Inbox - March 8, 2013

Welcome to this week's Inbox.  For those that have recently discovered us, Inbox is our weekly round up of whisky news and PR material that has found its way in to our email inbox. It was created as we cannot write full articles or do justice to every piece received. It features items from around the world of whisky and is published by us each Friday.

Within Inbox we aim to write a few lines detailing each press release/piece of news/PR event that we have received and provide links, where possible, for you to find out further information.  Here we go with what has caught our attention in this week's news ...

________

Glenfiddich - Pioneers latest venture

The famous and multi award winning Scotch single malt whisky from Speyside has seen its latest group of intrepid 'pioneers' take part in a whisky tasting with a difference.  The Glenfiddich Pioneers aim to take the brand and its whiskies to extremes of location, including the world's highest ever whisky tasting which took place on Mount Everest last year.

The latest event saw whisky fans join Ian Millar, the Global Brand Ambassador for Glenfiddich, for a once-in-a-lifetime experience - a whisky tasting of some very special single malts in the Grand Canyon.  Everyone was flown in to the Arizona geological landmark by helicopter and landed on a special helipad (pictured above).  Ian Millar then led a tasting including rare whiskies such as the Glenfiddich 50 years old, the 1964 Travel Retail Exclusive and the 30 years old American Oak.

Johnnie Walker - Going for Gold
The world's leading Scotch whisky brand has announced the latest release in their Trade Routes series - Johnnie Walker The Gold Route.  IT is the second whisky in the series and follows The Spice Road, which was released back in November. The blend is again available exclusively for travellers in the Duty Free/travel retail sector and pays tribute to the travelling heritage of the John Walker & Sons agents.  

Like the rest of the Explorers' Club Collection, of which The Gold Route is part, this new whisky takes inspiration from the journeys made by the Walker family and their agents.  This took them from Central America through the Andes and along the coast of the Pacific Ocean. The whisky has been created by Diageo's Johnnie Walker blending team headed by Jim Beveridge and includes some old casks of whisky.  A bottle will retail for £65 ($95 US) and is available now.

Steve White, the Marketing Director of Diageo Global Travel and Middle East, says "At the very heart of Johnnie Walker lies a bold spirit of adventure which has given rise to a great number of epic journeys. Our blends have been inspired by tales of rich travel adventures, in this case, along the Gold Route of the Americas and the Caribbean. The Gold Route is a premium blend made exclusively for the intrepid travellers of today."

Monkey Shoulder - FONO is back 
The Monkey Shoulder blended Scotch brand has announced the first of this year's events in its popular For One Night Only series.  The series was a huge success last year and aims to bring the brand to a new whisky audience.  It sees a number of disused spaces in London transformed 'for one night only' and each event has a different theme. 

The first of this year's events is Malt Jockey on Thursday 21 March - a night at the races like no other where you can race Scalextric horses around our custom made circuit, try 3 tasty cocktails made by London’s top bartenders and get a crash course in the art of cocktail making at our Bootcamp. Further events will be announced shortly. Tickets cost £15 each and can be purchased here.