New release - The Black Grouse Alpha Edition

The Alpha Edition is the latest expression to be added to the hugely popular Grouse range of blended whiskies.  The whisky was launched back in August and is being marketed as a richer, smokier version of The Black Grouse.  It has been created using a higher percentage of peaty whisky, including some of much greater age, than in the rest of the Grouse range. Despite just being released, the Alpha Edition has already bagged a gold medal at the recent International Spirits Challenge 2013.

Inbox - April 20, 2012

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 that we receive. It features items from around the world of whisky and is published by us each Friday.

Within Inbox we 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.  There is lots of activity this week, so here we go ...

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AnCnoc - Something RemARKabLE
No - we haven't hit the caps lock on the keyboard by mistake ... this is how the related press release was sent to us!  The up and coming single malt brand of AnCnoc, which is made at the Highland distillery of Knockdhu, have announced a new project in conjunction with renowned Scottish illustrator Peter Arkle (pictured, below).

Arkle has produced a series of images which will appear on limited editions of AnCnoc throughout 2012.  The first design features elements of the whisky making process - barley, water, heat, yeast, time and magic.  The whisky selected for this first release is also very special, as it is the first AnCnoc single malt to be released that has been wholly matured in ex-sherry casks.  There is also a short film on the AnCnoc website which charts the creation and progress of the designs.

Bowmore - Darkest Nights
The iconic distillery of Bowmore, the oldest on Islay dating back to 1779, has announced an interactive  consumer experience designed at bring their 15 year old Darkest expression to life. The Magic happens on the Darkest nights experience is being held in London on 25 and 26 April at 7.30pm, with a similar event taking place in New York in May.

The London venue, near Liverpool Street station, has been renovated to include a number of sensory rooms to unlock the secrets of Islay and the Bowmore Darkest whisky.  Fellow collaborators in the project include chocolatier Paul A. Young, astronomer Gary Fildes from the Kielder Forest Star Camp Observatory and Gideon Reeling, who specialises in bespoke interactive theatrical experiences.  It sounds great fun and tickets cost £15 from wegottickets.com. Here's a short video that they have released to whet your appetite ...

Black is back

Black Grouse - Alpha Edition

The Famous Grouse brand is adding a limited edition of its Black Grouse blended whisky to its range.  Named Black Grouse - Alpha Edition, the new whisky is a richer, smokier version of the award winning original Black Grouse.  It has been blended using a higher percentage of peaty single malt than the original.  The black glass bottle is adorned with a grouse feather and shows an alpha male grouse displaying his mating plumage.

The bottling is available exclusively from The Famous Grouse Experience shop at glenturret distillery in Crieff, or via The Famous Grouse website.  A bottle will cost £35.  It will also be available in selected travel retail/Duty Free markets, priced at €33.

It's party time

Chivas Regal -  The Art of Hosting

The popular whisky brand of Chivas Regal has teamed up with the founders of the Le Baron nightclubs to create a new limited pack.  The Chivas & Le Baron is designed around the increasing trend of drinking at home or hosting whisky tastings at home.  The pack contains a bottle of Chivas Regal 12 years old and a members card, allowing access to a new Chivas Art of Hosting website.  The site includes a series of videos by Le Baron's founders about how to throw the perfect party at home. 

The limited edition pack will be available shortly in off-trade retailers in 20 markets around the world and will cost around 10% more than the regular Chivas Regal 12 years old.

Cutty Sark - Celebration cocktails
The Cutty Sark whisky brand is celebrating the forthcoming re-opening of the boat from which it takes its name by mixing up two whisky cocktails.  The Cutty Sark, the world's oldest tea clipper, was devastated by fire in May 2007 and has undergone five years of restoration work.  The state of the art exhibit re-opens on 26 April.

The first cocktail is called Cutty Storm and is made with one shot of Cutty Sark whisky, half a shot of Bols Triple Sec liqueur, a wedge of lime and lemonade, served in a tall glass.  The other is the Cutty Fashion, which is made with two shots of Cutty Sark, two dashes of Angostura bitters, one teaspoon of gomme sugar syrup and a curl of orange peel.  To makes this, add the ingredients in a short glass with some ice and swirl for around a minute before decorating with the orange.

Creating a buzz?

Jim Beam Honey - UK launch
The bourbon based liqueur sees its launch in the UK next week and the brand is celebrating with two days of special events. Jim Beam Honey is made by infusing four year old Jim Beam bourbon with golden honey and is bottled at a strength of 35% ABV.  It will retail around the £23 mark.

The launch event for the brand see them take over Broadgate Circle in the heart of the City of London for a series of events, including the construction of a huge beehive!  Music and entertainment will also be provided, as well as the opportunity to try the new product for the first time.  The events take place on Thursday 26 and Friday 27 April between 6-9pm - entry is free and includes two complimentary drinks.

Inbox - February 24, 2012

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 that we receive. It features items from around the world of whisky and is published by us each Friday.

Within Inbox we 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. This week again includes our new feature - Tweet of the Week. This is our favourite piece of news or information that we have seen on Twitter recently. Here we go with this week's news ...

Where's the popcorn?

Black Grouse - Goes to the movies
The Oscar's are on 26 February and the Black Grouse blended whisky brand have created a range of simple cocktails to sip on while you are watching the ceremony.  In a slightly tenuous link, the three cocktails are all named after movies and/or the stars that appear in them.

The Smooth Talker (pictured, left and 'inspired' by George Clooney) mixes the blend with cola, a wedge of orange and ice.  The Silence Is Golden pays homage to the incredibly hyped silent movie The Artist - it's Black Grouse, apple juice and a squeeze of pink grapefruit over ice. The Dragon's Breath is named after the Hollywood remake of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and mixes Black Grouse with freshly squeezed lime and ginger beer over ice.  For further information, visit www.black-grouse.com.

Jameson pour homme

Jameson - Paul Daly strikes again
The world’s best selling Irish whiskey has again collaborated with Irish artist Paul Daly to produce a limited edition bottle design for St. Patrick's Day.  Daly’s design first appeared in February 2011 and was inspired by the legendary Celtic illustrations in The Book of Kells - an important part of Irish heritage that depicts the four gospels and was believed to have been produced in 800AD.  This year it will be sold in over 30 markets around the world including Australia, Spain, Russia and the USA.

The brand is also planning a number of high profile events to mark St. Patrick's Day.  These include the Jameson Global Broadcast (a special radio show direct from the Old Jameson Distillery building in Dublin), the Jameson Global Party (the main event takes place in Dublin, with other events planned in Dubai and Sofia, Bulgaria) and a new mobile phone app.

Pub quiz, Jack?

Jura - Whisky Pursuit kicks off
The distillery on the isle of Jura have announced a new consumer competition.  The 'Whisky Pursuit' is a quiz based losely on the popular Trivial Pursuit board game and is aimed at the members of Jura's Duirachs club.  Each week for a total of six months, a question will be set on the Duirachs part of Jura's website.  These will be from one of six categories and each week a person answering correctly will win a bottle of Jura Superstition.

After six months, the Duirach members with the most correct answers will be entered in to a prize draw - one will be drawn out and win a bottle of Jura's limited edition 1976 Vintage (pictured, above).  This is worth £500 and there are only 500 bottles in the release.  To join the Duirachs and/or to enter the quiz, please visit www.isleofjura.com.

Tweet of the week
@whiskylondon - Top 10 #whisky blogs on Twitter: No.4 is @whisky4everyone (http://bit.ly/xl0poL) via Cision

- We like this kind of tweet, M&K :)

Inbox > September 19, 2011

Inbox is our weekly round up of whisky news and PR type material that has recently found its way in to our email inbox. Inbox was born as we sadly cannot write full articles or do justice to every piece that we receive. It features items from around the world of whisky and is published by us each Friday. Within Inbox we will 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 if you want to.

However, following our holiday to Cuba the Whisky For Everyone email was bursting at the seams upon our return - so we decided to split last week's Inbox in to two parts.  Sit back and enjoy this bonus edition, before we return to the normal format on Friday.

Arran > New 12 years old launched 

Cool, classy packaging

The award winning Isle of Arran Distillers have announced a new product – the first batch of a 12 years old Cask Strength. This release will be at the end of September and will consist of 12,000 bottles. The whisky has been constructed, using a combination of first-fill and second-fill ex-sherry casks, by Master Distiller James MacTaggart. The cask strength is 54.1% ABV. Euan Mitchell, Arran’s Managing Director says, “The influence of the sherry casks has resulted in a powerful, spicy and rich whisky with notes of dark chocolate, toasted oak and baked apples. Adding a splash of water brings further depth with subtle flavours of citrus fruits and cinnamon”.

Balblair > WIRED Magazine photo competition

Timed to perfection ...

The north Highland distillery of Balblair, owned by Inverhouse Distillers, has teamed up with popular magazine WIRED to create an exciting new photography competition.  The first prize is a VIP trip to the distillery and a bottle of Balblair 1965 Vintage - their oldest vintage released to date, worth £1,500.  The theme of the competition ties in with Balblair tag line - Timed to Perfection.  Entrants are asked to interpret that expression and submit photographs, which will be judged by Steve Peck, the WIRED Picture Editor, and Edmund Clark, the Editorial Photographer of the Year 2010.  The closing date is 14 October and the winning photo will be published in the January edition of WIRED.  For further details and to enter - click here.

Black Grouse > Team up with RSPB

Helping the RSPB

An award sponsorship scheme between the Black Grouse whisky brand, owned by the Edrington Group, and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) has been extended for a further three years. The scheme was originally started in 2008 and was created to raise awareness about the critical decline of the black grouse in the UK. This was prompted by a dramatic slump in numbers, which had fallen from 25,000 male birds in 1970 to only 5,000 in 2005. The scheme has already raised £300,000 and has seen numbers beginning to rise steadily, almost doubling in some locations. A further £150,000 will be given in the next three years to continue the good work. The extension was announced by Gerry O’Donnell, the Director of the Famous Grouse brand, and Stuart Housden, the Director of RSPB Scotland.

Glendronach > Tee off with a special whisky

Donald's favourite

The award winning independent distillery of Glendronach have announced that they will be supplying a limited edition whisky to celebrate the opening of Donald Trump's controversial new golf course near Aberdeen.  The tycoon invited a number of distilleries from the local area to submit samples and selected a Glendronach 25 years old single malt as the winner.  The whisky, which was selected by Managing Director of The Benriach Distillery Company Billy Walker, will come in 500 commemorative bottles and will be released to coincide with the grand opening of the £750 million golf complex next Summer.  No further details are available, but Billy Walker described the whisky as, "classic Glendronach - a silky and smooth fusion of sherry sweetness and concentrated fruit".

Jim Beam Red Stag > Try a new cocktail

Ahoy me hearties!

Believe it or not, today is ‘International Talk Like A Pirate Day’. Yes you read that correctly, but that is not the news here. To celebrate this day (question – is anyone really celebrating this?), the people behind Jim Beam Red Stag – the American bourbon infused with black cherries – have created a special cocktail. The Cherry Sour Sea Dog (pictured, left) can be made as follows - muddle four cherries in a dash of lemon juice in the bottom of a shaker glass, add 50mls of Jim Beam Red Stag and a drop of Angostura bitters and shake hard over cubed ice, then put all contents into a tumbler and garnish with a fresh cherry and lemon snap. Sounds delicious – try it out.

Whisky Socials @ the Athenaeum Hotel
Here's one for anyone in London - the Athenaeum Hotel, which is located on Piccadilly, has announced a series of whisky evenings where they will play host to some of the world's best known brands.  The Whisky Socials will incorporate a tutored whisky tasting with food matchings thanks to specially created menus for each event.  Each event will cost £39 per head and places can be booked by visiting www.athenaeumhotel.com or by calling 020-76403322.  The events are as follows ...
6 October 2011 - Aberfeldy & Dewar's with the legendary Roger Mallandine.
24 November 2011 - Balvenie with Dr. Andrew Forrester, the UK Brand Ambassador.
25 January 2012 - Burn's Night Special with The Macallan.
There is also a date in March 2012, yet to be confirmed, which will see Richard Paterson hosting a Dalmore evening.