Diageo has announced special cask strength bottlings of Lagavulin and Caol Ila for this year’s Islay Festival of Malt & Music.

Drambuie up for sale

22 May, 2014

Drambuie the scotch whisky liqueur is up for sale, according to the Financial Times newspaper.

The Philippines-based Alliance Global Group drinks group which owns the Emperador brand, has bought Whyte & Mackay US$726 million, including debt, according to unconfirmed reports.

Edrington has announced that the £250,000 investment in the visitor facilities at the Famous Grouse Experience at its Glenturret Distillery, Scotland’s most visited distillery, in Crieff, has been completed.

Diageo Global Travel and Middle East (GTME) has announced the launch of the John Walker & Sons Private Collection by Walker's master blender Jim Beveridge.

Berry Bros. & Rudd Spirits has appointed Marussia Beverages RUS to distribute The Glenrothes Speyside Single Malt scotch whisky, No. 3 London Dry gin, The King’s Ginger liqueur and Pink Pigeon Mauritian rum from June 1.

Pernod Ricard Travel Retail Europe has unveiled the latest of its limited edition Single Cask Editions – The Glenlivet Kymah.

Edrington has announced the establishment of Edrington Americas, a wholly-owned sales, marketing and distribution company for the US.

Chivas Brothers, the Scotch whisky and premium gin division of Pernod Ricard, has announced it is expanding The Glenlivet Nàdurra brand.

Pernod Ricard’s net sales for the first nine months of the 2013/14 financial year totalled €6,186 million – down 7% on the same period last year. The company says the results are in line with the first half-year and sales were stable excluding foreign exchange and group structure effects.

Jameson is in a very good period right now. The momentum is there and there is room to go up, according to Jameson International brand director, Dan Lundberg.

The Diego Zamora group has appointed Matthew Turner as its global brand director for Licor 43.

Diageo has been named Distiller of the Year 2014 by Whisky Magazine.

Bushmills Live, the music festival which is held at the Northern Ireland distillery on June 11 and 12, has secured The 1975 band as headliners.

Gruppo Campari has bought the Canadian whisky producer Forty Creek Distillery (FCD), an independently owned Canadian spirits company.

The UK market for Scotch whisky declined by 3% last year.

Diageo Global Travel and Middle East (GTME) and the World Duty Free Group have opened an “exclusive concept store” in the departures concourse of London Heathrow Terminal 4, for Johnnie Walker Explorers’ Selection, a major global marketing initiative that GTME says represents one of Diageo’s most significant investments in travel retail.

Chivas Brothers has launched a major international bartender competition called Chivas Masters.

William Grant & Sons has announced at international memorial services in New York and Scotland and a special expression, for Charles Grant Gordon, the man who gave the world Glenfiddich Scotch whisky.

on 18 February, 2014

The Pernod Ricard team were in London today (February 18) to flesh on the bones for their half year interim results which were announced last week.

Diageo Reserve has announced that its ‘World Class’ mixology competition will be held in the UK from 28 July to 1 August.

Berry Bros. & Rudd Spirits announced the release of the second in its series of single cask bottlings of The Glenrothes from the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Pernod results

13 February, 2014

Pernod Ricard has reported net sales for the first semester of 2013/14 totalled €4.57 million.

Diageo, the world’s largest premium spirits company and the largest producer of Scotch whisky, has launched an initiative to locate lost and forgotten barrels of whisk(e)y from around the world.

The Teeling Whiskey Company (TWC) has announced its plans for a new whiskey distillery to be located in Dublin’s Newmarket Square in The Liberties, Dublin 8.

on 31 January, 2014

Playing the numbers game Diageo’s interim results for the six months to December 31 which were reported yesterday (January 30), make bleak reading.

William Grant & Sons has launched a scholarship to honour Ian Murray, its former prestige retail manager, who died last year after a short illness.

Diageo has announced plans for a £30 million expansion of its Clynelish distillery in Sutherland.

It has just been announced that Charles Gordon, life president of William Grant & Sons, died in New York at the weekend. He was 86.

Bell joins Diageo

18 December, 2013

Diageo has announced that Georgie Bell, currently global ambassador for the Scotch Malt Whisky Society, will join Diageo next month (January) as a global brand ambassador, focusing on the promotion of its new range of Mortlach single malt scotch which will be launched next year (2014).

Adnams, best known as an English regional brewer, is about to launch its first ever whiskies.

Ballantine's does a Brazilian

03 December, 2013

Ballantine’s Brasil is the name of a new lime-infused spirit drink, from the Chivas Brothers scotch and premium gin divisions of Pernod Ricard.

La Martinquaise, the French spirits group, has announced that WS Karoulias, one of the leading spirits distribution companies in Greece, will be the exclusive distributor of its Label 5 scotch whisky in Greece.

Kilchoman’s new warehouse

15 November, 2013

Islay’s independent farm distillery, Kilchoman, has built a new warehouse to hold more than 10,000 casks.

The Macallan and French crystal maker, Lalique, unveiled their latest special decanter in the Six Pillars Collection at the TFWA exhibition in Cannes today (October 22).

Diageo has announced a new marketing campaign for its scotch whisky blend, Johnnie Walker, that will amount to a £7.2 million spend.

Black Bottle is relaunched

01 October, 2013

Burn Stewart Distillers has relaunched the premium blended scotch whisky, Black Bottle.

Taghta (“Tuh-ta”, Gaelic for chosen), is name chosen by Glenmorangie’s whisky fans worldwide for a new single malt.

Glenfiddich’s Malt Mastermind competition is moving to Scotland – to Dufftown the home of the world’s number one single malt scotch whisky

Scotch by rail

13 September, 2013

A trial is being launched to deliver Scotch whisky by train from Speyside to central Scotland in a bid to cut road journeys and emissions.

The Irish prime minister or Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, yesterday (September 4) officially opened Irish Distillers’ newly expanded Midleton distillery in Cork.

United Spirits board of directors has appointed former Diageo CEO, Paul Walsh, as an additional director of the company with immediate effect.

Irish Distillers has launched the latest release of its flagship blended whiskey, Midleton Very Rare.

The rare and special bottle of The Macallan Select Reserve, donated by Maxxium UK, sold for £4,400 at the Masterpiece Midsummer Party Auction and will benefit Marie Curie Cancer Care; a charity that cares for terminally ill patients and their families. 

The rare and special bottle of The Macallan Select Reserve, donated by Maxxium UK, sold for £4,400 at the Masterpiece Midsummer Party Auction and will benefit Marie Curie Cancer Care; a charity that cares for terminally ill patients and their families. 

on 20 June, 2013

You don’t often go to a whisky tasting and get given raspberry sorbet, half way through.  Sniffing strawberry and getting a vanilla stick stuck up your nose, isn’t common either.

Chivas Brothers' Speyside distillery, Glen Keith, has re-opened, having been closed, or silent, since 1999.

J & G Grant, owners of the Glenfarclas distillery, has appointed George Grant to its board of directors.

The Scotch Whisky Association (SWA) exhibition, Scotch Whisky: From Grain to Glass, has opened in the Glasgow.

on 29 May, 2013

Standing listening last night to The Macallan’s brand ambassador, Joy Elliot, who was conducting a tasting of the new 1824 Series at the Whisky Shop in London’s Piccadilly, I could not resist a feeling of déjà vu.

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