Stuart writes;

Just finished spending the weekend in InterWhisky Frankfurt where I met old friends, gained new ones and had a very interesting time with Blush and we received an innovation nomination.

Friday as usual was the trade day and it was a good opportunity to explain the qualities of our products and gain some good contacts. It also proved that we continue to be recognised as being extremely original with our importer/distributor, Cammineci (Wine & Spirit Partner) being one of the 5 nominees for innovator of the year for the Glenglassaugh range. We didn’t win but the recognition that we are doing things that are different is fantastic. We now need to build on this in 2010 and we have a few ideas but for now we are concentrating on building what we have started.

Saturday was the busiest day and saw a number of sales of bottles as new people discovered Glenglassaugh and appreciated the delights of bottled products while a number were also interested in the cask purchase scheme which we have and I anticipate that we see a number of new sales before Christmas as Octaves may well be added to a number of Christmas present wish lists.

Sunday and although quieter, turned out to be an exciting day. We gave some blush to one of the bartenders at the fair to create a cocktail and Stefan Hartmann (Art of Barttending) turned whisky sour into “The Blushing Sour”. In my humble opinion the colour is exciting, the flavour is better balanced than using a whisky as the base and it is truly a great drink. He is so excited by it that he is going to enter it into the regional rounds of a German completion for cocktail drinks which start in January. But don’t take our word, he eventually ended up selling 3 bottles worth of this drink in one afternoon as it proved so popular.

As an aside and to show that we appreciate other great whiskies, I tried Fusion from Amrut and was very impressed this is a superb drink. I also tried the 18 year old Yamasaki Single Malt and found it another very impressive drink and like Amrut show that it is not just Scotland that can make very good malt whiskies. I will not mention another couple of whiskies which I tried from other countries that I felt just did not come up to the mark, but everyone has their own taste. I also tried the new Kilchoman 3 year old and although young is developing well and I am sure will become a really great Islay in the future.

In the week ahead Graham and I will be travelling to the IWSC awards dinner in London to pick-up the trophy for The Best Cask Strength Scotch Whisky, awarded to our 30 year old Single Malt. On Sunday I then travel to Sweden for a week-long tour of whisky clubs which I am really looking forward too.

As usual if you have any comments or questions then please feel free to post them here ( http://www.glenglassaugh.com/News/Blog/?p=201 ) or email me direct.

Slange,

Stuart

Andrea Caminneci and myself (large and little!)