Inbox - October 1, 2010

Last week, we launched our new feature - Whisky For Everyone Inbox. It was born out of necessity really, as over the last few weeks we have been receiving an increasing number of press releases and PR type stuff about the world of whisky. Most contain interesting news or information, but we were finding ourselves unable to write about or do justice to each one. We did not simply want to end up ‘copying and pasting’ the aforementioned press releases in to a blog post, so had to think about ways to bring this news and information to the wider audience. As a result, we present Inbox to you.

Inbox will be a weekly round up of such material from the world of whisky and will be published by us each Friday. Within Inbox we will write a couple of lines about each press release/piece of news/PR event and provide links, where possible, for you to find out further information if you want to. Is this a good idea? - let us know by leaving a comment.

Karen & Matt
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Dave Broom – The World Atlas of Whisky
This new book by the well known whisky journalist and author Dave Broom, will be released in late October. It will be initially released in the north America only, through Octopus Books with a retail cost of $34.99. In the Atlas, Dave covers all facets of the world of whisky including distillery profiles from around the world, tasting notes, production methods plus discussing hot topics from the industry.

Glenrothes – Whisky Makers competition
The renowned Speyside distillery has announced a new competition that will allow four people the chance to work at Glenrothes for a week. This will involve working through each of the stages of the whisky making process. The competition will run from October until January 2011 and entering is simple. All you have to do is supply your personal details and explain why you are the perfect candidate to work there in 50 words or less. For further info and to enter, go to www.theglenrothes.com.

Highland Park – 50 years old whisky launched
The latest premium whisky was launched this week. This one is from the Highland Park distillery on the Orkney islands. It has been bottled at a remarkable 50 years of age and will carry the equally remarkable price tag of £10,000 per bottle. This 5o years old has a natural cask strength of 44.8% ABV and there will be only 275 bottles. The bottle design features a unique collaboration with jewelry designer Maeve Gillies, who has worked with a silversmith to create a striking silver casing. To view this amazing bottle and read more about the whisky - click here.

Highland Park (again) - Visitor centre has star appeal
The visitor centre at the Orkney distillery has retained its VisitScotland five star status for a record seventh year running. VisitScotland offers advice to tourists travelling to Scotland and mark all facets of tourism sites with a strict set of criteria. Pat Retson, Brand Heritage Manager at the distillery, said "visitors to Highland Park can discover the whisky making techniques that have made our whisky arguably the most respected single malt in the world, by taking a guided tour of the distillery and a tasting. We look forward to welcoming more visitors".

Laphroaig – Live broadcast now available
Last week saw the latest Laphroaig Live broadcast by the famous Islay distillery. If you missed it, like we unfortunately had to, then you can now view the entire show via Laphroaig's website. This year’s event was held in Jerez in southern Spain, which is home to the world’s sherry production, and features John Campbell (Laphroaig’s master distiller) with numerous special guests. Click here to view the full broadcast.

Roseisle – New distillery opening
Multi national drinks company Diageo have opened the doors of their new Roseisle distillery for the first time this week. The official opening is on 11 October but this week saw the visit of the UK media to the site that lies between the Speyside towns of Elgin and Forres. Roseisle is the largest whisky distillery to open in Scotland for over 30 years and will produce 10 million litres per year, most of which is destined for Diageo’s range of blended whiskies such as Johnnie Walker. For more info, check this post on the excellent Whisky Intelligence site - click here.