check out Old Grumpy Bastard.  Maybe he's grumpy because his whiskey is 72.5% grain neutral spirits.

Lastly, a note to all of those companies who source whiskeys.  Here is the way to label your whiskey. It's really not that hard.

This Week in COLAs: What Would Harry Potter Drink?

Don't you wish there was more whiskey at theme parks?  Terresentia, the South Carolina company that recently purchased the Medley distillery, has approved a label for Blishen's Fire, a cinnamon flavored whiskey apparently for use at Universal Studios' Harry Potter theme park...because they didn't do Fireball shots at the Leaky Cauldron. 

Hudson Valley Distillers, a New York craft distillery, has a new take on white whiskey.  Instead of using the term new make, white whiskey or moonshine, they are calling their new Chancellor's Bourbon (aged one day) raw bourbon whisky. 

This Week in COLAs: Black Maple Hill from Oregon, Dutch Rye and More

Two Black Maple Hill labels cleared for whiskeys distilled by the Stein Distillery in Oregon, a bourbon and a rye (NAS but both are straights).

Millstone 100, a Dutch rye whiskey, looks to be headed our way.  It's made from 100% rye, bottled at 100 proof and 100% milled by Dutch windmills according to the label.

Batch 6 of the Laphroaig 10 year old Cask Strength was cleared.  The listed abv (which is subject to change) is 58%.  Be sure to follow the instructions on the bottle before you drink it, and "add twice as much water as whisky."

This Week in COLAs: Another Beam Signature & the 2014 Laphroaig Cairdeas

A few weeks ago, there were a half dozen new labels for the Jim Beam Signature Craft series.  This week, there's another one for a Jim Beam quarter cask finished bourbon.  Unlike the others, this one is NAS. According to the back label, the bourbon is "finished with bourbon aged in quarter-sized casks for four to five years."

The 2014 Laphroaig Cairdeas will include "double matured Laphroaig from bourbon barrels and Amontillado seasoned traditional hogsheads."

Highland Park cleared a label for something called Dark Origins, described as "double first fill sherry casks for a naturally DARKER, richer flavor." (emphasis theirs).

The Week in COLAs - The Drinking Dead

Zombie Whiskey.  I don't have any urge to try Second Chance Spirits' Moonshine Zombie Whiskey, but I do love the label.  And when I Tweeted this, I was reminded that it isn't even the first zombie label, Master of Malt had one as well.

A new label for Suntory's Hibiki 12 Japanese blended whisky with the tag line, "In celebration of our new beginning 2014," carries the label Beam Suntory Hibiki and shows what may be the new Beam Suntory logo.  Upon seeing this, WhiskyCast's Mark Gillespie inquired with the company and was told this is an employee only bottling, which leads to another COLA caveat:  even if a COLA label is going to be used, the whiskey might not be for general distribution.

The Week in COLAs - Beam Plays with Mashbills

Jim Beam recently cleared a series of new labels for 11 year old bourbons in their Signature Craft series. Each bottle represents a different, new mashbill, including high rye, (presumably using the Old Grandad/Basil Hayden recipe), triticale (a rye-wheat hybrid), brown rice, six row barley, soft red wheat and  rolled oats.

The Week in COLAs: A Grand Marnier Cask Finished Willett Rye & Ardbeg Supernova is Back

Willett XCF Exploratory Cask Finish is a seven year old MGP rye finished in Grand Marnier casks. It appears that this is the first release of a new series. Drew Kulsveen from Kentucky Bourbon Distillers, the maker of Willett, explained that Grand Marnier is made by macerating bitter orange peel, distilling it and then aging it for two years in bourbon casks.  After that, it is combined with Cognac and sweetened.  The rye in this Willett is aged in the bourbon casks that were used to age the pre-sweetened orange distillate.

Ardbeg Supernova is coming back with a 2014 release.  This version includes sherry aged whisky and the label emphasizes the sweetness as much as the peat. "It's Supernova but not as you know it."

COLA Watchers Beware

Since I'm no regularly posting news of new COLAs on the site, I wanted to make sure to state a few caveats that you should keep in mind when reading my COLA of the Week Posts.

First, as I've stated before, just because a COLA is issued does not mean the label will end up on the shelf.  Sometimes a company submits a label and then decides against using it.  Other times, the submit the label just to create a record of their use of the name for trademark protection.  And for imports, label approval is just one step on the way to getting the whiskey into the US.  Most labels do seem to end up on the shelf, but not all.

Second, there is a whole list of things on the label that companies can change without submitting a new label.  The list includes changes to the abv, age statement and many other label components.  While whiskey companies usually issue a new label for an age statement change, one of the most common things that gets changed without a new submission is the abv.  In many cases, the abv on the COLA is just a place holder. I've seen labels that say 50% abv for whiskeys that are later released at cask strength.  Given that, I would suggest taking the abv on a COLA with a grain of salt.

So have fun looking at the COLAs (more tomorrow!) but do keep these warnings in mind.

This Week in COLAs - The New Woodford Master's Collection & Kentucky Slush

This week in COLAs saw the approval of a label for the newest Woodford Reserve Master's Collection release which will be a triple distilled bourbon finished in Sonoma-Cutrer Pinot Noir barrels.  This, of course, hearkens back to the 2007 Woodford Reserve Master's release finished in Sonoma-Cutrer Chardonnay barrels. (Woodford's parent company, Brown Forman, owns the Sonoma-Cutrer winery).

And if you're looking for something a bit more Slurpee like, look nor further than Evan Williams Kentucky Slush "with the taste of lemonade, orange juice and sweet tea."  It's labeled as bourbon "with natural flavors and caramel color" and it's "ready to freeze or pour!"

The big question is...which of these will be better?

This Week in COLA's: Really Old Glenlivet, New Bourbon from Barton and More

Every week, I review the TTB's latest label approvals, or COLAs.  It's a fun thing to do and it's one of the main sources for my Complete List of American Whiskey Distilleries and Brands. If I find something new, exciting, funny or weird, I'll usually Tweet it, but since not everyone is on Twitter, I thought I would start a new blog feature, where I will occasionally list some of the latest fun COLAs I've found.  This is a particularly exciting time of year because spring is when many of the labels are approved for the fall special releases.

Keep in mind that just because a label has been approved does not necessarily mean that it will be used. While most whiskey labels found on COLAs do seem to end up on bottles, sometimes companies approve a label for something they are still developing in order to have the label ready or to protect their trademark of a certain name, so don't assume everything listed here will hit the shelves.

So what's new and interesting in recent labels?  How about some old Glenlivets from Gordon & MacPhail.  I mean, really old:  1948 and 1955.

As for this fall's bourbon releases, the label for this year's Old Forester Birthday Bourbon is out, and the 2014 Parker's Heritage Collection will be a 13 year old straight wheat whiskey.

Diageo got approval for the label for Rhetoric, a 20 year old Kentucky bourbon that will be the latest addition to their Orphan Barrel series.

Sazerac approved a series of labels for a new line that appears to be from its Barton 1792 Distillery.  The line is titled "1792" and includes five expressions: Small Batch, Single Barrel, Full Proof, Sweet Wheat and High Rye.  The full proof is listed as 125 proof and would be the first barrel proof offering from Barton.  The Sweet Wheat is a wheated bourbon and the High Rye is a high rye recipe bourbon.  They are all NAS.

One recent approval which I found amusing was this label for J. Tyler Signature Bourbon, a bourbon from an operation with the sinister name Shadow Beverage Group.  I like the placeholder that appears on the label:  "Story of J. Tyler Here."  I'm sure there's a good story about J. Tyler, whoever he is, and how he invented a special bourbon formula a hundred years ago.  They just haven't decided what it is yet.

Duke Bourbon is a Kentucky Straight Bourbon honoring John Wayne.  The label says it was "truly inspired and crafted by legends, with the old bottles unearthed from my Father's private liquor collection, preserved for over 50 years."  Er, what?  It goes on to say it is a collaboration between John Wayne's son and Wild Turkey's Jimmy Russell and was distilled in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky, presumably at Wild Turkey, but the label application was submitted by the Popcorn Sutton Distillery in Tennessee.  Very strange stuff, but I'm sure we'll be hearing more about it.


Stay tuned for regular label updates.