Famous Grouse 100 Best Pubs

In 2010, my publican buddy, Jim Robertson of The Kempock Bar in Gourock, was included in The Famous Grouse's 100 Best Pubs in Britain. The brand had created a Grouse statue with logos for each of the top 30 pubs - and The Kempock was amongst these 30. Jim had never seen the statue so, as he was at Gleneagles today, I suggested that we go to view said statue.
I headed north to The Glen through snow; there were three smashes northbound at Blackford this morning and there was a 45 minute hold up and queues back to Greenloaning, so I turned off on the Crieff road at Greenloaning and cut over a snow-covered, very slippery and windy back road down to The Glen. Picked him up and drove his Land Rover Discovery in 4 wheel drive through the snow to Crieff; slithered a wee bit on a couple of corners, but no problem. Saw no fewer than 3 snow ploughs out on the road.
The statue sits at Glenturret distillery, or as they like to call it nowadays, The Famous Grouse Experience, in the foyer outside the shop. See the pics. The Kempock's log is the jukebox and the musical notes on its upper right chest

Scotch Whisky Trail course

The latest running of the course started on Tuesday. Pleased to see some women back. After the past couple when it has been all male. Not quite sure of their backgrounds, the college yet again got the applications wrong. The student listed was of 16 students, the register was of 18 and the class was of 19 with one no show. Student Services?
Quite an animated bunch with more feedback than from 2010's entry level students, I'm looking forward quite excitedly to the rest of this spring's course. Trying to get a visit to Deanston, visitor centre doesn't open until after the course, but trying nonetheless as, in 14 years, the course hasn't visited Deanston. We'll see.

Happy New Year & Glenmorangie Artein

I hope that you all have had a very merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Christmas for me was good, Santa was very generous, but at New Year, I was hit by the winetr vomiting bug. I only had one dram at Hogmanay - it was at midnight and I only had the one, a normally very pleasant Aberlour a'Bunadh, which I didn't enjoy very much at all. Fortunately, the nausea only lasted around 24 hours, so the rest of the season was enjoyed thoroughly!
Scotland has been batterd, bruised and beaten by the wind in the past few weeks. I can never remember a succession of winds as strong or sustained as we have experienced over the past 6 weeks or so. Many trees down, 30,000 electricity customers cut off at one point, people without power for 3 days. In 2012, we are supposed to have the technology to prevent all this happening.
Glenmorangie released Artein on 4th January. Artein is the third release in its award-winning Private Edition range. Artein is the Gaelic for "stone" and the name links together the distillery's hard water supply from Tarlogie Spring with the stony soil of Sassicaia's vineyards in Tuscany's Bolgheri.
‘Artein’ is an assemblage of 15 and 21 Years Old Glenmorangie, finished by extra maturation in these Supertuscan wine casks.
I think that it is a great addition to their range (see my tasting note on my website) and, in my experience/opinion, supertuscan casks have done a fabulous job of finishing the whiskies they were involved with.
I am very humbled to have been voted "Whisky Man of the Year 2011" by whisky bloggers www.whiskyboys.com.

Weather & Glen Marnoch 40 yo

Scotland is being buffeted by rather strong breezes at the moment. A gust of 165 mph was recorded around 3.30p.m. on Cairngorm this afternoon and the worst is yet to come so they tell us. Many roads closed - either snow or trees down - Tay, Forth & Erskine bridges all closed to ALL traffic and Friarton & Skye bridges closed to high sided vehicles. The A66 is closed because of overturned vehicles, there are 2 overturned at the Rest And Be Thankful, Byres Road in Glasgow is closed, others such as the coast road south of Skelmorlie are flooded. 80mph winds blowing across the country with gusts higher than this. All Scotland's schools were closed by 12.30p.m.
On a more enjoyable note, Aldi released their 40yo Glen Marnoch Single Speyside Malt today. 3000 bottles between 450 branches. I visited Stirling before 10, no stock and one of my students, Alan Hall, said there were no bottles in Kilmarnock.
The bottle was on Aldi's shelves (when it was there) for £49.99 a bottle. I have heard that there are already bottles on ebay at £300.00. Just think of the extra profit Aldi could have made!

Snow

To quote Bud Neill:
Winter's came, the snow has fell,
Wee Josie's nose is froze as well.
Wee Josie's frozen nose is skintit,
Winter's diabolic intit?
the pic is of my local hill, Dumyat. At only 418 metres above sea level, it's not really a mountain, but the base of the hill is only about 5 metres elevation, so it is a good, solid, but quite easy walk to the top.
Our first snow of the winter today. Not a lot, but temperatures due to drop to -3 or -4 tonight with more snow tomorrow. Could make the roads rather difficult tomorrow.
My foot is still b____y sore. That nurse really is a sadist!

Damaged foot & record results for Scotch industry

In the summer of 2005, I was pulling my then 6 year old daughter through the surf on a beach in the Western Loire to the south of the mouth of the Loire. The water here has fine sand in it, so the water isn't crystal clear and I stumbled across some rocks and ripped the sole of my foot open on rocks and oyster shells. My foot was bandaged up and I spent a few days hobbling around. Some months later, I noticed that where my foot had been cut, lumps of hard skin were manifesting. Went to the quack who diagnosed verrucas. I maintained that I felt that there were pieces of rock/shell embedded in my foot. For about 18 months, I treated the foot with a liquid and had cryotherapy (liquid nitrogen) treatment on the sole of my foot. It didn't clear up, so I thought that I was stuck with it. It wasn't causing pain, just a little discomfort which I put up with.
Until a couple of months ago when the foot started to be painful. Went back to the quack who arranged for an x ray to see if there were actually any foreign bodies in my foot because, as he said, my foot shouldn't have been like this for 6 years. He also suggested that I recommence the cryotherapy.
At 5.00pm last night, I saw a sadistic nurse who treated the sole of my foot with the liquid nitrogen - as it has NEVER been treated before! I now cannot walk, I was in sincere pain driving home from the surgery last night, the damaged area is on the ball of my left foot, where the clutch pedal sits.
The good news is that the Scotch Whisky industry has reported record export figures - again! Export sales rose by 23% in the 9 months to 30th September, effectively achieving 2010's exports in the first 9 months of 2011! Brazil, with its 7% annual growth in GDP is the world's fastest growing whisky drinking nation: sales increased by 50% in the 9 months!
See http://www.heraldscotland.com/business/corporate-sme/exports-of-scotch-whisky-surge-to-hit-record-levels-1.1137758?3378

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