The week in pictures
On Monday, Wild Turkey announced a new partnership with actor Matthew McConaughey. McConaughey has signed on as the brand’s creative director, acting as a storyteller for Wild Turkey both behind the camera and in front of it. His mission to “reintroduce the world” to the brand begins with a series of television and digital advertising campaigns directed by him, set to launch in September.
The artistic creations of Galleria Campari will feature in the Galleria Campari On Tour exhibition from 3 August until 31 December 2016 at Osteria at the Barbican. The iconic space will exhibit a dynamic collection of the most representative artworks from Campari’s rich history. Making its debut in London, art and cocktail enthusiasts were invited to sample a flight of Negroni’s or sip on the aptly named ‘Spiritello’ cocktail in homage to Leonetto Cappiello’s 1921 piece.
Diageo and David Beckham released the first permanent line extension in the Haig Club single grain Scotch whisky range on Wednesday, called Clubman. New addition Haig Club Clubman has been crafted by master distiller and blender Chris Clark. Using American oak casks that previously held Bourbon, the new addition is designed to be mixed with cola during “up-tempo” occasions and described as the “mainstream” variant in the Haig range.
London bartender Fabiano Latham went on a marathon task to collect the finest Cachaça recipes from the capital’s bars to send to Rio in time for the Olympics. Latham visited 26 London cocktail bars on Tuesday to gather the drink concoctions from top mixologists. Collected in a specially designed torch fabricated from a cocktail shaker, the drinks recipes are being sent to Astor, on Leblon beach, Rio, for a special drinks menu on offer to fans throughout August.
Leading London bar Duck & Waffle recently introduced a new cocktail menu containing food waste and ingredients foraged in London, called Urban Foraging vs. Urban Decay. On Wednesday, Amy Hopkins and Annie Hayes were invited to taste a selection of cocktails from the menu, which was curated by the bar’s head of spirit and cocktail development, Rich Woods. Pictured above is the Banana Split, a mix of Cana Brava rum, spent banana skin cordial, toasted coconut husk and sour milk.
Craft London and Sipsmith have partnered up to host a ‘Sipsmith Summer Terrace’. Running for six weeks until 20 September, the Sipsmith bar will host ticketed gin masterclasses every two weeks. The bar team collaborated with Sipsmith’s master distiller, Jared Brown, to create a range of bespoke, handcrafted cocktails; marrying Sipsmith’s London Dry Gin, V.J.O.P., Sipping Vodka and their new London Cup with fresh ingredients and garnishes, foraged from the grounds of Craft London and their kitchen garden.
Eden Mill, Scotland’s “first” single-site gin distillery announced a four-year partnership with Scottish Rugby to become the governing body’s first ever ‘official gin partner’. Edinburgh Rugby player Grant Gilchrist marks the Eden Mill partnership. The brand will be on site at all matches in the stadium grounds with a pop-up gin bar and Airstream trailer on match days, offering a range of beverages including Love Gin, Oak Gin, Hop Gin and specialty gin cocktails.
The popular London Cocktail Club opened its latest venue in Bethnal Green last Thursday. Located beneath train tracks, the theme of LCC Bethnal Green is all things railway with a special focus on gin. The hailed cocktail experts have created a distinct bar with a real urban feel, with its latest east end haunt settled under the arches in Bethnal Green.
Last Friday London’s Playboy Club celebrated its 50th anniversary with an extravagant party that took guests on a journey through Playboy’s vintage years. Guests were entertained by a live band, fire performers and roaming acts while sipping on Champagne and various cocktails and enjoying canapés.
The pop-up bar inspired by hit US television series Breaking Bad is set to return to London on 5 August, with plans to open a permanent site. Based in an RV truck, the bar, called ABQ, allows 28 ‘cooks’ in at one time to make cocktails from a ‘manual’, while wearing a Walter White meth-making suit. Last year the bar extended its three-month run in London after more than 42,000 people applied for tickets.
In honour of the Rio 2016 Olympics, Bunga Bunga will transform itself into a Brazilian hub, featuring an exclusive Olympic-themed pop-up upstairs in Latin American-inspired beach shack, Cocobananas. The pop-up will kick off the opening ceremony on 5 August, and will be decked out with palm trees, banana leaves, beach balls, exotic flowers and lounge chairs, a Caipirinha bar, a dedicated Olympic-themed cocktail menu and Samba dancers.
Breakthru Beverage Group partnered with Lollapalooza to elevate the beverage experience on the festival’s historic 25th anniversary, hosting more than 100,000 festival-goers daily. The Breakthru team led the beverage development program at the new Mix’d Up! craft cocktail bar, where 27,000 cocktails were batched and served for the first time in the festival’s history. The bar featured spirits from Breakthru’s partners including Hendrick’s Gin, Jack Daniels Tennessee Whiskey, Red Bull and Tito’s Handmade Vodka.
Tim Harfield and Sarah Bartholomew, lighting designer, applied the finishing touches to new features at The Scotch Malt Whisky Society’s Queen Street venue after a £300,000 refurbishment. The venue will open in time for hosting Fringe shows Project Flavour Behaviour and At the Illusionist’s Table.
Pickering’s Gin are the ‘official gin partner’ of the Royal Military Tattoo for the third year running. To mark the occasion the brand has released a 500 bottle run of Pickering’s Gin. This year pays tribute to Her Majesty The Queen’s 90th birthday while celebrating ‘Tunes of Glory’, with each bottle adorned with a royal blue wax seal, row of medals and a commemorative neck tag.
SB‘s deputy editor Amy Hopkins reunited with SB‘s former senior staff writer and now Scotch whisky aficionado Melita Kiely at the Chesterfield Mayfair Hotel for a dram-filled evening. The pair tasted new whisky flights at the hotel’s glamorous bar – a favourite of which was The Macallan whiskies paired with specially-created chocolates.
Lucas Bols brought some of the brightest minds in the drinks industry to Bristol on 27 July for Bols Business Class. The one-day forum at The Watershed, covered a range of topics from trends to the changing face of the UK on-trade. Speakers included Ago Perrone from The Connaught, Elliot Ball, co-founder of the Cocktail Trading Co, Imbibe’s Clinton Cawood and owner of Bath bar The Black Horse, Louis Lewis-Smith. A Hyde & Co pop-up bar hosted delegates throughout and guests also tasted L’Aperitivo, the new spirit-based aperitif from Galliano in a cocktail prepared by Ago. Galliano L’Aperitivo is being trialled in selected cities across the UK.
