Loch Lomond and Glen Scotia Relaunched Age Statement Whiskies
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A few years ago, many scotch distilleries and brands were removing age statements from their bottles, due to what they said was the result of demand outpacing supply. That wasn’t limited to scotch: Bourbon, Japanese whisky, and to some degree Irish whiskey suffered the same fate. But the trend seems to be in reverse, with the latest example coming from two distilleries—Loch Lomond and Glen Scotia—who recently reintroduced two new pairs of age-statement whiskies to the U.S. market.
Of course, age is just a number—a whiskey or whisky is not necessarily better just because it’s older, and sometimes the reverse is true. Brands like the Glenlivet, Elijah Craig, and Hibiki removed age statements over the past decade and released new NAS (non-age statement) expressions that they claimed were just as good. And for the most part, they were—again, just because a whiskey is a blend of ages and might not be able to legally be labeled as a 10-year-old anymore, that doesn’t mean it’s inferior. But people were upset about the changes, and that’s understandable as serious whiskey drinkers like to know exactly what’s in their bottle (or at least as much information as they can possibly get).
In response, some brands returned age statements to their labels. Knob Creek, for example, brought back its 9-year age statement to the core bourbon after a few years’ absence and then upped the ante and released 12-, 15-, and 18-year-old versions. Perhaps this is because distilleries are now able to do so based on the decline of alcohol consumption over the past few years—less drinkers means more stock, which means more barrels of a certain age. So maybe it’s no surprise that two scotch distilleries, both part of the Loch Lomond Group, are refocusing their attention on age-statement whiskies in the U.S. as part of a new partnership with distributor Foley Family Wines & Spirits.
In May, Loch Lomond announced the reintroduction of its 10-year-old single malt, and Glen Scotia (a lesser known but historic Campbeltown distillery) brought back its 12-year-old single malt. But the two distilleries didn’t stop there. Loch Lomond just relaunched an 18-year-old expression that is lightly peated, and Glen Scotia reintroduced a 15-year-old whisky that is unpeated and non-chill filtered. To be clear, these whiskies were previously available, but this new distribution agreement allows them to be more widely available in this country. And that’s not a bad thing given the current nature of the spirits industry—as we reported recently, alcohol sales are at an all-time low, and the continued threat and implementation of tariffs is bringing havoc to companies’ sales reports. It remains to be seen, of course, how these age statement whiskies will be received, and if consumers, who are either shying away from booze or just from spending money on said booze, will be enticed.
You can currently find Loch Lomond 12 and 18 available from ReserveBar, and Glen Scotia 10 and 15 available at Flaviar.
