- visits
On my last visit to Edinburgh last year, I signed up for a morning masterclass at the Scotch Whisky Experience. Located on the Royal Mile, the road leading to Edinburgh’s castle, it is one of the most recommended visits to do while visiting the city and rightly so. A tour of the world’s largest scotch collection The visit starts with a private tour of the world’s largest collection of scotch whisky. Claive Vidiz, the former CEO of a Brazilian pharmaceutical company, collected an impressive number of more than 3400 scotch bottles during his life. Some come from distilleries that no
In the small Scottish village of Menstrie, Christine McCafferty, Diageo’s Archive Manager, watches over the historical content of more than 200 brands, both past and present, coming from more than 180 markets. She is assisted in this mission by five other archivists (including a digital archivist), their team assistant and a local conservator. She kindly received me on my last visit to Edinburgh for an enthralling chat about her role and a tour of the impressive archives. Becoming Diageo’s Archive Manager Passionate about history, Christine got hooked with archives work after working for a local archives as part of
La Geneva Cocktail Week est de retour! Après le succès de sa première édition en 2016, l’événement revient fin septembre avec presque le double d’adresses, des masterclasses, des soirées à thèmes spéciales et des bartenders d’Athènes, Paris, Bordeaux, Munich, Bâle, Lausanne et Annecy! Trente-quatre adresses, 68 créations cocktails Le nombre d’adresses a augmenté depuis l’année dernière. Cette année, 34 bars du centre-ville, des Eaux-Vives, de Carouge, de Plainpalais et des Pâquis accueilleront les participants du festival. Parmi eux, il y a de tout nouveaux bars, comme le Black Sheep Rive qui vient d’ouvrir. Chacun proposera deux cocktails réalisés spécialement pour
The Geneva Cocktail Week is back! After a successful first edition in 2016, the event returns end of September with nearly twice as many venues, brand masterclasses, special themed nights and guest bartenders from Athens, Paris, Bordeaux, Munich, Basel, Lausanne and Annecy! Thirty-four locations, 68 cocktail creations The number of locations has increased since last year. Now 34 bars from downtown Geneva, Eaux-Vives, Carouge, Plainpalais and Pâquis will welcome the festival participants. There are some brand new venues, such as the recently opened Black Sheep Rive. Each will propose two cocktails specifically made for the Cocktail Week, one with and
On Friday I participated in The Art of Blending, a 1 hour scotch blending masterclass at Chivas Regal’s pop up bar The Blend at the Truman Brewery in London. After quickly sipping a welcome cocktail at the bar, I followed the rest of the participants in the back room, especially designed for classes and private events. After a quick word about the production process of whisky, we were lead through a short tasting of different types of single malts (Speyside, Highland, Lowlands and Islay) and a grain whisky. It was then time for us to play master blenders and make
Opened in July 2014, Charleston Distilling Company is an independent distillery that produces craft spirits (vodka, gin, whiskey and whiskey liqueur) in small batches right in the heart of Charleston, South Carolina. The distillery produced 12’000 bottles in 2015. Launched only two years ago, Charleston Distilling Co. has already won several accolades in the spirits industry, including silver and bronze medals for its King Charles Vodka (a corn and rye vodka), Jasper’s Gin and Calhoun’s Straight Rye Whiskey. Its range also include Carolina Reaper (a pepper flavored vodka), Jasper’s Bourbon Barrel Gin (an aged gin, yes, aged) and Tolerance (a whiskey
Twenty bars around Geneva participated in the 1st Geneva Cocktail Week from August 29 to September 4 2016, offering creations made especially for the event at special price. Some of them hosted brand presentations and tastings in the afternoon or early evening. A nice opportunity for guests to become more knowledgeable about the products they drink. Finally, bartenders from other cities, like Lausanne or Annecy, took over some bars for guest bartending gigs. The cocktail week was an initiative launched after a discussion between Quentin Beurgaud, one of the owner of the Little Barrel, and Guillaume, one of his guests.
Since 2002, visitors of New Orleans and locals can discover the city’s rich history and cocktail tradition by taking the New Orleans Original Cocktail Walking Tour, an initiative launched by Ann Rogers Tuennerman, the founder of Tales of the Cocktail, with Joe Gandusa, a retired history teacher originary from New Orleans. While walking you to some of the Big Easy’s historical bars and restaurants, Joe or one of the other guides deliver informative and fun facts about NOLA and the venues’ history and architecture as well as the city’s cocktail culture and history. Tour participants liked the stories Joe was
Back in 2002, a woman called Ann Rogers Tuennerman had the idea of launching a cocktail tour of New Orleans. She contacted the Gray Line Tour Company, a city tour specialist for guidance. She was then introduced to Joe Gendusa, a New Orleans native, retired history teacher. Together, in September 2002, they launched the New Orleans Original Cocktail Walking Tour of the city’s historical bars. To celebrate the tour’s first anniversary and as a form of “thank you” to the bartenders who’d hosted the tour, Ann decided to organize a small gathering of bartenders, industry experts and cocktail historians to
The Southern states of the USA are famous for their cuisine and many companies offer culinary tours in cities like New Orleans or Savannah for tourists to discover the specialty dishes in their most famous restaurants. The Charleston Culinary Tours in Charleston, South Carolina, has taken the extra step of organizing visits to some of the city’s best bars. Naturally I signed up for one of their mixology tours when I visited two weeks ago! When I mentioned on registration that I was a cocktail blogger they generously comped my ticket. This is however an unbiased review. The programme The
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