Cutty Sark again at Lochgreen House

Tuesday night was again down in deepest Ayrshire, at Lochgreen House in Troon educating a group of Greek bartenders about blended whisky for Cutty Sark.  Our normal line up has been North British 5 yo, J&B, Cutty Sark, Dewar's White Label, Ballantine's & Johnnie Walker Red Label.  The guys and gals at Cutty see these as being what they call their "competitive set".
We've been doing these events for their overseas distributors and customers for about 18 months now.  Initially, I thought that they were being very brave, putting their juice up clinically against the opposition, but Cutty ALWAYS shows well.  The liquid is of fantastic quality.
The Greeks, from W.S. Karoulias, Cutty's distributors in Athens, wanted the competitive set changed, because they see the competition differently in Greece.  Thus, the line up this week was N.B. 5yo, Cutty, Dewar's, Grant's, Haig and J.W. Red.
Again, Cutty showed up wonderfully.  It is a long time since I last tasted either Grant's or Haig.  The Grant's showed well, but the Haig's flavour was flat, old-fashioned and exceedingly disappointing.
The group was quite knowledgeable, had a good command of English - sometimes one of the group has had to translate my words into Russian, Turkish or Portuguese and that adds to the length of the night.
We have dinner and then jump into a bus which takes us to Alloway, where we wander around the old churchyard and down to the Brig o' Doon where we drink Tam O' Shanter, Cutty Sark 25 yo.
It's a tough life...
Last night was a meeting of the Co-operative Area Committee in Stirling.  A relatively easy meeting, we dispensed £5,697.84 from the Community Fund to deserving organisations, but there were applications totalling over £11,000, so we had to disappoint some groups.
Today I found some tasting notes which had become buried in the paperwork on my desk.  I really must tidy it more regularly.  I will get them up onto the website within the next couple of days - I hope!

Fairtrade Clackmannanshire + Ben Nevis

Through my membership of the Co-operative's local Area Committee, I have been pushed into being the leader of the Fairtade Steering Group which aims to achieve Fairtrade Zone status for Clackmannanshire. Our first event, an African Kitchen cookery demonstration, will be held within Baxter's Restaurant in Alloa tomorrow evening. We have already had good coverage in both the local newspapers, Alloa Advertiser and The Wee County News. Did an interview with Central FM this morning which should be broadcast this evening. The event is already a sell out with a large waiting list for spaces.
Next target, the schools, some of which have already been contacted and the churches who, curiously, don't seem particularly connected with Fairtrade.
Ben Nevis distillery has launched McDonald's Celebrated Traditional Ben Nevis with a replica of an old label. This is an attempt to replicate the style of whisky which was bottled by the company in 1882. An almost impossible task as, at the time, the company also owned the nearby Nevis distillery and, historically, this label contained both Nevis and Ben Nevis whiskies. Nevis ceased production around 1908 and its whisky has long faded into memory. This bottling is limited to only 700 bottles.
See my tasting note amongst what I am tasting now: http://www.johnlamond.com/page12.html

Rain, rain and more rain

It has been a VERY wet November here in Scotland. So much so that now the soil is saturated, literally can't absorb any more rain - and it is still falling! Result? The M8 to the west of Stirling was flooded this morning with drivers having to be rescued from their cars by firemen. The road between here and Causeawhead in Stirling is flooded and impassable, as are the road to the east of Dollar, my wife's route into school, the unclassified road between the B9140 and the A91 into Alva. There is every expectation that more roads will be closed as the day goes on. Many train lines are also flooded and closed. Listening to Radio Scotland's Roads Report, it seems that some people have spent as much as 4 hours stuck in, or near, flooding. The Scottish Environmental Protection Agency are saying as I write that they expect water levels to rise for the next 3 hours. This is as bad as last year's snow and ice problems. We should call for Keith Brown's (Scotland's Transport Minister) resignation!
Last night's Parents' Night was successful, Kirsty seems t be doing well, even very well. She obviously takes after her mother rather than me!

Wallace Monument

Yesterday, as we are close to St. Andrew's Day, many buildings, castles, etc. were open to the public for FREE. The Wallace Monument is about 2 miles away from where I sit in my study. Despite its proximity, we have not visited it in the 6 years we have lived here, thus my daughter has never been near it - because the cost is, quite frankly prohibitive. £30.00 for the three of us. Just to climb up and climb down again.
Thus, as it was free (see it's true, we Scots are tight!), I took my daughter along.
The queues were extraordinary and it was freezing cold standing in the queue. They told us when we arrived that it would be about an hour before we would be able to get inside the monument. Then they told us that we would only be able to get to the third floor. One of the reasons for going was to experience the view and take photographs of our home area from the top!
We froze, we waited.
It was quite good, but it was not worth £30.00
Tonight is my daughter's first parents' night at secondary school. She had good reports from her primary school up until the summer, but i am not sure about how things are going at secondary. Now we will find out how she has really been getting on.