The week in pictures

Zacapa Rum has joined forces with five of the world’s most creative chefs to create a short documentary series: The Art of Slow. The chefs taking part include Diego Guerrero, two Michelin-star chef at DSTAgE Madrid (pictured); Guillermo González Beristaín, chef at Pangea, Monterry; Diego Rossi, head chef at Trippa, Milan, and Cesar Zapata, chef at Phuc Yea! and previously at The Federal, Miami.

William Grant & Sons, brand partners for Tales on Tour Edinburgh, kicked off the week-long event by hosting the official ‘Welcome to Scotland’ party with Glenfiddich UK brand ambassador Mark Thomson (pictured), on Sunday 2 April at Edinburgh’s iconic venue, The Caves.

Chambord has announced this year’s Easter on-trade in partnership with All Bar One, creating three new chocolate-themed cocktails. Aptly named ‘Choctails’, these serves are blended with Chambord, chocolate and a selection of spirits to create the Chambord Easter Egg, Chocolate Egg-spresso and the Rum & Raspberry. The Chambord ‘Choctails’ will be available at All Bar One nationwide between 3–17 April.

Enguerrand Leonetti has joined Thomas Hine & Co. as brand ambassador. Leonetti will be working in France as well as travelling to Hine major markets around the world including the UK, USA, Germany, Belgium and Scandinavia. He will be working closely with Hine’s distributors on product training, tastings and developing cocktail programmes with H by Hine VSOP.

It’s been a busy week for SB’s Global Spirits Masters competition as we hosted not one, not two, but three blind tasting competitions. The week got under way with The Asian Spirits Masters, hosted at London’s Thai Silk restaurant, where judges were put through their paces with the largest Asian Spirits Masters round to date.

Bols Genever partnered with The Walrus Room at Cocktails in the City 2017, to create an Alice in Wonderland-themed pop-up influenced by the novel’s Walrus and the Carpenter poem. Featured cocktail Down the Rabbit Hole includes homemade carrot-infused Bols Genever, purple carrot cordial and red wine vinegar and was served with an oyster cured onion. Michael Mann (pictured), Bols Genever brand ambassador, was on hand to tell consumers all about Bols Genever and Bols Barrel Aged Genever.

The Scotch Whisky Experience has welcomed Claive Vidiz back to Scotland for the first time in almost a decade. Vidiz assembled The Diageo Claive Vidiz Scotch Whisky Collection, the jewel in the attraction’s crown, which has been seen by more than 1.2 million visitors since it was first opened in 2009.

The Global Spirits Masters continued with both The Cognac Masters and the Brandy Masters on Thursday, which took place at Aqua Nueva in London, where judges awarded a vast array of medals. Keep your eyes peeled for the results in the May issue of The Spirits Business and online.

That Boutique-y Whisky Company (TBWC) announced this week it is the new sponsor of seven-time Tiddlywinks World Singles Champion, Dr. Patrick Barrie, who will be competing at the National Singles Competition at Downing College Cambridge this month in his bid to represent the UK in the next World Championship. The bottler even released its first batch of  Cameronbridge, a 24 Year Old Single Grain Scotch Whisky, in his honour.

Rum Kitchen has announce the launch of Rum Chronicles, which will run exclusively on Wednesdays in Notting Hill. Rum Chronicles will teach rum enthusiast’s everything they’ll ever need to know about rum in an intimate and boozy two-hour session for groups of up the twelve, at just £65 per head. Rum Kitchen’s dedicated Rum Masters will run through a brief history of rum knowledge and blending, as well as a cocktail masterclass – with guests learning to create three classic rum cocktails from the Daiquiri to a Rum Old Fashioned.

As part of Tales On Tour in Edinburgh, Jack Daniel’s hosted an evening of sustainable cocktails on Sunday with Marian Beke of The Gibson (pictured) and Kaiko Tulloch of Edinburgh’s Lucky Liquor Co, curating a special menu revealing how to make the most of every possible ingredient – from seed to stem.

Tomatin Distillery board director, Stephen Bremner, has been inducted into the exclusive Scotch whisky society, The Keepers of the Quaich. His induction took place earlier this week at Blair Castle, where 41 new Keepers and six Masters were welcomed at the bi-annual event. This years inductees come from 16 countries around the world, and have amassed 900 years of experience amongst them.

On Wednesday, SB headed to Rosewood London’s Scarfes Bar for the unveiling of its new cocktail menu created with iconic caricatures by Gerald Scarfe, as the inspiration for each distinctive serve. Developed by bar manager Martin Siska and head bartender Greg Almeida, the new menu features unique drinks inspired by cultural symbols ranging from Monty Python to Margaret Thatcher.

The Bloomsbury Club Bar (BCB) will be serving the signature Irish coffee from globally acclaimed bar The Dead Rabbit, for one week only from 10–16 April. The Irish coffee priced at £10 will be exclusively available at the bar as a part of UK Coffee Week, a nationwide fundraising initiative to celebrate the vibrancy of coffee culture while raising funds for the communities which grow our coffee. BCB will be donating £2 from each coffee to Project Waterfall, an initiative established to bring clean water and sanitation to coffee growing communities around the world.