West Highland distillery Adelphi has reported a huge demand for its very first batch of mature spirit as pre-orders vastly outstrip its initial production run.
The independent bottler and distiller, which opened in 2014, said it had decided to release just under 2,500 bottles of its Ardnamurchan Spirit 2016 AD due to high interest.
But it has already received orders for three times that amount, despite the spirit being too young to be called whisky – a spirit must be distilled in Scotland and matured for at least three years before it can claim the title.
Alex Bruce, Managing Director of Adelphi and the Ardnamurchan Distillery, (above) said, “Prior to a launch we contact our UK and international agents and distributors to gauge interest and take pre-orders.
“While it’s not unusual for there to be a healthy amount of interest in our whisky, the demand for our new Ardnamurchan Spirit was exceptionally high. We’ve produced 2,500 bottles but we could have easily sold three times that amount. Pre-orders were 7,500 at the last count.”
Ardnamurchan Spirit 2016 AD has been vatted from selected casks that had been maturing in Ardnamurchan since production started. These were then left to “marry” for three months in large sherry butts.
Adelphi has worked with Edinburgh-based agency Nevis Design to create a bespoke slate grey bottle to resemble the volcanic past of the Ardnamurchan peninsula.
The Ardnamurchan release follows the recent launch of The Kincardine whisky, which was created in partnership with Fusion Whisky Ltd and is a blend of Scotch and Indian single malt whisky, another innovation from the Fife-based firm.
Edinburgh-based Fusion Whisky Limited has launched its latest hybrid whisky, The Kincardine, to celebrate the historic ties between India and Scotland and honour the Scotsman who helped modernise India’s railways.
The seven-year-old malt, bottled at 59.2% abv, is inspired by the life of Victor Bruce, the 9th Earl of Elgin and 13th Earl of Kincardine, who served as Viceroy and Governor General of India between 1894-99.
He is remembered for making massive improvements to India’s rail system, helped secure its economy by stabilizing the rupee, pacified its volatile border with Afghanistan, and sought to alleviate the worst effects of drought and famine through a pioneering work-relief programme.
The Kincardine whisky is a fusion from Glen Elgin and Macallan distilleries in Scotland and single malt whisky from India’s celebrated Amrut distillery in Bangalore.
It has been blended by Bruce’s great-grandson Alex Bruce, Master Blender and Managing Director of Adelphi Distillery, based in Fife.
He said, “With The Kincardine, we’ve blended two single casks of malt whisky from Amrut Distillery in Bangalore with Scotch whisky from Glen Elgin and Macallan distilleries.
“The fruitiness of the mature Speyside malts works beautifully with the Indian whisky, creating a very complex, international flavour.
“It was a genuine privilege to create this whisky in honour of my great-grandfather, and great to develop a product that it is an example of the strong, positive and long-lasting relations between Scotland and India.”
Only 800 bottles of the whisky will be released at RRP £135, although Fusion Whisky said there was scope to produce more variants of both The Kincardine and The Glover in the future.
Fusion Whisky Limited launched The Glover series of premium whiskies last year in honour of “Scottish Samurai” Thomas Blake Glover, which fused Scotch with extremely rare whisky from Japan.
