Category Archives: New Make

Glasgow’s got Business Talent!

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We are in the semi-finals of Glasgow’s got Business Talent!

It’s something we entered on a whim, if we’re honest. It’s serious now! We have four minutes to convince the judges that we are the best new business talent in Glasgow and we’ve now met all the other semi finalists and got video’d for the presentation! Lots of the other semi finalists are business contacts and pals of ours, so it was fun seeing all the great ideas and new businesses coming out of Glasgow – ‘The Dear Green Place’. So, we have had a great time meeting ‘the competition’ but the gloves are now off! We are DEFINITELY in it to win it!  We will be giving it our all.

It’s going to be an exciting few days!

 

http://www.glasgowforbusinessweek.com/glasgows-got-business-talent

Whisky. It’s DEFINITELY not for girls. Except for everywhere else on Earth…

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According to an article in the Scotsman newspaper recently, girls only represent a third of  Scotland’s whisky drinkers. It probably surprises you that it’s as much as that. It certainly surprised us. We trained an ALL-female class in St Andrews yesterday and only a couple of them were whisky ‘likers’, never mind lovers, so we’ll be conducting our own research on this, over the next few months.
However, things are changing and you’ll see from the above flyer for the Belladrum Festival, it’s happening quite quickly. The ‘Beverly Knight’ pitcher and one of Scotland’s most traditional and largest distilleries!
It’s not surprising really. In countries such as France and Russia, when it comes to whisky, the figures are much more an even split of men and woman. Emerging markets like Latin America and the Far East are in many cases, much more female biased. That’s maybe because whisky’s drunk in very different ways. This would also explain why the demand for blended Scotch whisky, worldwide is so high. In Scotland, we really, seriously, need to take the blinkers off.
After all, if YOU were offered ANY spirit basically in ‘shot’ form, be it tequila, rum, brandy or vodka to try,  for the very first time, you’d probably find it quite intimidating. Gin is another one. Imagine you got raw gin from someone, with nothing in it, at a party. You’d think this was very strange.  Gin on it’s own? No tonic? Eh?
So why is it that we regularly INSIST on letting people have their very first taste of Scotch whisky in this way? Maybe it’s time for Scotland to catch up with how the rest of the world serve our National drink?
  • In Russia, they don’t think it’s a big deal to drink diet Coke with ancient malts
  • In South America, whisky can often be a long drink with coconut milk, lemon and ice.
  • 60% of Chinese whisky drinkers are under 35 and drink blends (and fine malts) with sweet green tea and ice
  • In Bulgaria, Scotch Whisky  is a clubber’s, party drink, served with Red Bull-type drinks
  • In South Africa, whisky is popular in cocktails and clubby punches
  • In Australia, surf dudes also like it in mixed punches. It’s not a macho thing though, lots of girls love it
I we had a pound for every woman that we train who initially reckons Scotch whisky is ‘too strong’ or has a ‘medicine’ taste, we’d have a right few quid. The problem is that quite often, the first taste of whisky has maybe been as a young drinker, where a girl has got to sample something from a young Scotsman who has been extolling his manly virtues by imbibing a Laphroaig or a Bowmore, to demonstrate that the stronger and more peat laden the dram, the more of a sexual powerhouse he is. Because of this and similar scenarios, it’s ingrained in many a Scotswoman’s mind that whisky’s not for them. This is in spite of the facts that:
  • There are lots of sweet, exciting, unpeated Malts
  • Some of the ‘new makes’ (under 3 years old) whisky are GREAT in cocktails
  • The finishes available, using sweet white wines, burgundy and rum, lend Scotch a much more approachable taste
  • The female palate is actually superior for whisky nosing and tasting
  • Many of the World’s top distilleries are run by females, with their superior noses
  • Lots of women actually PREFER peaty whisky, our Whisky Ambassador graduate Bayile being one!
So the next time anyone tells you that whisky is not for girls, you can tell them that factually, this is actually is a load of boll..erm balderdash.
On a final note, there would be those who may argue that the LAST thing we want to see is lots of young girls drinking lots of cheap alcohol at festivals. We’d agree 100% and that’s why we’re educating young females, young men and basically everyone to choose our own National Drink. Fine Scotch is a thing of delicacy, to be sipped and savoured and our  Drink Less. Drink Better.  mantra can become all the more real! Exciting times!

Golf and Whisky gang th’gither!

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Ivanka Trump

It’s quite incredible that a small country in the chilled (and so far this summer, pretty damp) extremes of North West Europe is responsible for two of the most globally-recognised leisure icons in the world: Golf and Whisky. It’s amazing that Scotland’s responsible for BOTH these multi $billion industries, which are just getting bigger and more successful, every year.

When we got asked to bring Whisky and Golf together and work with the team who are creating the incredible, £70 million Trump Golf development in Aberdeenshire, we jumped at the chance. We’re training all the main front of house and bar teams in The Whisky Ambassador programme and as their commemorative dram is going to be a 25 year old belter from Glendronach, one of our favoured dramming houses, we were more than happy to get involved. Top class golf, top class drams, a great combo.

Okay, we’re the first to admit that Donald Trump can court controversy and in his roles as  ‘TV celebrity’ and professional ‘Billionaire’, you’d certainly call him outspoken. However, if you look at the scale of his golf resort empire, you’ll see that although he might not be to everyone’s taste, his company doesn’t do things by halves. The Trump courses are recognised are World class. If you look at their website, you’ll see see that Donald may be the famously  half-Scottish figurehead for the Scottish development but he’s got a lot of clever people pulling golf projects together, all over the World.

We believe that Golf tourism in Scotland has been incredibly undersold, outrageously so, when you consider it’s something that the Scots gave to the world. For instance, imagine if you can that ‘The Home of Golf’ was the brainchild of any other developed country: Do you think they’d think it was okay for there not to be a direct rail link to this hallowed spot? Hmmm..nor do we. Here’s another crazy fact. For a number of years, Ireland was attracting more inbound Golf tourists than Scotland, which seems an unbelievable situation. We haven’t checked on the latest figures for this but we do know this is changing. Some critics of VisitScotland’s ‘golf’ strategy would say that with many really good golf clubs struggling to make ends meet, this is not changing quickly enough.

The unusual conundrum that Scotland has with a number of bold new tourism initiatives, be they £multi-million golf course projects, or indeed £multi-million Distillery developments, is that our unspoiled vista, the very thing that lots of people come to Scotland to see, has to be altered in some way. Many think these alterations will be detrimental to the wild nature that our country is famous for. When it comes to architecture and ‘development’, you only have to look at the furore our ‘ain’ Duke of Rothesay can create, simply by commenting on what he thinks is superb, or sickening in the ‘buildings’ world. It’s very much a case of beauty being in the eye of the beholder, though. One Prince’s meaty Castle is another Sheik’s poisonous lair. All that glitters can be too much gold. Taste is, after all, very subjective.

One thing’s for sure, or rather, two things are for sure, though. If Scotland doesn’t start to invest time, energy, love, cunning, creativity and MONEY on Golf AND Whisky, as we’ve already seen, there are plenty other countries who will fill this void. We realise there’s a chance of shooting ‘the goose that laid the golden egg’ in changing the Scottish landscape but if we can’t capitalise on the two MOST FAMOUS things that our little country has given the world, then we’re missing the biggest duopoly of tourism tricks that have ever been presented to a Nation.

To do it properly, there’s going to be lots of debate, possibly heated discussion and certainly many different facets of our diamond of a country to be considered. It’s probably because we’ve had a fairly geographically compact central belt, which led the world in heavy industry and finance, that we’ve not had to consider the financial value of our more outlying and idyllic aspects of this amazingly unique country. However, we don’t build the same amount of steam locomotives or ships as we used to, so ‘Tourism’ in it’s broadest sense, that’s what we have to get world class at now.

It’s certainly a case of ‘build it and they will come’.

It’s interesting to reflect back to the times when Glasgow was Second City of the Empire and Edinburgh was The Athens of The North. If we look at some of the heinous and historic development decisions that had to made, in far less morally enlightened and spiritually  ecological times. Amongst the filth, corruption and haphazard, unparalleled growth, some epoch-setting planning decisions had to be made. Beautiful landscapes and buildings were created back then. Indeed, some of the World’s very finest. If we think about it, we can continue to make Scotland beautiful. We just have to balance this track record of building beauty with the more recent and particularly stark reminders of our less gorgeous planning past. Please don’t let us get tram-lined into this way of thinking.

 

 

The first three months. What we’ve learned. Where we’re going.

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There's a whole world out there.

You need a really good map, to know where you're going

We’re only a few months into the journey with The Whisky Ambassador and already, we’re beginning to add lots to the basis of why we actually set up The Whisky Ambassador in the first place.

So far, we’ve had many of Scotland’s leading ‘players’ put people through the programme. People from the likes of the Missoni Hotel in Edinburgh, The Grand Central Glasgow, The Radisson Group, The George Hotel in Edinburgh and Cameron House at Loch Lomond. We’re also putting lots of bartenders through the programme, from the likes of The Pitcher and Piano and The Artisan. We’re actively speaking to some of the most famous names in Scottish hospitality, so our ‘wish list’ of the great and the good of Scottish hospitality we’d like to work with is beginning to come true, much quicker than we expected. We’re also undertaking the programme in other parts of the UK, in spite of this not really being on our radar for the first year, never mind the first three months.

Although we want to train bar professionals to sell Scotch Whisky with enthusiasm, knowledge and passion, with an eye to our our mantra of ‘Drink Less. Drink Better’, we’ve also got other ideas. We want to help bars to sell more Scotch Whisky, that’s for sure and we’re now getting statistics on the upsurge in sales figures from them, to back this up. However, we’re actually about a lot more than just this. We’re getting asked all the time about ‘the other programmes and courses you do’ in spite of the fact, this wasn’t something we planned to look at till 2013, at least. So, we’ll be creating additions to The Whisky Ambassador. For those who want to visit Distilleries, become ‘Whisky Professionals’, build their OWN whisky bars or generally gain previously unavailable, prestigious Accreditation, for decades of work in the Whisky world.

Since we jumped, head-first into ‘Whisky Land’ to become the UK’s only Accredited whisky training, we’re learned a hell of a lot. We’ve learned that the love of Scotch Whisky is boundless. We get emails every day from the furthest corners of Earth, extolling the virtues of a natural product that quite a lot of Scots don’t really give a second thought about. People from EVERYWHERE want to get involved with us. Our National drink is loved, by lots. Whisky, the stuff that a large amount of alcohol-friendly Scots don’t even drink, is more popular in areas of Brasil, than it is in Scotland. The bloggers, ‘malt maniacs’, drammers, tasters, brand ambassadors and aficionados we chat to, just about every day on the social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter are really Scotch Whisky’s trump card. Most of these people are unpaid and spend their free time (or their life) tasting, festival-ing, writing, tweeting, blogging or simply drinking, in a Scotch Whisky ‘stylee’. It’s made us genuinely humble and proud to be living in Scotland and welcomed into a global, Whisky family.

We’ve learned that some of the most knowledgeable whisky people in the World are not Scots and we’ve learned the fact that there are now lots of women crashing into this formerly, male-dominated party. We’ve learned mainly that we’re always going to be learning! Scotch Whisky’s not just a product, it’s a way of life, the fabric of the Scottish landscape. We’ve learned it’s something that, if we play our cards right, is going to be hugely important to the future of Scotland. It’s blinking exciting!

Above all, we’ve learned that if Scotch Whisky is to remain as an iconic symbol of our great wee country and if it’s going to go on, to even greater heights, it’s not going to be one Superhero, using magical powers who will achieve this. It’s a big ‘gang’ of whisky ‘Ambassadors’ who will power Scotch whisky onwards and continually upwards.

In our first few months, we’ve spend a lot of time meeting people. Because Scotch Whisky is important (like, creating £225 per second for the UK economy, important) we’ve found out The Scottish Government, Business Gateway, The Scotch Whisky Association, Scotland’s Food and Drink, The Scotch Malt Whisky Society, Scottish Enterprise, Scottish Development International and Visit Scotland all have lots to say, lots of clout and can bring lots of positivity to Scotch Whisky. That’s before you even consider all the Distillery ‘Groups’, the individual distilleries , The British Institute  of Innkeepers,  The Scottish Licensed Trade Association, all the UK hoteliers, restaurateurs, bar owners, from the Lizard, to Lerwick.  It’s all those people. We want to work with ALL of them. It’s not a competition, it’s a giant whisky alliance and we want to be part of it.

So, if you add all these together (along with the others we’ve not met yet), you get the UK whisky landscape. It’s huge.

This is quite daunting. Only a few months since formation and we’ve got LOTS of people to convince, encourage, support, lend a hand to, train and take on the first steps of their Whisky journey. We’ve got legions of people we’d love to build alliances with, set up mutually beneficial arrangements with and generally, get along with.

To further compound this, we really, seriously have plans to have The Whisky Ambassador in lots of places. At the moment, Scottish Development International are kindly supporting us in developing a strategy for growth into new territories. We’ve already attended a number of workshops which are helping us form a plan which will hopefully be the building blocks for organic growth, to spread the whisky love, everywhere. We’re speaking to people in USA, Lithuania, Holland, Singapore and China, we just need to focus a bit.

It’s been a rollercoaster ride of a start alright and although we’re not really that shy, lots pf people have opened doors for us.  We’d really like to thank all the people who have offered us advice and pointed us in the right direction, when we’ve been heading into a dead end. Those who have generally extended the hand of whisky friendship with kind words and encouragement, when we were beginning to get frustrated or over-enthusiastic! We’re not really out of the traps yet but because of the support, we know that the weekends, late nights, heated ‘debates’ and rather erm..interesting Director’s meetings we’ve already had, well, they’ve all all been worthwhile.

Thanks, whisky lovers! Here’s to The Whisky Ambassador! Here’s to Scotch Whisky! Slainte!

 

Glenglassaugh in profit already!

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Their innovative 'new make' selection

We love the news that recently reopened Glenglassaugh, near Portsoy in Aberdeenshire is ALREADY in profit.

After being mothballed by Edrington in 1986 it was then bought by Scaent, a Dutch consortium, for £5 million in 2008. So, it’s now a small and independent distillery. Which are the ones we usually like.

We also really like what MD Stuart Nickerson is doing up in Portsoy and most, if not all of it, is based around making really nice whisky. Stuart thought it would take as much as ten years for Glenglassaugh to turn a profit, based on similar distilleries that had starting distilling again, after a period of  ‘mothballing’. He’s been proved wrong, in a nice way.

The emerging markets in Asia and the resurgence of  USA  have helped Glenglassaugh to turn a profit of £100,000 on £1m in sales. Small, put perfectly formed.

There’s lots of innovation at Glenglassaugh and they are also experiencing strong demand for small “octave” casks of whisky, which are bought by companies, whisky clubs and even as wedding presents.

It’s not just about quirky ‘new makes’ which are introducing new drinkers to whisky and other ‘gimmicks’ though, The distillery has been refurbished to produce Revival, a single malt that remains true to the whiskies being distilled at Portsoy until the 1980s. It’s young but it’s now on sale and it’s a fine dram.

More great news for the smaller independent.