William Grant & Sons has unveiled a brand new single malt range it claims could “decode the category” for newer whisky drinkers.
The brand, called Aerstone, will hit Tesco this month with two SKUs called Land Cask and Sea Cask (40% abv), both of which carry 10yo age statements (rsp: £30/70cl).
Sea Cask was “smooth and easy”, said the brand, a “classic Speyside single malt with nutty vanilla notes” which is aged in warehouses along the Ayrshire coast. Land Cask, meanwhile, is billed as being “rich and smoky” thanks to highland peat used in the malting process, and is developed inland.
The single malt category was often found to be “complex and can be intimidating”, said William Grant global innovation brand manager Sean Wiemann.
“With Aerstone we want to break down some of those barriers and help simplify single malts, inviting existing malt drinkers and new entrants to learn about all the different flavours and styles of single malt Scotch.”
Its launch will be backed by a campaign focusing on the concept ‘Single Malt, Two Choices’.
The news adds William Grant’s name to the list of distillers trying to lure younger drinkers into whisky.
Pernod Ricard, for instance, last month launched the first official single malt brand from its Allt-a-Bhainne distillery into grocery, which it said “offered something different” with its use of peat in a Speyside malt - Speyside whiskies are broadly made to be sweeter and less peaty than those from other regions.
Blended Scotch giant Whyte & Mackay, meanwhile, has launched The Woodsman, a blend aged in freshly-built oak casks and ex-bourbon barrels, which, with a trendy embossed bottle and focus on mixability, it said could attract those who were put off Scotch by “traditional category cues”.
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