Richard Paterson master blender extraodinaire… made the trip to Campbeltown recently to help Flora Grant and Marion MacKinnon of The Ardsheil Hotel celebrate the upgrading of the Ardshiel Whisky Bar, which apparently has been the talk of the town. Richard provided a master class to over 120 local Campbeltown people who have impressed with the [...]

The gin category is certainly alive and kicking. Jason Caddy reports. Scotland continues to provide fertile ground for all kinds of new gin products, and in the last few years there has been an explosion in homegrown brands. Inver House Distillers launched its own Celtic Botanicals gin, the Bruichladdich Distillery on Islay launched the island’s [...]

Tennent Caledonian and Maclay Inns have linked up in a deal which sees Tennent’s become the group’s main beer supplier, while at the same time providing investment support for Maclay’s expansion drive. Maclay Group’s Managing Director Steve Mallon commented, “Maclay Group has the skills and infrastructure to grow its business and in Tennent Caledonian we [...]

Media Scotland, our largest newspaper group, and the company behind the Daily Record, Sunday Mail, Glaswegian and regional titles including the Kilmarnock Standard, Paisley Daily Express, Irvine Herald, East Kilbride News and more, is backing ‘Pub Month’ a brand new initiative which aims to get customers back into Scotland’s pubs. Media Scotland’s “Pub Month” aims [...]

Belhaven owners Greene King Interim Management Statement for the 37 weeks to 15 January 2012 revealed that retail like-for-like sales were up 8.2% and food like-for-like sales up 11.1%, in the last seven weeks, with core brand own-brewed volumes up 7.4% Rooney Anand, Chief Executive, said, “This was another strong performance driven by the strength [...]

C&C has revealed that its flagship Scottish lager brand Tennent’s saw falls in both volumes and revenues in the three months to the end – November. Volumes fell 15.7% while net revenues were down 3.2%. However the company said “While the reported volume and net revenue movements in Tennent’s are weak, the underlying economic performance [...]

AB Inbev led the way last month by cutting the ABV of Budweiser, Beck’s and Stella to 4.8% from 5%, now Molson Coors has revealed Cobra is to reduce in ABV too. The ABV of packaged Cobra is moving to 4.8% from 5%. Adrian Davey, MD of the Cobra Beer Partnership told DRAM, “The quality [...]

San Miguel is to launch its first major brand extension in the UK with Miguel Fresca. This new lager, which they suggest serving with a wedge of lime, has been developed as the result of a strategic partnership between Carlsberg UK and Mahou-San Miguel of Spain. The lager which comes in at an ABV of [...]

Come the end of the month, Hendrick’s Preposterous Proposal Throne will be pop-up at a variety of London locations offering ladies an opportunity to pop the question and make an honourable man of their evasive partner. But although the throne isn’t coming to Scotland the brand did run a couple of tongue in cheek courses [...]

Inverarity Morton is the new company that has emerged from the merging of Inverarity Vaults and Wm Morton. The new name is the result of a full rebranding exercise. Stephen Russell headed up Wm Morton’s while Hamish Martin headed up Inverarity. Says managing director Stephen Russell, “We wanted to make a positive and deliberate statement [...]