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The week in pictures

London bar Mr Fogg’s Residence has teamed up with food and drink innovation company Bompas & Parr to become the “first” bar to offer a space-aged Negroni. The bottle of bitters was sent 27km above the earth’s surface using a balloon. The bitters will now be used in a limited edition cocktail, ‘From The Earth to The Stars’, which combines the bitters with vermouth, Campari, Tanqueray Ten Gin, fresh lavender, grapefruit peels, orange peel, lemon peel, fresh chamomile and angelica root.

On Wednesday, foreign secretary Boris Johnson misspelled and mispronounced Scots Gaelic words for whisky in a speech aimed at increasing the industry’s exports in India. In an attempt to spell and pronounce uisge (water) and uisge beatha (water of life) Johnson instead used uisce, the Irish word for whisky, and uisceaugh, a word that doesn’t exist in the language.

On Thursday, Team SB headed down to the recently revitalised Queens: Skate-Dine-Bowl in West London for bowling, booze and a bite to eat. The 85-year-old venue boasts 12 state-of-the-art bowling lanes, an ice rink, two modern bars with an industrial retro style and Jimmy’s Diner – launched in partnership with food writer and pop-up restaurateur Jimmy Garcia.

This week Charles Edge London announced its second collaboration with Hong Kong whisky bar Mizunara: The Library. Charles Edge is working with bartenders from iconic asian bars to create signature cocktail recipes for its recently launched brand Scots Gold Blended Scotch whisky. The cocktail Dr. Gold combines Scots Gold with almonds and manuka honey, and is described as bringing a “touch of humour to our cold winter days”.

On Wednesday, the Lobby Bar at London’s One Aldwych hotel unveiled what is thought to be the world’s first Old Fashioned cocktail trolley. The trolley will house three spirits options – Woodford Reserve Bourbon, Bacardí Ocho Años or Patrón Silver. Old Fashioneds are available in sweet, balanced or dry variations through the use of house-made syrups and aromatic bitters, with hand-cut ice and garnishes providing the finishing touch.

The Sipsmith Hot Gin Roof is back at London’s Ham Yard hotel and this year’s theme is The Classics. Sipsmith master distiller, Jared Brown, and Ham Yard Hotel bar manager, Eoin Kenny, have collaborated to reimagine classic gin cocktails from the roaring 1920’s. Guests will have the opportunity to taste a number of creations, from the ‘Hot Negroni’, using Sipsmith’s London Dry Gin, to the piping hot ‘Reverse Martini’ and returning signature favourite, Hot G&T.

On the theme of gin, the premiere screening of feature-length film Gin: The Movie took place at The Courthouse Hotel in London on Thursday evening. The film spans the entire UK, visiting Brighton Gin, Hayman’s Gin, William Chase Distillery, Mason’s Yorkshire Gin, and Edinburgh Gin – before wrapping up at the UK’s most northerly distillery in the Shetlands. The film will now embark on a year-long tour, equipping cinema-goers with a complimentary box of gin samples, tonic and mixers, botanicals and garnishes.

On Thursday, Irish Distillers announced it will be embarking on a €10.5 million (US$11.2m) expansion of its Midleton Distillery in Cork. The Irish whiskey arm of French drinks group Pernod Ricard will install three new copper pot stills at its Midleton site, which will all be operational by June this year.

Johnnie Walker unveiled its latest marketing push for its Keep Walking America campaign. The Scotch whisky brand joined forces with Los Angeles-based soul band Chicano Batman to release a reimagined version of the iconic American folk song ‘This Land Is Your Land’, along with an immersive music video of the new single.

For the entire month of November, the largest of the six Tax Free shops at Copenhagen Airport staged an exclusive promotion themed on Christmas wishes, gifts and other winter pleasures in partnership with Waldemar Behn. All passengers passing by had the opportunity to leave one of their Christmas wishes in a box on the stage. Dana Zhang from Aarhua was announced as the winner, her wish was an iPad mini so that she could stay in touch with her family during her internship within the United Nations in Vienna.

Entries are now open for the world’s only virtual cocktail competition, The Wenneker Swizzle Masters 2017. Head to www.swizzlemasters.com to enter the first round Rum Punch, just be sure to use Bacardi Carta Blanca or Bacardi Carta Negra with at least a dash of any Wenneker Liqueur.

American and British rowers joined forces to break the world record for the fastest four-man crossing of the Atlantic Ocean in the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge, known as ‘the world’s toughest row’. Americans, Jason Caldwell and Matt Brown and Brits Angus Collins and Alex Simpson, Latitude 35, completed the epic 3,000 mile crossing in 35 days 14 hours and 3 minutes, smashing the record by nearly 2 days. They arrived in English Harbour, Antigua, during the late hours of Wednesday evening, greeted by family and friends.

Nick Morgan, head of whisky outreach at Diageo, and Georgie Crawford (centre), distillery manager at Lagavulin, gathered UK drinks journalists for a tasting of Lagavulin’s three limited edition expressions released to celebrate its 200th anniversary. Guests sampled the Lagavulin 8 Year Old, Lagavulin 25 Year Old and Lagavulin 1991 – all proceeds from which will be donated to Islay charities, in particular benefiting Islay Heritage.

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