British retailer Master of Malt and design agency Studio Minerva have launched The Islay, a new Scotch whisky brand that celebrates not a particular distillery but the island of Islay as a whole. It is the first brand Studio Minerva has created for itself, after a decade spent building brands for other clients.
The debut range comprises three expressions, all bottled at 46.3% and selected by Dr Samuel J. Simmons, Master of Malt’s head of whisky: 16 Year Old Basalt (£99), 20 Year Old Red Sandstone (£149.95) and 30 Year Old Quartzite (£499.95). The names refer to the rocks that make up the island.
The novel element is a “continuous single cask” model: each bottle comes from a single cask, and when that cask runs out, bottling moves on to the next one while keeping the same name, age and strength. All the casks were distilled and matured on Islay, and reduction to bottling strength takes two weeks.
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Source: The Whiskey Wash