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The week in pictures

Premium vodka brand Grey Goose was at the Cannes Film Festival this week, where it hosted a party to toast the most iconic moments from the world of cinema.

The event coincided with the launch of 355, the latest film from Zero Dark Thirty star Jessica Chastain.

Guests including Chastain, Deadpool producer Simon Kinberg and model Danielle Copperman, basked in the riviera sunshine while enjoying signature Grey Goose Le Grand Fizz cocktails.

This week saw 40 brides and grooms in full wedding attire race around London as part of the first Pimm’s Spritz Wedding Dash.

Couples were all hoping to win their dream wedding bash by competing in the obstacle course, which included bouquet hurling, ‘balloon slaloms’ and dodging a torrential downpour.

Daniel Carey and Jade Woollett from Wimbledon, won the race. The couple, who met in Fiji five years ago playing beach volleyball, were awarded a wedding directory package worth £8,000.

Scotch whisky brand Auchentoshan has launched its latest campaign to find creative bartenders to join its international bartender collective, the New Malt Order.

Launched in 2016, the New Malt Order is a growing community of like-minded bartenders who share a passion for shaking up the world of single malts.

The Lowland distillery is challenging entrants to create a cocktail that captures the essence of its triple-distilled malt whisky, with successful bartenders being awarded a once-in-a-lifetime chance to visit the home of Auchentoshan in Glasgow.

American gin brand Aviation hosted a trade event in London this week with new brand owner, Ryan Reynolds.

The Canadian actor was in the capital promoting his new film, Deadpool 2, and took time out of media duties to meet bartenders and wholesalers at London restaurant Hide.

Reynolds purchased the brand in February and at the time said: “Once I tried it, I knew I wanted to get involved with the company in a big way.”

London venue The Piano Works has unveiled its new cocktail menu, which has been created around the top 10 most requested songs in the bar.

Drinks on the menu have been inspired by songs from Ed Sheeran, Alicia Keys, The Beatles and Tina Turner.

The chart-topping cocktails include Taylor Swift’s Shake it Off, made from Bombay Sapphire, Kwai Feh lychee liqueur, coconut, passion fruit, mango puree, pineapple juice, lime juice and double cream.

This week, SB went along to the launch of the latest collaboration in Silent Pool Gin’s ‘Intricately Realised’ series, a partnership with the Rare Tea Company.

Silent Pool Gin and Rare Tea Company have produced a bespoke tea blend inspired by the botanicals found in the gin, including Croatian blossom and lemon verbena.

On the launch night, guests enjoyed the bespoke tea hot, chilled and incorporated into a refreshing gin cocktail.

Italian spirit brand Italicus Rosolio di Bergamotto has launched its latest bartending competition, the Art of Italicus Aperitivo Challenge.

The competition will see UK-based bartenders create an art-inspired aperitivo using the Italian liqueur as a base ingredient.

In order to enter, bartenders must create an original aperitivo-style cocktail recipe, inspired by any form of art, and using a minimum of 30ml Italicus Rosolio di Bergamotto plus a maximum of four other ingredients, participants are also encouraged to suggest food pairings for their creation.

On Wednesday, SB’s deputy editor Melita Kiely headed to London’s Dandelyan for the first in the award-winning bar’s World Botany Series.

Dandelyan joined forces with Svartklubb, the recently launched cocktail bar pop-up from Swedish restaurant Faviken, to create an exclusive Dandelyan x Svartklubb by Faviken cocktail menu available from 7-9 May.

The Swedish team brought over an array of ingredients grown in the Jämtland region, including rowan berries, meadowsweet, Attika (a Swedish vinegar) and woodruff, and combined these with Dandelyan ingredients to create the drinks.

Cocktails included the Fermented Carrot & Bubbles, made with Bacardi Cuatro, fermented carrot and Champagne, and the Woodruff & Moss, comprising Bombay Sapphire, woodruff, mud, moss and tonic.

South Africa and Norway became the latest countries to be represented within The Gin Guild as 29 new members were welcomed at the Gin Industry Annual Dinner at The Guildhall in London.

Lucy Beard and Leigh Lisk, co-founders of the Hope on Hopkins Distillery in South Africa, were among those inducted into the Gin Guild at this weeks dinner.

The Gin Guild now has almost 300 members, including representatives of distilleries and brands from the USA, Scotland, Manchester, Yorkshire, London, Hertfordshire and Brighton.

London venue 100 Wardour St is preparing to unveil its latest cocktail menu, which draws upon classic concoctions from times gone by.

Created by bar manager Massimo Bosio and his team, the menu includes drinks inspired by the Golden Era of 1860-1930, Tiki Time from 1930-1950, Disco Fever from 1980-1990 and Back to the Future, which looks to the future of cocktail-making.

Drinks on the menu include the Hanging Man, which includes Pusser’s Gunpowder rum, Smith & Cross rum, Aba pisco, falernum, plum, lime, egg white, passionfruit syrup, ginger and grapefruit syrup and grapefruit soda; and It’s Not an Espresso Martini, made with pear and chocolate-infused Rebel Yell, Xante liqueur, almond syrup and coffee.

The highly anticipated new cocktail menu from Artesian officially launched this week – and SB was fortunate enough to be among the first to sample its offerings. The new menu has been designed to evoke memories of significant moments in a person’s life through the power of flavour. Each cocktail’s name completes the sentence ‘That moment when…’, and includes …You Went Travelling, …You Turned Thirty and …It All Began.

To mark the end of this year’s Spirit of Speyside Whisky Festival the annual list of award-winning whiskies was announced at the event’s closing ceilidh.

The public’s favourite whisky of the festival was the 25-year-old Cragganmmore Special Release, while Glen Moray walked away with two awards for its non-age statement Classic Chardonay and its 18-year-old expression.

Top title in the 12-year-old and under category went to Strathisla 12 Year Old, while Glenfiddich 21 Year Old Reserva Rum Cask Finish triumphed in the over 21-year-old category.

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