Hey campers,

When I blogged last, I spoke about running bartender sessions involving Black Bottle and educating people a little about Islay. I have now run a couple of sessions and I’m pleased to report that it the sessions are definitely one of the major success stories of this year for Black Bottle. The idea is so simple, give interested people the chance to do something they would never normally be able to do, with a result that invigorates people about Black Bottle and educates them at the same time. Easy peasy!

After test running the session in Glasgow, we rolled out the full session in The Player in Soho, London. As you’ll be able to see from the pictures below, we started the session talking about Black Bottle and how it relates to Islay (tasting a few drams along the way) and then the guys got the chance to make their own blended whisky. Finally we ran a bartenders playground, an array of ingredients and as much Black Bottle as required to create the most super fantastic Black Bottle cocktails to go into a booklet that we will publish. I’d like to give a special thanks to guys at the Albannach Bar in Trafalgar Square who ensured that I had somewhere to go and wet my whistle with a dram (Black Bottle of course!) during my stay in London. I had a fantastic time.

My other recent travels have taken me to a land of tulips, windmills and red lights (in certain areas in certain cities) – Holland. Actually I was invited along to help out at The Pot Still Whisky festival in Amersfoort, about 40km east of Amsterdam and I couldn’t miss the challenge of taking the van on tour again! It is definitely a very special festival, put on by the Van Wees family who ensure that the exhibitors are thoroughly looked after and want for nothing over the three days, I can’t thank them enough for their great hospitality.

I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Holland; however I’m not so sure that the local’s liked my kilt……none of the pubs or nightclubs in Amersfoort would let me in with my Kilt on. I’ll ensure that the next time the Dutch come over to Scotland that they won’t get into nightclubs with their clogs on……..

Have another great week,

Darroch

Hey guys, 

It’s been a few weeks since I’ve blogged last, but with good reason: I have been sitting about the office doing absolutely nothing. Actually that’s not what I’ve been doing; in fact it could not be further from the truth….

A large part of my job is obviously, you’ll have seen from previous posts, consumer facing and talking to the public about Islay, Blended Whisky and of course Black Bottle. However another really important part of my job is to talk to the people who are carefully pouring your dram. The people who choose not to work 9 till 5, ensuring that you can wet your whistle into the wee small hours. The same people who know the difference between a Whisky Sours, a Whisky Mac and a Rusty Nail – and know exactly what Whisky to use in each.

I’m talking about bartenders.

The great thing about bartenders is that they want to learn; in fact most of them give up their spare time to go along to find about the products that they are pouring – especially if it is something they are passionate about. Over the coming weeks, I’m going to be meeting a host of bartenders, talking to them about the obvious things like Islay, Bunnahabhain and Black Bottle…..but Black Bottle isn’t just about doing the normal, so we’ve decided to give something back (because we’re the giving kind of people!).  How better to educate people about a blended whisky than giving them the opportunity to understand the craftsmanship that goes into creating an amazing dram like Black Bottle? We’re going to give the guys who come along the chance to blend their own dram; in fact they’ll even be able to take it home in their own labelled bottle. How cool is that???  For once I’m on the wrong side of the bar!

I’m seriously excited about this one; I am hoping we’ll even be able to get a video of some of the best bits up over the coming weeks, so keep an eye out.

Finally for this week, for those of you who live in the West of Scotland, it might be worth starting to listen to Rock Radio 96.3 FM……… you’re are shortly about to be introduced to the Black Bottle Busker…….I’ll tell you more about this next week……

Keep on trucking,

Darroch

P.S I’ve stuck some photo’s of my last sampling @ Retrofest at Louden Castle Theme Park a few weekends ago….yes you can believe your eyes, that is the really is Aswad from the 80’s in the pictures!

Hope you are all well,

I have blogged on many occasions this year about the different people I have met on my travels this year, and it would be only fair to say that I have encountered a wide variety of weird, wonderful and interesting people. With the daily tales of woe on evening news, I have a great story this week, one that will hopefully renew your faith in the human spirit (did it ever need renewing?) and tells of great Scottish hospitality…….

At the start of August, the Black Bottle Whisky Sampling team were given the opportunity to sample at the Black Isle Farmers Show, one of the biggest outdoor events in the North of Scotland. Tony and I (my fellow Black Bottle sampler) took the arduous journey that is travelling up the A9 to Inverness to sample at show on the Wednesday night and then all day on the Thursday. On arrival at the site, we carried out the usual process of setting up our stand in preparation for the expect visitors (an expected 12k over the evening and the following day).

During our setup (around 5pm), I received a call from our hotel (one that will remain nameless!) with the unfortunate news that they had double booked our room and they had no alternative accommodation. At this stage I didn’t assume this was going to be much of a problem; Inverness and the surrounding areas have many hotels and B&B’s. I couldn’t have been more wrong. I called every hotel and B&B in a 50 mile radius of Inverness with absolutely no luck: apparently with the Black Isle Show, The Moy Games and the local jazz festival, it’s a busy time of year.

By 8.30pm, I had given up any hope of getting a room (We would have slept top ‘n’ tail we were that desperate!), it looked like we would have to sleep in the front of the van (as the back was full of equipment). Until……..

A local couple (who were purchasing two bottles of Black Bottle Whisky at the time) heard of our plight and explained that they lived on a farm not far away and would be more than delighted to put us up for the night. At first we thought they were joking, but we soon realised that the offer was genuine and with delight, we accepted the offer (we didn’t have much choice).

After the show, we drove along the local windy roads towards a place called Cawder Castle (yes the same one that is in MacBeth) to a farm. We arrived to a reception of a bit of cake and the offer or a dram or a coffee – I’ll leave it to your own intuition which one we took them up on.

After sleeping in individual en suite rooms, we woke to a full breakfast (including eggs from the farm) and a pot of tea. We genuinely couldn’t have got a better service in a 5 star hotel.

I did offer Pat and Sandy money for their great hospitality, however they blankly refused. It is indeed an extremely decent thing to put anyone up for the night your house, but to allow two strangers to stay is beyond the call of duty and if they are reading this, I would once again like to thank them very much.

Every good turn deserves another and hopefully I will be able to return the favour one day,

Speak to you soon,
Darroch

Hey guys,

Is it still summer? I’m currently at an extremely wet Royal Welsh Agricultural Show (RWAS) in Builth Wells in Wales (funnily enough!?). We’re day three into a four day show and we’re having all sorts of fun and games; I think it is only fair to say that we have brought the great Scottish weather with us to Wales, as we had torrential rain every day at the show so far.

Being honest, on reflection this year so far, we have had excellent weather at almost all of the events that we have attended. However I can only describe the weather here in the true Scottish style that it deserves: Murder! As you you’ll see from the pictures below we have managed add our own private pool in front of our stand, in fact one unfortunately lady went head first into it…………. 

Regardless of the weather, this has been a great show. I have been genuinely surprised how many people have tried Black Bottle before, or at least recognise it. I have found the local Welsh to very hospitable and other exhibitors around us even more so; I’m unsure if the weather is making everyone pull together, however I must say that I met some of the friendliest folk here at the show – we have been provided with Wellies (if it wasn’t fur yur Wellies…), an unquantifiable amount of Muller Yoghurts and coffee until comes out of our ears.

On Monday, after the show (much to some peoples dismay, we don’t work all the time!), we stumbled upon what can only be described as a Welsh Farmers Rave. For fear of talking about things that shouldn’t be described on a page like this, all I will say is this…..I wonder how many children called Builth Wells are born around April next year???

I have left some pictures for you check out, enjoy the rest of your week,
Darroch

Welsh Flag

Mad Welsh Farmers

Hey campers,

Hope you all had a great weekend, as promised I’m back this week to tell you about my adventures at the Taste of London in Regent’s Park, London. Similar to the Taste of Edinburgh, The Taste of London is set outside with marquee’s covering the row upon row of exhibitors.

The Taste Festival’s have a great atmosphere helped with the great live bands, delicious food and drink available, visitors really have the opportunity to sample some great produce. Most weeks I tell you how good each event is for Black Bottle Whisky and the Taste of London was no different (we sampled 16k people!), however I thought this week for a change, I would tell you about some of the other things that happened at the Taste Festival.

Unfortunately on the first day of the Taste Festival, just before the second session began (there is two four-hour sessions a day with an hour break between), there was a bomb scare on site and as a precaution all the exhibitors were evacuated into another area of the park for safety. The Black Bottle team, as forward thinking as they are, grabbed a few bottle of Black Bottle as they were being evacuated and decided that this was a great opportunity to sample the couple of hundred of exhibitors huddled waiting to get back to their stands. As you can imagine, it went down a treat……..

I’ll be honest, the larger events are really hard work but they are great fun. At the Taste of London there was some friendly rivalry between a few of the exhibiting stands and each day between sessions we would play Petanque, the French game of bowls. You’ll be glad to know that Black Bottle did win the series, all be it in controversial circumstances. Who knows, if we attend Taste of London next year, it may become an annual competition.

Finally, it would only be fair to mention the “strawberry man” who fell over in front of our stand and couldn’t get back up. Check the picture of him below and think of a tortoise on its back and that should give you a funny visual in your head……..

Let me know if any of you are going to the Famous Alva Games on Saturday the 11th of July, as I will be there sampling Black Bottle!

Hope to see you there,

Darroch

Hey guys,

I find myself once again apologising for not having updated my blog as much I would liked to have. Due to the lack to time available at events,(I’m too busy telling everyone about Black Bottle you see), it’s not always easy to find time to type up some decent news for you guys. Having said that, hopefully this week’s blog will go some way to making up for the lack of content. I’m going to blog about Birmingham this week and next week I’ll tell you all about my adventures round London at the London Taste Festival in Regents Park. I don’t want you to get too excited all at once.

My travels started a few weeks back going to the Summer Good Food Show (SGFS) in Birmingham. The SGFS is a huge indoor and outdoor event over 5 days in the Birmingham NEC where 120, 000 visitors get the opportunity to come and sample great produce from across the world and then take advantage of show prices. It was a great show for Black Bottle, we managed to sample 16k people over the 5 days and we sold all the stock that I had taken down to the show. For those of you who did miss out however, remember that in England and Wales you can purchase Black Bottle in all good Tesco’s and Sainsbury’s, as well as online. Remember to keep an eye out for it!

Highlights of the show for me included the banter from my team at the show; I’d like to thank Scott, Verity, Sharon and Kate for all your hard work. They are all big Black Bottle fans and their endless micky taking of myself ensured the long days were all the longer. Other highlights included having to repeatedly knock back offers for the Jalopy from show visitors – to the point that we had to write on a chalk board that the van wasn’t for sale. I have to add that some of the offers were very reasonable and if we ever decide to sell it, you’ll hear it here first.

I have added a few pictures below; make sure you check them out. As always if you have any comments or questions make sure you add them below.

Enjoy the rest of your week,
Darroch

Hey campers!

Just a quick update so all you know I’m still alive! I’m writting my this week whilst on a train after a manic week at the Summer Good Food Show in Birmingham. I hope after the amount of sampling we have done over the last five days, that a number of you are reading my blog for the first time and that you enjoyed a dram last week!

I’ve got to be honest with you this week, unfortunalty I don’t have the time or facilities to give you an all singing and dancing blog but I’ll be back at some point this week with the full bhuna.

Darroch

Hey guys,

Sorry for the lack of blog last week, I had another couple of extremely busy weeks. I always endeavour to get something up every week but it’s not always physically possible. I’d like to thank everyone for the great feedback I got from last weeks blog – I’m glad you all found it very amusing!

My big news this week is that I have the Jalopy back – and she managed to make it back from Edinburgh this time. All jokes aside it’s great to have her back and I’m looking forward to taking her across the country in the coming months. As I’ve said on a number of occasions, I hope that at some point you’ll all have the chance to see her in all her glory.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve had a super-fantastic couple of weeks sampling across the country; in particular I had the pleasure of being part of the Channel 4 Taste Festival in Inverleith Park in Edinburgh. Not only was it a great festival but happened to fall this year’s 3 day quota of summer weather. 

The Channel 4 taste festival is essentially an opportunity for consumers to come and try great food and drink from producers and top local restaurants. On top of the chance to sample and purchase, there’s great musical entertainment and top chefs giving free master classes all weekend. I think it’s probably fair to say that this has been my favourite festival so far this year – great food, drink, music, location and weather. I’m going to the equivalent show in Regent’s Park in a few weeks time and I am looking forward to comparing the two shows.

I’ve posted some pictures below from the weekend for your perusal.
Enjoy the rest of your week.

Darroch

Hey All,

Hope you all are much more refreshed this fine Monday morning than I am. I have just returned from the inaugural Spirit of the West Festival in Inverary. Spirit of the West is a festival that allows the Whisky Coast Distilleries, local food producers, arts and crafts companies and musicians the opportunity to show case to visitors.

Located in the picturesque setting of the grounds of Inverary Castle, visitors had an array of different events available to them over the two days. From whisky sampling and master classes to TV Chef Nick Nairn food demonstrating and the Red Hot Chilli Pipers playing, there was some thing for everyone. With 74 different drams available to sample, if the whisky was the attraction, you had the opportunity to try some really expensive and rare whiskies.

I was helping out at the Bunnahabhain stand with Master Distiller, John MacLellan. As Bunnahabhain is the predominant Malt in Black Bottle, I’m fairly well verse on it and I offered my time to help out. The weekend was also an opportunity to talk to people about Black Bottles association with Bunnahabhain and Islay.

On the Saturday evening, myself and the rest of the Bunnahabhain guys attended the Spirit of the West Black Tie Dinner, Ceilidh Minogue in the Duke of Argyll’s back garden . We were fortunate enough to be joined at our table by Jim McEwan and Duncan McGillivray from Bruchladdich, and the rest of their team.

It was a fantastic evening, one to remember, however the organisers made a short sighted mistake – they had no whisky at the event (an event full of whisky distillery managers!!!!!!). Three well known whisky personalities, took it upon themselves to break into the whisky tent, sweet talk a guard and bring back a malt for every table to try and pass on. Before anyone decides to phone the police, I must tell you that they broke into the tent to steal their own whisky!

I have so many pictures from the weekend that I’ve put them in a gallery below.

Next week I’ll blog about my “Islay in a bag”, make sure you post your suggestions in comments box below.

Have another great week,
Darroch

The Dram Room

Inverary Castle

Ceilidh Minogue

Jim McEwan From Bruchladdich and Peter Campbell from Lagavulin

The Castle at night

Hey guys,

Hope you are well. I must start this week and apologise for my lack of blog last week. At times this year, my work load will be such that I will struggle to get something up for you guys to read, but I ensure you that I’m really trying my best.

So what have I been doing for 2 weeks I hear you ask? The 1^st and 2^nd of May found myself and the sampling gang at Aussie Pink Floyd and Bob Dylan gigs at the SECC in Glasgow; we sampled 5000 people over the two evenings making it a resounding success. I heard that both gigs were crackers, so I hope that all attended enjoyed.

Last week found me up in Dundee, the city of Discovery. I was up there spreading the good word of Black Bottle, setting up future samplings and bartender education. I have to say, having never been to Dundee, it really is a nice place – and it’s not windy – bonus!

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday of last week was my first opportunity to retail this year. Tesco Taste of Scotland is yearly event that takes place in George Square in Glasgow where thousands of visitors take the chance to taste good Scottish produce for free. It’s a great way to showcase your product and if consumers like it, they also have the opportunity to purchase at a discounted price.

It was a very busy weekend despite the awful weather and a particular football game taking place in Glasgow. As soon as we have the professional photographs and videos, I’ll get them up on the blog for you to see. In the mean time enjoy my Iphone photo’s!

Finally, I am looking to create “Islay in a Bag” as part of my sampling this year. I would like to get the essence of the island into Black Messenger Bag to carry about with me so make sampling a bit less about of me wittering on, and more aesthetically pleasing.  I will have the obvious of peat and peated barley, but I would like your suggestions (for those who have some) of what you think represents the Island. Please put your comments below and I’ll blog about the best next week!

Have a great week and I’ll be back next week – I promise!
Darroch