Top 50 innovative spirits launches of 2024: 10-1
We have arrived at our list of the 10 most innovative spirits launches of 2024, where each entrant demonstrates that creativity, imagination and originality are alive and well within our industry.
Honing this list every year is no easy feat for our editorial team, especially as the levels of ingenuity seem to be on a continuous upward trajectory. However, these final 10 innovative releases caught our attention from the moment they crossed our desks in 2024, making the final decision that little bit easier. Below you'll find those 10 products that have topped our innovative spirits list this year, and in case you missed those that came before, entries 20 to 11, 30 to 21, 31 to 40, and 41 to 50 can be found here.10. Kyrö Sauna Stories No 1
Finnish distillery Kyrö unveiled the ‘world’s first’ sauna‐finished whisky in October, with the debut release in the Sauna Stories series.
The limited edition malted rye was created to celebrate the rich heritage of Finnish sauna culture, as well as the 10th anniversary of production at the distillery, which was founded in a sauna in 2012.
The whisky was finished in Planteray rum casks inside a specially built sauna, where the barrels were gently heated with excess heat from the distillation process, reaching internal temperatures of up to 50°C. During the process, the whisky was allowed to ‘sweat out’ any ‘disharmony’, extracting unique compounds from the barrel and harmonising the flavours in an unusual way. The result is Kyrö’s ‘most relaxed whisky’.
9. Grey Goose Altius
Bacardi‐owned Grey Goose turned to sub‐ freezing temperatures for the filtration of its Altius vodka, which was inspired by the French Alps and the high‐altitude crystallisation that happens in glacial conditions.
The process is said to have yielded an extra smooth vodka, bottled at 40% ABV, and made from Alpine spring water and winter wheat from Picardy in northern France. After blending, the vodka was filtered at a very low temperature of ‐24°C, which resulted in a ‘glacially smooth’ taste and ‘velvety’ mouthfeel. On the palate, it is ‘complex’, with ‘delicate alpine minerality, refreshing soft green apple notes, and a unique earthy undertone’.
Master distiller François Thibault said: “We worked to develop a liquid with processes reminiscent of the rare phenomena that naturally occur at high‐altitude temperatures in the Alps.”
8. Acrónimo Gin
In October, Mexican brand Acrónimo, based in Chihuahua, unveiled the ‘world’s first’ gin and sotol blend.
As with its sotol blanco launched earlier in 2024, this ‘New World style’ ultra‐premium gin was made in co‐operation with Casa Ruelas Distillery. It was combined with 17% sotol blanco as a nod to its Chihuahuan heritage.
Acrónimo is led by sibling founders Alessandra Camino Creel and Jose Luis Creel. Camino Creel said the aim was to “do for Chihuahua what mezcal did for Oaxaca”, citing innovation as a “key driver” for doing so. “While it could be viewed as a bit audacious to finish a fine gin with sotol, we see it as an intriguing way to expand sotol’s global reach.”
Crafted to blend with a gin base, the sotol blanco is made from a spiky flowering succulent related to agave, while the gin includes juniper berries from the mountainous Sierra Tarahumara region.
7. Atonia's Legacy: The Sarah Burgess Edition
The OurWhisky Foundation debuted a single bottle of whisky last March, a first from the non‐profit, created to be sold in the first auction dedicated to women in whisky.
The Lakes Distillery whisky maker Sarah Burgess created the Scotch to be sold as part of The Demeter Collection auction series.
Called Atonia’s Legacy: The Sarah Burgess Edition – (Antonia meaning ‘strong as oak’ in Hebrew) – Burgess said she “chose some older stocks for a leathery sense of age”, to reflect the “journey of maturity and growth that happens to people through the mentorship programme”.
The blended malt has notes of red apples, peaches and toasted marshmallows alongside polished oak and dark chocolate, all enveloped in peat smoke. It was presented in a Glencairn Crystal decanter and case made by Kirsty Nicholson, who created an oak tree design for the emblem with five main branches signifying the different attributes of OurWhisky Foundation’s mentees – wisdom, strength, resilience, endurance and growth.
6. Act of Treason
Agave spirits are now being made all over the world with distillers in Europe and Australia putting their own inventive spins on the category. Down Under, Top Shelf International has pioneered Act of Treason, the country’s first spirit made with Blue Weber agave.
The company built a distillery to produce Australian agave spirits on a farm in north Queensland, which is now home to 600,000 agave plants.
Top Shelf said Queensland’s dry tropical region provides ideal conditions for growing the plant. The region’s microclimate is said to mirror that of Jalisco and the town of Tequila in Mexico.
Act of Treason First Harvest Blanco is said to offer flavours of citrus and cut grass, cooked agave, lime peel and tropical fruits, with a ‘smooth savoury agave character’.
5. Johnson Reserve Ascension
With its reputation for advanced cask maturation, whisky maker Johnson Reserve launched one of its most ambitious releases yet: Ascension.
Matured in a sequence of 33 unique casks, the single malt was awarded the title of The Greatest Variety of Flavours in a Whisky by Guinness World Records. The 33 casks used to
create Ascension were sourced from all over the world, including Mexico, France, Japan, Australia, and the US. The use of very old Cognac barrels implemented rancio flavours, adding another dimension to the whisky, according to founder Alexander Johnson. Ascension is said to have notes of cedarwood, vanilla, and a touch of smoky mezcal, on the nose.
The palate offers flavours of caramelised pear and butterscotch, giving way to dry oak, dark cocoa, and the earthy touch of agave.
Only 40 bottles of the single malt whisky were made available through a ballot.
4. Padauk
Nearly a decade after launching alcohol‐free pioneer Seedlip, Ben Branson has kept himself busy by opening a microdistillery, and launching his Pollen Projects venture. The aim of the new distillery, called Sylva, is to create luxury dark ‘spirits’ with an ABV of less than 0.5%. The brand plans to explore ‘the full flavour potential of traditional barrel wood and grain varieties, as well as trees never before used in drinks’. To achieve this aim, the producer uses techniques including sonic maturation, vacuum distillation, and vacuum kiln roasting.
Sylva’s first release, Padauk, is made from the eponymous West African wood, which has a reddish‐orange bark and ‘aromatic pungency’. Red oak from the lab’s forest and American oak barrel staves from Nc’nean in Scotland are also used. The wood is complemented with rye, which undergoes malted rye extraction, toasted rye vacuum distillation, and gravity percolation.
3. Weber Ranch 1902
With the aim of disrupting the vodka category, Round 2 Spirits revealed Weber Ranch 1902 Vodka, made with Mexican Blue Weber agave, as its debut product.
The company was formed by several ex‐Patrón Tequila executives, including the brand’s former chief marketing officer Lee Applbaum and CEO Ed Brown.
Round 2 Spirits aims to “identify scalable spirits categories – like vodka – that are ripe for disruption”, said Applbaum. As such, the company decided to “harness the flavourful and complex characteristics of agave” to create the vodka.
Made from Blue Weber from Jalisco, Mexico, the liquid is then taken to the company’s Weber Ranch distillery in Texas for a second distillation in proprietary copper pot and column stills, where it is filtered and bottled.
The use of agave lends “tropical fruit and citrus” notes to the vodka to make it more suitable in classic vodka cocktails, as well as agave‐based drinks like a Ranch Water or Paloma, according to master distiller Antonio Rodriguez.
2. White X Cognac
In a bid to challenge the Cognac category, Sazerac joined forces with American rapper Quavo to launch White X Cognac. This Cognac is unique because it is made with
a white grape from the Champagne region in Cognac, ‘where the soil is the chalkiest, and produces the desired acidity of the eau de vie’ and adapted its distillation and ageing methods to ‘preserve the fresh and fruity characteristics of the grape’.
Jess Scheerhorn, global Cognac brand director at Sazerac, said: “White X challenges the traditional Cognac category with its fresh and light taste – it’s a total departure from many preconceived perceptions about Cognac overall.”
The expression made its debut in the US, with only 100 bottles released on BlockBar.
1. Johnnie Walker Blue Label Ultra
Taking the top spot in the Top 50 Most Innovative Spirits Launches of 2024 is Johnnie Walker Blue Label Ultra.
Five years in the making, the specially made blend is packaged in the world’s lightest 700ml Scotch whisky glass bottle. The teardrop‐shaped, hand‐blown glass bottle weighs only 180g without its closure, beating the previous holder of the title by 118g.
Dr Emma Walker, Johnnie Walker master blender, used liquid from Oban, Brora and Royal Lochnagar, as well as a variety of closed distilleries, to create the Blue Label Ultra blend.
Jeremy Lindley, Diageo’s global design director, explains how it was made. “We adopted a test‐and‐learn model,” he says. “The only limitation we set ourselves was that the bottle must be strong enough for consumers to use. Every other aspect of production and distribution could be re‐thought.
“We worked in partnership with glass‐manufacturing experts Şişecam to really push the boundaries on how light we can go and still transport the bottles safely, and for consumers to have them in their homes. Throughout the trials, we found the teardrop shape would be the lightest possible one, following the natural form that glass takes under gravity.”
Only 888 bottles will be released for sale in 2025 in select markets worldwide, priced at £1,000 (US$1,312).
The brand has also been granted a UK patent, and offers a royalty‐free licence to the patent to anyone in the world who wishes to share the innovation.
Lindley adds that the firm intends to use what it has learned from creating the world’s lightest whisky bottle on Diageo’s other lightweighting projects.
