After the "normalisation" of Cuban-American relations this summer, DI's business columunist Hamish Smith tells us when to expect the doors of bussiness to swing open and what it will mean for the rum industry
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How would you define ‘Irish whiskey’?
It’s not as stupid a question as it might first seem. It’s a spirit made from grain, yeast and water in the country of Ireland, right?
Patience Gould puts in a good word for the multinationals who are promoting spirits and helping to bring them more into the mainstream
Cocktail Corner: Lime, Sugar and Rum
World’s 50 Best Bars academy member, Jan Warren, kicks off the first in a series of cocktail columns with a focus on the Daiquiri
Pure Gould on what it means to be handcrafted
Patience Gould looks at a titan of the vodka world and how its ‘handcrafted’ approach is appealing to the Millennial generation
Pure Gould on Vinopolis closure
Patience Gould gives the lowdown on some of the changes and improvements being introduced at this year’s Vinexpo
DI's Christian Davis on Pernod's roundtable
Drinks International's editor Christian Davis was at Pernod Ricard's roundtable.
Another one of those low key informal briefings this time revolving around the new Johnnie Walker expression: John Walker Private Collection 2014. As has become customary, held in London’s Soho, officiated over by Diageo’s head of whisky outreach, Nick Morgan and in the hot seat a jet and train-lagged master distiller, Jim Beveridge.
Warning: may contain nuts
Peter Holland explains how rum, above all other categories, is vulnerable to mis-labelling
A scotch whisky distiller, when asked recently if he made any blends, was gloriously sniffy and dismissive of blended whisky. It would have been interesting to see and hear what he would have made of the Johnnie Walker Directors Blends, which I got to taste last Thursday (November 28) in London.
I have just returned from the celebrations to mark the 20th anniversary of Havana Club International. Standing in a huge hall with more than 1,000 people – mostly employees but also people associated with the company and the eponymous Cuban rum brand – it became obvious what a force for good an alcoholic drinks brand can be.
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Last night I was at the London Gin Summit, which, contrary to its lofty title, was a relatively low-key meeting of drinks commentators and producers bound by a common craft, encircled by a common road (...the M25). The premise for the summit was the question: ‘should London-distilled gin be protected?’ and this is what happened...
I went to two whisky launches yesterday (May 8) – Bacardi’s Glen Deveron, the Royal Burgh Collection and Pernod Ricard/Chivas Brothers’ The Glenlivet Alpha. Both interesting for different reasons and very much a case of ‘chalk & cheese’ when it comes to the brand and what they are doing with it.