Inbox > December 10, 2010

Inbox is a weekly round up of whisky news and PR type material that has found its way in to our email inbox. Sadly, we cannot write full articles or do justice to every piece that we receive, so Inbox has been born! It will feature items from around 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 that we have received and provide links, where possible, for you to find out further information if you want to. So grab a dram and we hope that you enjoy ...
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Alex James and Athenaeum – new cheese and whisky menu
A new whisky and cheese menu has been created at a central London hotel. It has been created by former Blur guitarist and now cheese maker Alex James (pictured, in centre) and two staff at the Anthenaeum hotel in Piccadilly, London – David Marshall, the hotel’s Head Chef (pictured, on left) and Angelo Gobbi (pictured, on right), the hotel’s Whisky Sommelier (yes, they have a whisky sommelier!). The Athenaeum ‘s whisky bar contains a range of over 270 whiskies and the menu can be sampled either there or in the comfort of your room.

The menu includes such combinations as Chivas Regal 12 years old served with Westcombe Cheddar and Gentleman Jack from Jack Daniel’s with Suffolk Gold. Alex James comments, “the range of flavours spanned by first class cheese and whisky is so vast that matching them can be quite a tricky business. Sometimes it's the most unlikely combinations that produce the most spectacular results”. In addition, James has created a whisky infused cheese, named Athenaeum, which will be exclusively sold at the hotel.

Glendronach – best score in the Malt Maniac Awards
The results for the annual Malt Maniac Awards have been published earlier this week and the whisky industry has been taking in the results. The Malt Maniacs are a group of whisky connoisseurs that are spread around the world and 11 of the ‘Maniacs’ took part in this year’s judging process, which included a whopping 262 whiskies entered! The highest scoring whisky was the Gold Medal winning Glendronach 1972, which is matured in an ex-Oloroso sherry cask (cask number 700, to be exact!). Regional Sales Director Alistair Walker was delighted: “To be awarded first place ahead of another 261 fine whiskies is a wonderful achievement". Glendronach also celebrated a Silver Medal for their Grandeur 31 years old bottling and a Bronze for the 18 years old Allardice from their core range. The full list of medal winners can be found on the Malt Maniacs website - click here for the results page.

Jameson – tops 3 million for sales
The owners of the famous Irish whiskey brand has announced that it has just broken through the three million bottles barrier for annual sales for the first time ever. These figures are for the year between November 2009 and October 2010 and consolidate Jameson’s standing as the world’s best selling Irish whiskey, by far. Jameson is made at the Midleton distillery in County Cork and the brand is owned by multi-national drinks giant Pernod Ricard. The published figures represent a total 9% growth in world sales with certain markets showing particularly decent increases – the USA was +24%, Russia +8% and both France and South Africa were +7%. Alex Ricard, the Irish CEO of Pernod Ricard, comments “we are delighted with the progress of Jameson globally. Almost 230 years since the Jameson Distillery was founded, this is a huge achievement for the brand. It is the passion of the people behind the Jameson brand that is one of the greatest reasons for our success”.