Ardbeg 17 Year Old, Glenfiddich Grand Chateau, Clonakilty Pot Still & More [New Releases]

Ardbeg made a splash this week with news of the return of its much-coveted 17 year old, which will be available only to members of the Ardbeg Committee fan club later this month. Noteworthy among nationally available releases is Clonakilty's Irish single pot still expression, the western Ireland producer that started laying down whiskey in 2019 with single pot still as its primary focus. Bardstown Bourbon Co. has new releases for both its Collaborative Series and its Discovery Series, while Kentucky blender Dixon Dedman’s 2XO has a new edition in its Icon Series. Filmland Spirits, the company that combines a passion for both whiskey and cinema, is out with its latest movie-inspired blockbuster, this one a blend of four bourbons. And there's more, as the autumn whisky release season begins kicking into high gear.

Ardbeg 17 year old The Legend Returns

ABV: 40%
Price: $190
Availability: ardbeg.com, at the Distillery Visitor Centre on Islay, and in Ardbeg Embassies beginning September 24^th 2024. Ardbeg Embassies are specialist shops that promote Ardbeg whisky and the Ardbeg Committee is free to join.

Islay single malt scotch maker Ardbeg is reviving its iconic 17 year old expression as a limited edition for Ardbeg Committee members. The Ardbeg whisky creation team, Dr. Bill Lumsden and Gillian MacDonald, has closely followed the elements that made the original so legendary among Ardbeg fans. They used both peated and unpeated stocks to create the lightly peated profile that Lumsden describes as an elegant Ardbeg. Furthermore, they presented it in classic packaging, and made the decision to go retro for authenticity purposes by opting for chill filtration and bottling at 40%. The modern Ardbeg range is not chill-filtered and typically bottled at 46% or higher.

Ardbeg 17 year old was one of the most cherished releases in the core range following The Glenmorangie Company’s acquisition of the closed distillery in 1997. Sadly, Ardbeg’s patchy production periods in the 1980s and 1990s meant that the right type and age of stock, which included unpeated stock from the early 1980s, was not going to last forever. Ardbeg 17 year old was discontinued in 2004. As an Ardbeg collectible, it has had a constant presence in the secondary market over the past two decades, with prices rising steadily to hammer prices of $350–400 today.

Glenfiddich Grand Château 31 year old

ABV: 47.6%
Price: $2,100
Availability: Limited-edition release in two packaging variants in specialist stores; imported by William Grant & Sons

Glenfiddich is releasing a 31 year old limited-edition single malt scotch that marks its first Bordeaux red wine cask finish. Initially matured in American oak casks for 22 years, the Speyside whisky underwent a secondary maturation in the wine casks for 9 years. The Bordeaux château whose casks were sourced wasn’t disclosed.

The new release has two packaging variants, both designed by Swedish-born graffiti artist André Saraiva, who found fame through his prolific tagging of the walls of Paris. The main edition includes a watercolor print in the box interior, with a highly limited version called The Artist Edition, which features a traditional Toile de Jouy print with Saraiva’s signature motifs and style on the front of the box. The U.S. will receive 24 bottles with The Artist Edition design. This is the second limited edition in the Grand Series, the distillery’s luxury collection of age-stated single malts inspired by cultures from around the world, following the 94-point Glenfiddich Grand Yozakura 29 year old finished in awamori casks released last year. The limited editions sit above the permanent cask-finished expressions in the Grand Series, which include Glenfiddich Grande Couronne 26 year old finished in cognac casks, the 92-point Glenfiddich Grand Cru 23 year old finished in French cuvée casks, and the 93-point Glenfiddich Gran Reserva 21 year old finished in rum-seasoned casks.

Clonakilty Single Pot Still Irish Whiskey

ABV: 46%
SRP: $50
Availability: Nationwide

Michael Scully founded Clonakilty Distillery on Ireland's west coast in 2016. While the distillery has been making its own whiskey since 2019, its releases have been sourced—that is, until now, as its new single pot still whiskey marks Clonakilty’s very first own-make bottling.

The whiskey is made with barley grown on Scully’s family farm, situated on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean by the Galley Head lighthouse. Scully argues that the terroir imbues the raw grains with a distinct maritime influence. The whiskey, triple-distilled in copper pot stills, undergoes a fermentation lasting over 100 hours, and is then put into a combination of bourbon, amontillado sherry, and oloroso sherry casks.

While Ireland’s whiskey landscape is dominated by blends, single pot is the country’s signature style, with a host of new iterations cropping up in recent years. The style’s defining details are in the mashbill—while single malt is distilled entirely from malted barley, single pot still mash contains a substantial share of unmalted barley, with Irish law stipulating that pot still whiskey contains at least 30% of each barley type, plus up to 5% of other grains. At Clonakilty, the production team—headed up by master distiller Oisin Mulcahy—has experimented with varying ratios of unmalted to malted barley, using 60:40, 50:50, and 40:60 single pot still recipes.

Bardstown Bourbon Co. Collaborative Series Silver Oak Cabernet Sauvignon Finished Blend of Straight Bourbons

ABV: 54%
SRP: $160
Availability: Limited

Bardstown Bourbon Co. Discovery Series #12 Kentucky Straight Bourbon

ABV: 57.6%
SRP: $140
Availability: Limited

The newest Bardstown’s Collaborative Series whiskey is a blend of six bourbons, ranging in age from 9–14 years old, that is finished for 17 months in cabernet sauvignon barrels from California’s Silver Oak winery. All of the components have high-corn mashbills—with at least 75% corn—and come from distilleries in Kentucky, Tennessee, Indiana, and Georgia.

Alongside the new Collaborative Series release, Bardstown also added a new member to its Discovery Series, which centers on blending. Discovery #12 is also a blend of bourbons, though it’s a little more focused than its cabernet cask-finished compatriot: It comprises four bourbons, all of which come from Kentucky. The main ingredient is a 14 year old with a mashbill of 75% corn, 13% rye, and 12% malted barley. The youngest and smallest parcel is a 6 year old four-grain bourbon, which was distilled in-house by Bardstown.

2XO Icon Series: The Sneakerhead Blended Bourbon

ABV: 52%
SRP: $100
Availability: Limited

2XO’s newest blend pays tribute to master blender Dixon Dedman’s love of sneaker culture. Though the precise recipe is undisclosed, it’s made using the same ingredients as other Icon Series blends: two Kentucky bourbons, one of which has a high-rye mashbill, that come from different distilleries. As was done with previous releases, a portion of the 6 year old high-rye bourbon was finished in new oak barrels with No. 3 and No. 4 char.

The defining feature of 2XO is its focus on the impact of oak on whiskey. But Dedman achieves that oak influence in different ways. While Gem of Kentucky, 2XO’s prestige $200 single barrel bourbon, is finished in new charred oak, the Icon Series, featuring one-off blends like this new release, blends both finished and unfinished bourbons. The Oak Series whiskey, which is an ongoing series, gets flavor influence from pieces of charred oak threaded through the links of stainless steel chains, which are inserted into the barrel during maturation.

Middle West Spirits Cask Strength Series

ABV: 61.1%–62.25%
SRP: $70 each
Availability: Nationwide starting October 1st

Middle West Napoleon Calvados Cask Finished

ABV: 61.9%
SRP: $130
Availability: Nationwide starting October 1st

Middle West Spirits announced four whiskeys this week, which are due to arrive next month. The first three belong to the new Cask Strength Series, and are intended to be ongoing releases. It includes a four-grain bourbon (distilled from non-GMO yellow corn, soft red winter wheat, two-row barley, and dark pumpernickel rye), a red winter wheat whiskey, and a four-grain rye whiskey. The trio, which individually retail for $70, have identical mashbills to Middle West’s flagship Michelone Reserve bourbon, straight wheat, and Dark Pumpernickel rye whiskeys.

The fourth whiskey is a new expression, which belongs to the Double Cask Collection. This one is a 50/50 blend of the aforementioned 4 year old straight wheat and 4 year old Dark Pumpernickel rye. The blend is finished in casks that previously held calvados—an apple/pear brandy made in Normandy, France—for 1 to 2 years. While the label refers to this expression as just being a “whiskey,” Middle West notes that it’s technically classified as a distilled spirits specialty due to the cask finish.

Filmland Quadraforce Bourbon: Behold the Blend of 4

ABV: 47%
SRP: $60
Availability: Limited; AK, AZ, CA, CO, FL, IL, KS, NV, and WA, and filmlandspirits.com

For its latest release, Filmland took four different bourbons distilled in four states—Kentucky, California, Tennessee, and one undisclosed—using a total of four grains. The mashbill breakdown is as follows:

- 78% corn, 12% rye, and 10% malted barley
- 70% corn, 25% wheat, and 5% malted barley
- 80% corn, 10% rye, and 10% malted barley
- and a mystery mash, with details undisclosed

Each individual component was aged at least 4 years before being blended on location in Kentucky. A total of 6,000 bottles are available; four unique labels have been created, each featuring one of the Quadraforce “heroes”—Kentucky Anna, Cali Comet, Tennessee Terra, and Mr. Mysteron—that were created in tandem with the release. Filmland was founded in Los Angeles in 2020 by a team of self-proclaimed whisky enthusiasts, movie buffs, and storytellers. Its first whiskeys launched in 2022; each release comes hand-in-hand with an original B-movie script written specifically for the expression.

Southern Distilling Southern Star 2024 Carolina Panthers Limited Series Paragon Cognac Finish Cask Strength Wheated Straight Bourbon

ABV: 53%
SRP: $100
Availability: Limited; NC and SC

Last year, Statesville, North Carolina-based Southern Distilling was named the Official Craft Bourbon of the NFL’s Carolina Panthers. In honor of the franchise’s 30th season, the distillery is debuting a one-off whiskey, available exclusively at its tasting room and in-stores throughout the Carolinas.

The new whiskey is a blend of nine barrels of the distillery’s Paragon wheated bourbon, these ones aged for a minimum of 6 years. After blending the chosen barrels, Southern Distilling co-founder Pete Barger then finished the whiskey using cognac staves. Just 3,000 bottles of the whiskey were produced.