Berry Bros & Rudd's spring offensive
Well-known and established London bottler Berry Bros & Rudd has just announced a spring offering of its editions. It coincides with news of the opening of a new store dedicated to whisky, located in the heart of London. Those among our readers who are more likely to drop by London may be interested in these news items.
In addition to Scotch whiskies, the company's new offerings include whiskies from the Swedish High Coast distillery, as well as single cask catfish from Guyana. For Scottish distillates, the icing on the cake is certainly Benrinnes 1979, released as part of the Exceptional Casks series.
The full range is:
Glenlossie 2013 Small Batch, 46% vol., speyside whisky, a blend of three bourbon casks. Accents of spice, vanilla, fruit from the orchard, landraces. Taste of apples, pears, caramel, cloves. Edition limited to 856 bottles. The price of a single bottle is £70.
Ardmore 2009, 54.2 vol., peaty version of Highlands whisky, single cask, Madeira cask finish. Earthy accents, apricots, fruit jellies. Taste fruity smoke, plums, charcoal, earthy peat, peaches and spices. Edition limited to 268 bottles. The price of a single bottle is £96.
Craigellachie 2013, 55.4 vol., speyside whisky, single cask, finish in port cask. Accents of fresh hay, malt, fireworks, orchard fruit, rose petals and port. The taste is dense, with notes of vanilla, blackberries, wood smoke, digestive biscuits. Edition limited to 298 bottles. The price of a single bottle is £90.
Knockdhu 2012, 58.8% vol., speyside whisky, single bourbon cask. Nutty accents, dry, almonds, walnuts, green fruits, banana bread. On the taste of fruits, roots, nuts, tobacco, citrus. Edition limited to 312 bottles. The price of a single bottle is £75.
Benrinnes 1979 Exceptional Casks, 42.1% vol., speyside whisky, single bourbon cask. Accents of musty linen and dusty attic, quite quickly transition into honey-dewed slices of pineapple and peaches, leather and wild lilacs. The taste comes with notes of apricot jam, compote apples, lychee, old oak, the inside of a cigar box and mossy earthiness. In the finish dried fruits and aged tea. Edition limited to 198 bottles. The price of a single bottle is £1800.
High Coast 2012, 59.8% vol., whisky from Swedish High Coast Distillery (formerly Box Distillery), single cask, peated finish Lochindaal whisky from Bruichladdich distillery. Accents of peat smoke, orchard fruit and icing. On the taste again peat smoke, crisp green apples, wood ash and some minerality. On the finish you can clearly feel that the whisky spent two years in an Islay whisky barrel. Edition limited to 248 bottles. The price of a single bottle is £110.
Diamond 2013, 59.5% vol., rum from Diamond distillery in Guyana, single barrel. Accents of honey, fruit and dry menthol. The taste is initially dry, after which honey appears and provides a background for fruity accents. Edition limited to 287 bottles. The price of a single bottle is £125.
All the liquors listed were bottled in their natural form, without cold filtering and without the addition of coloring caramel. In most cases, cask strength (cask strength) was retained, with the exception of Glenlossie Small Batch, which used 46% vol., characteristic of unfiltered whiskies.
Not long ago, Berry Bros & Rudd broke the news that a new company store, located on St James's Street in London, is scheduled to open this spring, and dedicated to spirits. It should be mentioned that the company was founded primarily as an importer and distributor of wine, and in this it specializes to this day. The interest in whisky came later and was integrated into the Berry Bros & Rudd business over time. For many years the company was the exclusive sales agent for the Glenrothes distillery, located in Rothes, Speyside. So we are dealing with specialists, active in the wine and spirits market for more than three centuries. Or, more precisely, since 1698, when the company was founded, making Berry Bros & Rudd the oldest liquor trading company in the UK. Right next to the location of the new store, literally on the corner of Pall Mall and St James's Street in London, the company's original store has been in operation for years.
The new store is scheduled to launch in April 2024, which is any day now. Its opening does not mean the elimination of the existing one, only the expansion of the retail space at the corner of St James's Street and Pall Mall. The two stores are to be connected to each other. Expect the company's existing premises to deal primarily with wines, delegating the spirits department to the new store.
For visitors to London, we recommend this address, but if you are not going there, or there are concerns about the limit of liquor carried in your luggage - the United Kingdom left the European Union some time ago and we are left with a limit of 1 liter of strong alcohol - we invite you to take a look at the current offer of the House of Whisky Online. We also have bottles from under the Berry Bros & Rudd banner. Please visit.
[20/03/2014 / Photo: Berry Bros & Rudd]