Gold Award Winning Whisky Bottler 2009

We are extremely proud to announce that we are now an award winning independent bottler of single malt Scotch Whisky!

Having dedicated ourselves to improving and expanding our own range of unique whiskies we were recently invited to take part in the Independent Bottlers 2009 competition run by Whisky Magazine. This prestigious event forms part of their current “Whisky Week” celebrations and is judged by a selection of distinguished whisky writers, retailers and distillers from across the country. These judges score the whiskies “blind” and when the final count was added up they had picked out TWO of our whiskies for distinction.

The details were revealed at Fridays lunchtime awards ceremony at the Thistle Hotel in Glasgow. My partner Ron Morrison was in attendance to pick up the accolades and to rub shoulders with some more of Scotland’s renowned independent bottlers

GOLD AWARD WINNING WHISKY:

Our 11 year old Ben Nevis whisky won GOLD in the category of “Highland whiskies aged 12 years and under”

We chose to bottle this 1996 whisky at natural cask strength of 57% (or 100 proof if you prefer)
Only 231 bottles were filled and we have less than 60 remaining.
This is a must try that is likely to sell out fast, especially given its new Gold Award Status
Notes of toffee and fudge and a long lingering finish
Beautiful stuff even if I do say so myself 🙂

Order now before its all gone!
50ml miniatures can be purchased here for £8.75
The full 700ml bottle can be purchased here for £47.00

BRONZE AWARD WINNING WHISKY:
Our 18 year old Braes of Glenlivet won the Bronze award in the category of “Speyside whiskies aged 13-18 years old”

The Braes of Glenlivet whisky ordinarily goes into blended whisky (such as Chivas Regal, 100 Pipers and Passport) and is not often made available as a single malt. Only a small minority of casks work their way into hands of independent bottlers such as ourselves thus allowing whisky connoisseurs the opportunity to try a very rare dram indeed. The distillery was mothballed in 2002 along with three other distilleries owned by the Pernod Ricard Group who bought Chivas in 2001. It is unclear whether this dram will ever be made available again

Only 363 bottles were originally filled and a very large portion of these were sold to members of the Scotland on Sunday Whisky Club. The club were so impressed with this whisky that they chose to feature it in their newspaper (click here to read more)

50ml miniatures can be purchased here for £7.95
The full 700ml bottle can be purchased here for £51.99

if you would like to browse our entire range of current bottlings then just click here
Or if you are interested in learning more about our independent bottling business then you can read about it on our website by clicking here

If you have any whisky related questions then please just drop us an e-mail at [email protected] regardless of whether you wish to order.

Slanj !

Mitchell

Jazz and Cigars :-)

Another great office herf today:-)

Michael Lington, Los Angeles based Jazz musician is in London playing at the Pizza Express Jazz Club in Soho and popped in for a Bolivar Belicosos and Some Havana Club 15 rum before tonight’s show.

Michael also writes about cigars and is such an enthusiast that he even produces some premium cigars under his own label.

Checkout more details and his music on his website http://www.michaellington.com/

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell

Dream of Californication ( with apologies to the Red Hot Chilli Peppers!)

This blog comes to you from the fabulous Sunset Marquis Hotel is West Hollywood where I have been star spotting quite successfully for the last few weeks.

Actor Gabriel Byrne (Usual Suspects) was at the hotel restaurant the other morning and Paul Sorvino (Goodfellas) was spotted at Hugos restaurant. That was cool as it’s one of my favourite films. David Spade was spotted in IHOP and Buzz Aldrin was seen at Luis Vuitton on Rodeo Drive!

Greenday were also staying here perhaps as there are recording studios at the hotel. I wouldn’t have recognized them in all honesty had I not seen them on the Simpsons!

OK, so what the hell am I doing in the USA? Well,I have been actively promoting our fabulous new range of Italian humidors,cutters and lighters as ever and I’m delighted to report record orders so my trip has been a fantastic success. I’ve seen almost 200 clients so far which is quite a feat…I think I’ll need a vacation when I get back.

Smoked cigars on Venice Beach with my pal George and watched dolphins at Malibu Beach,had dinner at Robert De Niro’s restaurant “AGO” which had a “recession menu” as well as half price wine list 🙂 London restaurants take note 🙂

Last Saturday we held a herf for 40 friends at the swimming pool and enjoyed a variety of cigars,canapés and cocktails ( Mojitos of course) and were pleasantly surprised when Lindsay Lohan passed through !

Thanks to Rod for organizing the fabulous Shrek herf and thanks to Barry for driving me in the ‘Vet’ at 160 MPH whilst screaming at all the other drivers on the road!

Looking forward to getting back to London next week as I understand that the UK regional edition Havanas will be launched in the next few weeks and I can’t wait 🙂

Have a great day!

Peaceful puffing

Mitchell

I’m outta here!

Ok enough of the dismal weather (yes I know the weekend was nice but why do Mondays have to be so cloudy?!) I’m packing up my DuPont Extend and trusty Palio cutter and off to the sunshine for a few weeks serious herfing with clients and friends 🙂

The new limited editions seem to be a resounding success and personally I love the Upmann followed closely by the Bolivar but I can’t wait for the launch of the UK 2009 exclusive regional edition El Rey Del Mundo Choix de L’Epoque (literally Choice of the age) which we expect to see by mid September if all goes to plan and that’s a great birthday present for me!

The El Rey is presented in dress boxes of 25 cigars and the cigars measures 4 1/3″ and 52 ring gauge which is a fabulous size for when time is short and you want a big burst of El Rey flavour.

No update on the UK regional Juan Lopez Seleccion Suprema yet and I’m doubtful that we will even see its release till 2010. Oh well… something to look forward to.

Peaceful puffing and saludos!

Mitchell