Tag Archives: Award winning

Whisky Ambassador Guide to Frankfurt

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Despite German-made whisky’s late start, Whisky in Germany is still a relatively recent phenomenon. Having only started in the last 30 years, the fan base of the spirit is still fairly large. There are currently 23 distilleries in Germany producing whisky in a wide variety of styles: single malts, blends, and bourbon styles. Apart from national distilleries, there is also great interest in the traditional production regions, especially in Scotland. More recently, Frankfurt has evolved to become a primary German hub for “Uisge Beatha“. Aside from The Whisky Ambassador training courses taking place in Frankfurt, there are plenty more whisky-related things to do in and around town.

InterWhisky Exhibition

InterWhisky is a 3 day event being held from 30th November to 2nd December 2018 in the fabulous Gesellschaftshaus Palmengarten venue in Frankfurt, touted as being a must-see for whisky beginners and pros. Both Whisky giants and ever smaller, independent distilleries from home and abroad come to Frankfurt for the annual family reunion.

In 2016 35 exhibitors presented their companies and products at InterWhisky. 8,000 visitors came to discover the latest trends and innovations of the industry. The main Whiskies exhibited will be from Scotland, Ireland, Canada and USA, as well as some German whisky distilleries, companies, touristic associations, whisky accessories. Welcomed are trade visitors as well as the public.

Whisky Shops

Whisky Spirits – Wallstraße 23, 60594 Frankfurt am Main – http://www.whiskyspirits.de

Whisky for Life – Fahrgasse 6, 60311 Frankfurt am Main – http://www.whiskyforlife.de

Die Whisky Kiste – Berliner Str. 39, 60311 Frankfurt am Main – http://www.diewhiskykiste.de

Looking for some of the finest whiskies available in Germany? Look no further than these Frankfurt stores. They all have an exquisite selection of Scotch Whiskies, Bourbons, as well as other international and local Whiskies. Due to the staff’s combined decades long professional experience and passionate interest in the production and tradition of Scotland’s national drink, you can be sure to get the best consulting whether you are new to the world of whisky or already a seasoned whisky veteran. Both Whisky Spirits and Whisky for life offer tastings and workshops. For more information please visit their respective websites.

Whesskey Distillery

Only an hour’s drive outside of Frankfurt you find the distillery Höhler, produces of exquisite German whisky since 2001. “Whesskey” is a play on the word whisky and Hessen, the state in which it is produced. Whesskey has subsequently gone on to be not only one of the most popular whiskies in Germany but has also built up a reputation internationally. Well known whisky critic Jim Murray named their first whisky “Best Whisky of the European mainland” in 2004. In addition, they also offer regular tastings and guided distillery tours. Within only an hour’s drive of Frankfurt, Höhler distillery  is a perfect stop to complement our upcoming Whisky Ambassador Frankfurt course. You’ll find more information on Whesskey’s history and the process behind production at: https://www.brennerei-hoehler.de.

Photo by Wikipedia user: ‘Hammersbach’ ©
Link in Photo- Unedited

Seasonal Joy & Craft Whisky

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Hello!

First of all I forgot to mention last month the winners of categories I helped to judge in the SLTN Awards back in November. I helped on Whisky Bar of the Year and the two restaurant awards, Casual Dining and Fine Dining. It was a clean sweep for Glasgow in all three categories. As a non-Glaswegian I can say there was no agenda there! The one that matters to us here is Whisky Bar of the Year which went to The Bon Accord on North Street. They’ve come within a whisker of winning a few times and they’d introduced some great new developments since they last entered in 2013 so were worthy winners. A close second was The Pot Still, also in Glasgow. I do hope they try again. If you’ve not seen who all the winners are yet, a full article can be found at

http://sltn.co.uk/2015/11/06/nightclub-boss-takes-top-industry-award/ .

Despite it being the end of the year when we’re all thinking about time off there are still new whisky expressions being launched. It’s also awards season with Whisky Magazine’s Icons of Whisky announced recently and the Whisky Advocate annual awards in the US too. The Whisky Advocate ones announced so far are on www.whiskyadvocate.com as they drip feed them at one a day. The Icons of Whisky winners can be found at http://www.iconsofwhisky.com/2016/scotland/ – yes they do call these the 2016 awards – or http://icons.whiskymag.com/files/amf_paragraph_publishing/project_10/WM_Awards_Scotland_PR.pdf. I will comment on only a few to say that Ardbeg are deserving winners of Visitor Attraction of the Year and I’m delighted to see Dr. Bill Lumsden as Master Distiller / Master Blender of the Year. On the off-trade side two well-known names in Cadenhead’s (multiple outlets) and Royal Mile Whiskies (Online Retailer) were winners. Cadenhead’s have been of great help to me this year and the folks at Royal Mile Whiskies, whether in-store or online, continue to be great people to deal with.

One of the Icons awards is for Craft Distillery. No disrespect at all to the winner as I heartily applaud that venture. It’s the word “craft” I find annoying and I see others are still getting hot under the collar about it too in some of the online postings I’ve read recently. I have to agree with Stephanie Macleod, Master Blender at Dewar’s who politely stated in an interview/discussion a while back, that all distillers practise craft, as in the love, attention and care they put into the ingredients and production. They wouldn’t be where they are if they didn’t. It’s just that some are much bigger than others and maybe use more computers for certain parts of the process. Really, we’re meaning very small operations so can we please get away from “craft”. Size does not imply craft. Would artisanal be a better word? Or micro-distillery? That has less romance about it than craft which has us harking back to centuries past and some warm, fuzzy notions of smaller and more local being better. It’s not. It’s just smaller. Large and small take good care to craft their product. End of.

Recent happenings on the whisky scene are new packaging for Tomatin whiskies; all three of Benriach Distillery Company’s distilleries have taken awards at the Malt Maniacs awards and the launch of The Kingsbarns Distillery Founders’ Club. This is open to only 3,000 people worldwide and gives investors a chance to sample the first few years of bottlings from the new distillery, starting when the spirit first matures in 2018. The welcome pack on joining also includes a sample of the new spirit which showed great promise when I tried it back in January during their first month of distilling. All for only £500. Not a bad way for a whisky enthusiast to spend some money.

Tomatin new packagingRange smaller-1 (2)

As far as new expressions go, we have Aberfeldy 16 Year Old from Dewar’s. It’s at 40% abv, finshed in oloroso sherry casks and priced at about £62 per bottle. I do like Aberfeldy and look forward to trying some next year. It’s not one of the samples sent when I tasted a number of expressions from Dewar’s Last Great Malts collection, of which this is one. Royal Salute has launched The Age Collection featuring ten distinctive blends with the youngest containing whiskies 21 years or older and the oldest containing whiskies at least 30 years old. Only 21 sets are available globally and price is $40,000. Not in my Santa letter, then. Lastly Glenglassaugh released Batch 2 of its Rare Cask Series. There are 8 malts in the batch from 36 to 42 years of age. Maybe more on some of these in January if it’s a quiet month.

Now I’d just like to wish everyone a Happy Christmas and an absolutely brilliant New Year. Back in January, refreshed and ready to roll for 2016.

Caroline

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!

2012 ASB Young Business of the Year Award

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As you can see from the headline, we’re finalists in the ASB – Young Business of The Year. As you’ll notice, it’s BusinessWOMEN because the Board at The Whisky Ambassador is 66% female. We’re girl-centric. It’s not something we really think about to be honest but without a doubt, it’s clear that the Whisky world is becoming more of a female domain, with some of the very best Head Blenders and Brand Ambassadors in the Industry being women. It’s an actual fact that the female palate is a superior weapon, when it comes to whisky tasting and appreciation. What the wine World has known for decades, is now catching on in the Scotch Whisky landscape.

It’s really good that The Whisky Ambassador, as such a fledgling company, has been nominated for this Award and of course, we’d LOVE to win it.

However, it’s not just a matter of turning up in a posh frock at the Awards Dinner and crossing our fingers. Judging takes place at the end of this month and as part of this, there will be a 20-minute, filmed interview! Only one person can represent The Whisky Ambassador at the interview and the associated filming session so it’s going to be a fun day deciding who this will be!

The video, highlighting all the finalists is to be shown on the evening of the Awards in September, so it’s going to be all very exciting.

We intend to compete for a number of Awards because we truly believe that Scotch Whisky really needs an initiative like The Whisky Ambassador. If we’re going to educate, train and get the World excited about selling whisky, we need as many plaudits as possible.

If we can help this process along by raising our profile even more, we’re going to!