Independent Scotch whisky distiller Douglas Laing & Co has revealed two new travel retail-exclusives – The Gauldrons Campbeltown Malt and the Remarkable Regional Malts Miniature Gift Pack.
Both will feature at next week’s TFWA World Exhibition in Cannes (Blue Village H7).
The 1-litre The Gauldrons completes the Remarkable Regional Malts collection (RRP£50-£60, US$69-$83), which was launched in 2019. It already includes The Epicurean Lowland, Timorous Beastie Highland, Scallywag Speyside, Rock Island Islands and Big Peat Islay malts.
The expressions, according to Douglas Laing & Co, are designed to deliver “the ultimate distillation of Scotland’s malt whisky regions”.
Presented in a gold-foiled gift tube, The Gauldrons Campbeltown is offered at 48% alcohol strength, while tasting notes have the whisky as “salty and maritime with a spicy finish”.
Inspired by the eponymous dark sandy coves on Campbeltown’s west shores, The Gauldrons means ‘bay of storms’. Legend has it that a defeated King Robert the Bruce was encouraged, whilst watching a spider building his web, to resume his battle. The story is reflected in The Gauldrons packaging which features an intricate spider illustration.
The Gauldrons domestic offering launched in 2017 and is available in over 50 countries. The expression claimed Gold at the Spirits Business Scotch Whisky Masters 2020.
The Remarkable Regional Malts miniature gift pack offers 6 x 5cl bottles of the travel retail-exclusive whiskies, in a gunmetal grey and copper-foiled carton, with a RRP of £35.99 (US$49).
Douglas Laing & Co CEO Chris Leggat said: “Launching our Remarkable Regional Malts into the travel retail arena in October 2019, we couldn’t have foreseen the challenges that would hit the channel in the months and years to follow.
“However, we are thrilled to see the range now gathering real pace within the global travel retail space, to the extent that we have called forward planned production of the existing products by six months in order to satisfy demand.”
Leggat said the new products will “undoubtedly drive renewed excitement for our product offering at a time when the travel industry is once again on the rise”.
Douglas Laing & Co is represented in travel retail by Hamburg-based Travel Retail Cooperation, owned by Hannes Koch.
Koch commented: “The reception for the Remarkable Regional Malts in global travel retail has so far been phenomenal. We are thrilled to expand the range with the introduction of The Gauldrons 1-litre and the new Remarkable Regional Malts miniature gift pack. The mini pack, in particular, is an exciting development, inviting time-poor travel retail patrons to sample ‘the Ultimate Distillation of Scotland’s Malt Whisky Regions’ in one affordable product.”
The Remarkable Regional Malts range is presented in line with the Douglas Laing family philosophy to bottle Scotch whisky “as the Distiller intended” – without chill-filtration or artificial colouring, and at a high alcohol strength of 48%.
Each is a marriage of single cask single malts from the respective whisky region, created to “embody the archetypal style of Scotch produced there”.
