Balvenie 14 Year Peat Week
The Balvenie are large and successful enough to not only keep their full stock of standard offerings in full swing, they’re also keen on playing with all the elements available in whisky production to create more limited offerings. The Balvenie 14 Year “Peat Week” is so named because the distillery has apparently been distilling peated whisky since 2002 for one week a year. Hitching their cart to the transparency train, Balvenie does a brilliant job of listing exactly what week in any given year this scotch was distilled during, along with some particulars about how peat characteristics are imparted to whisky in general. While not part of their standard lineup, it appears that Balvenie is poised to make this scotch a regular or semi-regular offering, even if only ever in limited quantities.
Lot No. 40
The original Lot No. 40 was released by Corby Distributors in the late 90s under the Canada Whisky Guild series but discontinued it a few years after the turn of the century. Because of the small window of release and amount produced, bottles of it became rare and highly sought after. The brand was reintroduced in 2012 as a premium rye and has continued ever since to great acclaim. Unlike some Canadian whiskies called ryes, Lot 40 is made of 90% rye and 10% malted rye. Nothing that isn’t rye, in other words! Lot No. 40 supposedly refers to a plot of land in Ontario that was the home of Joshua Booth, a Canadian pioneer and politician, and an ancestor of one of Hiram Walker’s distillers. Recently, Hiram Walker has released a cask strength Lot No. 40, which quickly sold out its initial first run.
Cardhu 12 Year
While it might be infamously known for the “pure malt controversy” from the early 2000s, Cardhu has been in almost continual production since its founding by John and Helen Cumming, though for much of its history was known as Cardow after the original farm the distillery started on in 1824. There is a great deal of history around Helen and her daughter-in-law Elizabeth Cumming used in their marketing, for both women ran the distillery during early years to develop and refine the character of the whisky. Around the turn of the 20th century, Cardhu was sold to Johnnie Walker. Cardhu was for many years one of the smallest distilleries in Scotland and has been a staple in Johnnie Walker blends ever since. The current iteration of the Cardhu 12 year began in 2006 and is part of a range that includes the 12, 15, and 18 year single malts, plus two with No Age Statements.