Whisky Inspires Scottish Designer of the Year  

— Award-winning designer Judy Clark creates Ardbeg-inspired clothing line — 

Multi-award-winning Scottish fashion designer Judy R Clark has unveiled a stunning new range of tweed clothing for Islay single malt whisky, Ardbeg. 

Judy – who was named Womenswear Designer of the Year at the Scottish Style Awards 2013 and has commissioned bespoke pieces for leading global brands – has designed a collection of clothing which will be worn by Ardbeg staff worldwide. 

The “edgy” collection includes bespoke waistcoats and shorts for women, and matching waistcoat and trousers for men, which have been inspired by Ardbeg. 

Ardbeg is revered worldwide as the peatiest of the Islay malts and Judy has drawn inspiration from the herringbone pattern effect of the peat stacks found on the isle of Islay on the Inner Hebrides of Scotland, where Ardbeg is distilled. 

She incorporated the design into the bespoke, proprietary Ardbeg tweed, which was weaved at the family-run Islay Woollen Mill established in 1881. 

The colours of the beaches, hills, trees and peat are the tapestry of Islay and Judy has creatively woven these earthy tones through her designs. 

To enhance the luxury outfits, Judy added a triple lapel on the waistcoats to reflect the number of World Whisky of the Year awards Ardbeg has won. The brushed gold rivets along the collars represent Ardbeg’s logo and knotwork. 

Judy explains: “Creating a new line with Ardbeg has been wonderful as the inspiration from the whisky and location were endless. From design to the woven cloth, everything was produced in Scotland which really reflects Ardbeg’s almost 200-year heritage on Islay. 

“In addition, Ardbeg has always has always pushed the boundaries of whisky marketing and I was delighted to be able to come up with an edgy line that combines heritage and style in equal measure.” 

After graduating from Edinburgh’s Heriot Watt University in 2006, Judy worked with legendary fashion designer Alexander McQueen before going on to launch her own label.  

As well as her most recent award for Womenswear Designer of the Year, Judy has also won the prestigious JOLOMO award for Innovation and Creativity and the award for ‘Best New Designer’ at The Scottish Variety Awards in March 2012. In addition, she was selected by a panel of fashion experts at ‘Scotland Re:Designed’ to showcase her collections in New York, Chicago, London and Glasgow.  

Carolyn Sanchez, Ardbeg Brand Manager explains: “Judy’s beautiful tweed pieces clearly show how she has been inspired by Ardbeg’s attitude and its Islay heritage. Both brands are extremely innovative in their fields and the combination of both elements has created something truly distinctive.” 

The new range of clothing will be used as uniforms for Ardbeg trial and sampling teams around the world at whisky events. 

Notes to Editors:                       

About Ardbeg

Ardbeg prides itself on being the ‘Ultimate Islay Malt Whisky’. Established in 1815, Ardbeg is revered by connoisseurs around the world as the peatiest, smokiest and most complex of all the Islay malts. 

Despite its smokiness, Ardbeg is renowned for its delicious sweetness, a phenomenon that has affectionately become known as ‘the peaty paradox’. 

Ardbeg was voted ‘Scotch Whisky of the Year’ three years in a row by Jim Murray’s Whisky Bible and was awarded ‘World’s Best Single Malt’, ‘Best Islay Single Malt’ and the ‘Global Icon Visitor Centre Manager of the Year’ at the World Whisky Awards 2013. 

For more information on Ardbeg please visit: http://www.ardbeg.com/ 

Responsible Drinking

Ardbeg and The Glenmorangie Company advocate responsible drinking and suggest that drinkers savour Ardbeg in moderation and in line with recommended daily guidelines for alcohol consumption.  

About Judy Clark

Judy R Clark is a Scottish designer specialising in hand tailored womenswear designs comprising of Harris Tweeds, Scottish lace and antique fabrics. Her work has travelled the globe showcasing in Japan, Italy, Russia, London, New York, Chicago and numerous platforms around the UK. 

For more information on Judy R Clark visit: judyrclark.com 

Springbank Society Newsletter

December 2013

Festive greetings Society Members!

Well, the final countdown to Christmas is well and truly on and things are almost tied up here for the year. All distillery and office staff are finishing up this Friday and will return to work on Monday 6th January after a well earned two week holiday! We always know that Christmas is near when the Springbank Santa visits the office to give us our present from the company – today he dropped off a bottle of Springbank Burgundy Wood for each of us which looks delicious! We are all looking forward to the festivities and will be kicking things off in style on Friday evening with the Springbank Christmas night out where we will enjoy dinner in one of the local restaurants before descending on the pubs of Campbeltown!

Friday will mark the end of an extremely busy and successful year for us. The Sales Team have been doing their sums this week and have worked out that in 2013 they have:

* Visited 21 countries across the globe

* Attended 45 festivals and shows

* Hosted 63 tastings

Tour figures have also been counted and during 2013 we welcomed over 3,600 visitors to the distillery with numbers continuing to increase steadily each year. As well as Grant, George and old favourite Jim showing guests around, we had two new additions to the tour team this year; Siobhan and Martin who have been doing a great job of learning the process and sharing their knowledge on how things are done at Springbank. I think it’s safe to say that they have all been very busy bees and definitely deserve the upcoming break!

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you for your continued support and loyalty during 2013 and also for making me feel very welcome when I took over the running of the Society in the Summer. I have loved my time with the Society so far and have really enjoyed getting to know many of you this year. I am keen to introduce some new things to the Society in 2014 and would like to hear any ideas you may have. We are always open to suggestions so it would be great if you could tell me if there is anything you would like to see introduced – I can’t make any promises that we will do them all but its always interesting to hear your ideas and hopefully we will be able to try some of them out in the future.

Glengyle Distillation

Our 6 still men and woman have been up at Glengyle distilling for the past 6 weeks and will conclude operation today. 2014 is going to be a very exciting year for the Kilkerran whisky as it celebrates its 10th birthday. We plan to have a night to mark this special occasion and will most likely tie it in with the Open Day in May so I will keep you all posted with details in the new year.

Christmas Market at Springbank Distillery

On Sunday 8th December, the Malt Barns at Springbank were transformed into a Winter Wonderland for the first annual Explore Campbeltown Christmas Market. When the Malt Barns have not been in use we have discovered that they are a great venue for events to be held in! Over the year they have featured a pop up Art Gallery for talented local artist Dawnne McGeachy, hosted the wedding of Mark Watt from Cadenhead’s and now played host to the Christmas Market.

In the lead up to the event, Charlie and John did an impressive job of giving the Malt Barns a colourful make-over and all the supporting pillars (yes, all 42 of them) have been painted in a range of different colours. For those of you who have not been to the distillery, all the pillars were previously painted a dull shade of orange, but they now feature a mix of orange, red, green, purple and gold! Not only do they brighten the place up, but each of the colours also represent a label in the core Springbank range and they actually look really great!

As Springbank was one of the founding members of Explore Campbeltown back in February, I have been heavily involved with the day to day running of the website and Facebook page as well as helping to organise the various events held throughout the year.

The idea of a Christmas Market was first suggested by one of the stall holders at our Open Day in May this year and I worked together with her to create a fun filled day that all the family could enjoy.

A total of 46 local businesses were present selling a range of gifts, with a mixture of local crafters and retail shops as well as beauty and food stalls. Donald and Leslie from Cadenhead’s Whisky Shop were there selling Springbank products and Donald also made some Mulled Wine and Hot Toddies for the day although if you know Donald, I’m sure you can guess that he drank just as much as he sold!

We had a very talented member of the Campbeltown Brass Band entertaining the crowds on her Cornet for the majority of the day, playing lots of our Christmas favourites and she raised a fantastic sum of £192.19 for the Brass Band. Santa and his charming elves managed to take time out of their busy schedule to come along for the day and were kept extremely busy with excited kids (and some adults!) dropping by the grotto telling Santa what was on their wish list.

We were all amazed at the number of both locals and visitors who turned up in their hundreds to enjoy the day and get into the Christmas spirit. There was a great buzz about the place and the Malt Barns have proved to be an excellent choice of venue for this type of event as they have bags of atmosphere. There has been some brilliant feedback and we are already thinking about ways to make it even bigger and better next year!

Malt Maniacs Awards 2013

The results of the Malt Maniacs Awards were published recently and we are delighted with the results as all three of our entries were awarded medals. The latest batch of Springbank 12 year old Cask Strength (50.3%) was crowned the winner of the ‘Best Natural Cask’ in the Daily Drams Section and also won a silver medal overall with 86 points out of 100. The Longrow Red Shiraz cask scored an impressive 88 points out of 100 and also won a silver medal and the Campbeltown Loch 21 year old was awarded a bronze medal with 82 points out of 100. It’s a great achievement for all three to be recognised by the judging panel and we would like to say well done and thank you to all involved in the 11th edition of the awards.

Whisky School 2014

Whisky School places for 2014 have been filling up very fast and the bookings have definitely been keeping Janet on her toes! There are only 3 spaces left to fill during the 7 week spell next year. There is 1 space left on Term 6 (week commencing Monday 16th June 2014) and 2 spaces left on Term 7 (the final week which will commence Monday 23rd June). If you would like to find out more about what the Whisky School involves then please email whiskyschool@springbankwhisky.com and Janet will be more than happy to give you more details.

Latest Society Bottling

Many of our UK members have already received the new Society bottle (Springbank 12 year old Port – £55.00, released in November 2013) and I’ve had some good feedback on it. Just a reminder that reserved Society bottles which are to be delivered to our European shops for members will begin to be dispatched in the new year with the next shop orders. I do not have specific time scales for this yet so please be patient and I will try to get dates to you as quickly as I can in the new year. If you would like your bottle sent to one of the shops and have not stated this to me yet then please do asap so we can arrange for it to be included in the first order in 2014. Bottles can be sent to the following shops for collection:

• Cadenhead’s Whisky Shop, Campbeltown, Scotland

• Cadenhead’s Whisky Shop, Edinburgh, Scotland

• Cadenhead’s Whisky Shop, London

• Cadenhead’s Whisky Market, Cologne, Germany

• Cadenhead’s Whisky Market, Berlin, Germany

• Cadenhead’s Whisky Shop, Odense, Denmark

• Cadenhead’s Whisky Shop, Copenhagen, Denmark

• Cadenhead’s Whisky & More, Baden, Switzerland

• Cadenhead’s Whisky Market, Salzburg, Austria

2014 Releases

There will be two exciting releases from the distillery in January 2014.

The first will be the new batch of Springbank 21 year old which will be bottled at 46% with only 2,700 bottles available worldwide. The cost for this will remain unchanged for another year and will retail at £180.00 per bottle. Society members will receive a slight discount of £10.00 per bottle and will be able to buy it for £170.00.

The other special release will be the Hazelburn Rundlets & Kilderkins which is the third and final release from the R&K range. This will be 10 years old and bottled at 50.1% with 12,000 bottles available for worldwide distribution. The whisky was put in small casks for the duration of the maturation which were a mixture of ex Bourbon and Sherry casks. The price per bottle is £60.00 and Society members will get their full 10% discount making it £54.00 for all of you.

Well, that pretty much sums up what is going on here in Campbeltown so all that is left for me to say is that I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year filled with lots of happiness and of course, lots of whisky! I look forward to speaking to you all in 2014.

Slainte,

Mairi

To join the Springbank Society please contact them at society@springbankwhisky.com

“We can’t quite believe what a year it’s been for Jura. With the friends we’ve made over the past 12 months, celebrating our 50th anniversary, and the new whiskies we’ve launched across the globe, it’s been a truly incredible 2013. The stories we’ve created together since, have been unforgettable, and watching Jura be an inspiration for you to write your own stories is our greatest legacy to date. I’m here at the Jura distillery raising a dram to you all. Merry Christmas, from Willie and everyone at Jura”

Tomatin Whisky Dinner Monday January 13th

Tomatin Distillery Manager Graham Eunson will be hosting the first whisky dinner of the year at The Kitchen.

Our talented Kitchen team has been tasked with pairing 5 whiskies with 5 dishes to kick off our first whisky dinner of 2014! As those of you who have had the pleasure of attending one of our previous whisky dinners know, the team is always spot on.

Join us and Graham Eunson as we travel through the history of Tomatin and sample some of the magic of the Highlands accompanied by some great food with fellow whisky lovers.

The cost for this event is only $55 + gst and gratuity and is open to only 25 people! click here to register

Learn More »

Now here’s a welcome distraction from the festive mayhem.

We couldn’t wait until after it had all died down to tell you about something very special we have planned in London for 2014. 

We have joined forces with Arts and Music venue, Oval Space, to create what we think will be the most exciting whisky-based event in London ever! We’re talking a multi-layered, multi-dimensional, interactive and immersive whisky experience that we are calling ‘THE LONDON WHISKY WEEKENDER‘.

Of course there will be sampling – and plenty of it – but we wanted to offer you something more. Something that is going to make you want to spend the whole weekend at the show…

Here are just a few things we are planning just to whet your appetite:

• Tour the distillery. We kid you not. We are planning to install distilling equipment in the ‘Pickle Factory’ in the grounds of the show. You will be able to see how single malt whisky is made whilst enjoying a tasting and tour of the distillery.
• East End Lounge. A special area immersing you into ‘how we used to live’ with a classic cocktail bar, barbers shop, shoe shine and more
• Blitz tastings. Very exclusive tastings of pre-war distilled whiskies on a roof-top overlooking the last World War Two Blitz site in London
• Food marketplace. A whole area given over to tasty local food of the highest quality
• Blending workshops. Create your own blend – how cool is that?
• Play ‘Whisky Wist’ over-looking the Blitz site
• A special Bollywood themed event on the Friday night
• Live music in the evenings to help you see the day out with a swing

This is on top of the usual Whisky Lounge shenanigans and accoutrement and of course the opportunity to taste a huge array of fine whiskies in the main space.

As a special Festive Early-Bird we are offering 100 tickets for each session for the following cost;

• Friday 16th May – Evening Session (7pm-12am)       
  £25 per ticket 
• Saturday 17th May – Day Session (12pm-5pm)        
  £25 per ticket 
• Saturday 18th May – Evening Session (7pm-12am)   
  £25 per ticket 
• Sunday 18th May – Day Session (12pm-5pm)            
  £20 per ticket

The normal pricing will be £35 a ticket for the Friday and Saturday sessions with the Sunday staying at £20. There are also 50 full weekend tickets available for the very reasonable sum of £85. To take advantage of this offer, just click on your preferred date and you’ll be taken directly to the right booking page.

You will notice that for now we are directing you to the Oval Space website for these initial offers. You will receive an email confirmation of your purchase from them and you can direct your ticket enquiries through them via email – info@ovalspace.co.uk – or by calling 020 71834422. Of course you can always get in touch with us too and please feel free to do so with any relevant queries.

Anyway, we look forward to seeing many of you there in warmer times but for now have a great Christmas and New Year. 
 

Sláinte!

Eddie, Amanda & Joe
Team Whisky Lounge

As many of you know, 2013 marked the Scotch Malt Whisky Society’s 30th anniversary!

In conjunction with the special edition “Pearl” bottlings we have released, we are also pleased to provide a 30th anniversary edition of the award-winning magazine Unfiltered.

Rather than sending out hard copies, we offer the following link to the electronic version: http://ow.ly/rMQby

So settle in with dram in hand, and enjoy this latest edition (which features two of our members on page 7).

As Christmas quickly approaches, we would like to take this opportunity to say thank you for your support and wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas and a healthy, happy 2014 filled with love, laughter and wonderful drams!

Very sincerely,
Rob and Kelly Carpenter
Founders, SMWS Canada

To join the Scotch Malt Whisky Society of Canada please visit them here 

NEW SERIES OF TRIPLE MATURED SINGLE MALT SCOTCH WHISKY EXCLUSIVES FOR FRIENDS OF THE CLASSIC MALTS™ 

LOVE ORCHESTRATES EXPLODING ‘SYMPHONY’ OF FLAVOURS IN NEW JOHNNIE WALKER TV ADVERT  

Manchester and Shanghai: 16th December 2013: Creative agency, LOVE, has just finished working with British film director, Jake Scott, on a vibrant new TV advert for Johnnie Walker Black Label. Filmed in Bangkok, the advert sets out to capture the big bold flavours of Diageo’s best selling whisky and features a “symphony” of exploding fruits, spices, flower petals and billowing smoke. The iconic Striding Man – introduced by LOVE as a contemporary character last year – is at the heart of the narrative once again. 

Being launched this month in China, the TV ad is part of a wider campaign to engage with a youthful Chinese demographic and introduce them to Black Label as a premium brand with complex flavours; other cities will be targeted next year. The 60, 30 and 15 second TV spots are being supported with outdoor advertising. 

Mark Williams, Creative Director of Advertising at LOVE says: “We were really keen to bring the concept of the big bold flavours to life and wanted to film the ad in real time without the use of CGI. Jake got this straightaway and his treatment felt almost symphonic – as he describes it “soulful’ – and it worked really well for us. 

“The advert also presented us with an opportunity to place the Striding Man – the embodiment of Johnnie Walker – in a social setting. So, he’s at the centre of the commercial, but he still keeps his anonymity and a sense of mystique.” 

60sec ad – http://vimeo.com/wearelove/jwblchina

BTS ad – http://vimeo.com/wearelove/jwblchinabts 

Credits: 

Agency: LOVE 

Director: Jake Scott 

Production company: Ridley Scott Associates, London 

Print photography: John Ross, Ross Photography 

VINTAGE

Our new Vintage Collection

This Christmas, finding the perfect gift for your loved ones couldn’t be easier with the release of three new Vintages from Balblair Single Malt Scotch Whisky. Whether you choose the luxurious Balblair 1983, the exceptional 1990 Vintage, the popular Balblair 2003, or gift all three for the ultimate Christmas present, each whisky has their own distinct flavour and bespoke packaging.

• If it’s a relaxing evening dram you’re after why not try the premium Balblair 2003 (£40.99). Infused with floral notes and hints of citrus fruits, apricots and honey, Balblair 2003 is a full bodied and well balanced whisky that combines orange, lemon, honey and spice.

• Perfect for sharing with special friends, the Balblair 1990 (£84.99) is matured in American oak ex-bourbon casks, but with the addition of Spanish oak ex-sherry butts. This creates a medley of spicy and sweet aromas that are punctuated with notes of raisins, toffee and honey.

• For whisky connoisseurs, Balblair 1983 (£200) is the perfect gift. The luxurious vintage has complex aromas, from warm scents of butterscotch and toffee, to fragrant vanilla.

Visit our website to find out more about the full Balblair Vintage Collection.