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.
Kilbeggan - Meets the Taoiseach!
The Irish whiskey brand was in the spotlight during the recent St. Patrick's Day celebrations. The Chief Executive Officer of Beam Global, who have recently purchased the independent Irish distillery of Cooley, met up with the Irish Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Enda Kenny.
During the meeting, at a pre-St.Patrick's Day event in Chicago, Matt Shattock (pictured,
above right) spoke with Kenny about the upturn in fortunes for Irish whiskey and the take over of Cooley. To celebrate the fact that Irish whiskey is the fastest growing sprits category in the USA, Shattock presented Kenny with a bottle of their Kilbeggan whiskey.
Kingsbarns - New distillery
It is always good to hear about the development of a new distillery, so the news about Kingsbarns is no different. It will be located in Fife in Scotland. The plan is to convert the old farm buildings of East Newhall Farm (pictured) so as to produce single malt whisky, gin, fruit liqueurs and schnapps.
The proposed distillery is the idea of Doug Clement, who has experience working in the craft distilleries of Tasmania. The idea is to bring a craft single malt whisky back to Fife and tap in to the massive amount of tourists who visit nearby St. Andrew's each year. Some funding is in place, but in order to help raise the £1.85 million Doug is giving everyone the opportunity to invest. This is via the online crowd-funding platform
CrowdCube.
For further information on the Kingsbarns distillery, please visit
www.kingsbarnsdistillery.com. If you are interested in investing in the project or just want to keep track of how the fund raising is going, please click the following link -
click here.
Monkey Shoulder - Join the Easter Chocolate Trail
The innovative guys behind the Monkey Shoulder whisky brand have created a fun, interactive experience for London fans over the forthcoming Easter weekend. The Monkey Shoulder Chocolate Trail is a subversive take on the traditional Easter egg hunt, but they say 'think less bunnies, more whisky'. Sounds plenty of fun!
The idea is that if you find an Easter egg in the specially created outdoor space, then you can trade it in for bespoke Monkey Shoulder cocktails or handmade chocolates. Again, sounds fun! The cocktails are being created by the team at
The London Cocktail Club and the chocolates by renowned chocolatier
Niko B.
The event will take place from Good Friday 6 April until Easter Monday 9 April and is open to the public between midday and 7pm. Entry is free. The venue is at 63 Broadwick Street in the heart of London and has been designed by renowned artists and designers such as Bobby Peterson and Anna Garforth.
Suntory - New cocktails for Spring
The latest cocktails in Suntory's Japanese seasons series have been created - the Hakushu Semei (pictured,
left) and the Hibiki Kokuu. The traditional Japanese calendar has 24 seasons and the Semei and Kokuu are the two for April. The 24 Seasons Cocktail Menu has been created by brand ambassador Zoran Peric, using Suntory's range of award-winning Japanese whiskies.
The Hakushu Semei is made using 50ml of Hakushu 12 year old, 12.5ml of Luxardo Maraschino liqueur, 1ml of Absinthe and lemon zest - Coat an ice cube with absinthe and stir 10 times in a mixing glass. Add the rest of the ingredients then stir 30 times. Strain into a chilled martini glass and garnish with grapefruit zest. The Hibiki Kokuu is a simple mix of 40ml of Hibiki 17 years old blended whisky and 25ml of Prucia golden plum liqueur - Stir the ingredients with ice for about 2 minutes and serve over an ice ball in an Old Fashioned glass. Garnish with orange zest.
