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Hunter Laing
adds a bit of colour to its Hepburn's
Choice range.
Hunter Laing & Co. has unveiled a new
look for their Hepburn’s Choice range
which they will be rolling out from this
month. Each bottling, whether a single
cask or small batch single malt release
is now brightly colour coded to denote
the whisky region of the distillery
where the whisky was distilled.
The aim of the new packaging is to give
whisky drinkers a quick and handy
reference as to flavour profile, to a
limited extent it does, but as you know
flavour profiles are not that clear cut.
Like the fine wines of the world, the
single malt whiskies of Scotland are
grouped by region but whisky regional
characteristics are not quite as clear
cut as with wines, you will find that
many whiskies from the same region have
similar characteristics in taste and
style, but this is more of a guideline
rather than a set rule.
To let whisky drinkers know what to
expect to find in a bottle you need more
than the region and the new packaging
does provide you with some more
informative details as to what to expect
such as age, ABV, filtration and
colouring but probably the most
important info regards what flavour
profile you will find in the bottle
appears to be very vague, the type of
barrel the whisky matured in.
As you can see from the Hepburn's Choice
Glenburgie 12 year old label image
above, it states “FILLED FROM A WINE
CASK” but what type of wine cask?
Burgundy, Madeira, Port, Sherry, there
is quite a world of difference between
different wines and was it a First-Fill
cask or Re-Fill, again there can be a
world of difference. Other bottlings in
the range are the same going by the
images of the newly redesigned range
they sent me, for example there is a
Hepburn's Choice Ben Nevis 9 year old
which simply states “FILLED FROM A
BOURBON BARREL”, again was it a
First-Fill barrel or Re-Fill, there can be
quite a difference.
When I received the info from Hunter
Laing announcing the new look packaging
I did ask them if the new packaging only
gives general info on the type of single
cask each whisky matured in, which I
found surprising as there press release
is hyping the new packaging as "giving
consumers a quick and handy reference as
to flavour profile". Perhaps they
don't know the the origins or details of
the casks they are bottling other than
general basic info such as whether it is
a Bourbon barrel or it is a wine cask,
if they did then why not share it on the
label? They have yet to reply.
There may be a few hidden gems amongst
the Hepburn's Choice range but they are
a little more hidden than they could
have been, anyway as I said the new look Hepburn's
Choice should be hitting the shelves of
the whisky shops from this month and you will
find it available from
specialist online whisky
retailers such as
The Whisky Exchange,
The Whisky Shop and
Master of Malt
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