There’s a great blog post about packaging design and antique bottles, inspired by this monstrosity from Highland Park.

After seeing the packaging design for Highland Park 50 year old it made me think back to the days that I don't actually have any memories of; the days when there wasn't a bunch of goofy stuff on a whiskey bottle and all you had was good clean glass color and simple type. Lucky for us there are sites like Antique Bottles so we can all have look back and find a little color inspiration. We’re also checking in with current popular brands and their label colors and designs. Drink up, cheers!

(Via Color + Design Blog by COLOURlovers.)

Nauvo in the Turku archipelago

I’m across in Finland at the moment for a project based on The Kalevala. Luckily for me, I have a good friend, Tomas, who’s kindly putting me up during my stay, thus reducing the not-insubstantial cost of living whilst over here. He’s also responsible for some of the best photography I’ve seen, and having offered to document my trip, I thought it only fair that I bring some whisky over with me. Several bottles in fact.

Here’s what I arrived with:

Old Pulteney WK499
Talisker 57° North
Benriach Curiositas
Bunnahabhain 34 Year Old
Glenglassaugh 1973 Family Silver 25 Year Old
Isle Of Jura Paps The Sacred Mountain Barolo Cask Finish
Balvenie Single Barrel 15 Year Old

Admittedly, the last four on that list were small sample bottles, but as whisky is at a premium here, I was immediately popular in the Whitehouse household.

As we’ve been saving some of each back for Tomas’ girlfriend’s father, who’s a big whisky fan, we’d found it necessary to buy a couple of extra bottles; a Caol Ila 12 and an Ardbeg 10. The only place you’re permitted to buy wine and spirits (other than in a bar or restaurant) is the state run off-licence called Alko. The hike in price, for whatever reason be it import cost or tax, equates to roughly an extra tenner on a bottle, and in a bar a single of Laphroaig, for example, is a shade over seven quid. Make no mistake, Helsinki is an expensive place to be a malt lover.

However, the sub-zero temperatures almost demand a dram. Coupled with the sauna culture, where it’s de riguer to bake yourself to a crisp, then thrash about in freezing snow, no matter how much you drink, you do not experience the drunkeness that you’d expect with such consumption. I must make it clear, that the intention was never to get absolutely ratted, but that in visiting an old friend, you do end up having slightly more than your recommended units.

Whisky is something that should always be treated with respect, and I for one, shall be having an almighty detox upon my return home.

A warming dram in a cottage in Nauvo

But in the meantime, Sláinte!

We were really on Jura for the whisky, but the island itself was as much the star attraction. I thought you might like to see a few of the snaps we took on our tour around…

Press play, then click the little ‘arrows’ button on the bottom right hand side to see the shots full-screen.

Jamie works at the Isle of Jura distillery, and lives on the island. We asked him for a chat, just to get a different take on life on Jura. Apparently it isn’t all ceilidhs, venison and gorgeous whisky. Some people even entertain the idea of leaving.

But just for a while. You always come back to Jura.

I experienced my first ceilidh (pron. kaylee, apparently) last night. Not having been brought up in the kind of place that has ceilidhs on a regular basis (or indeed, any basis at all), it was something I’d heard of but had not experienced.

I thought I had a fair idea what one might involve. I had seen them turn up in the odd old film, but I had expected it merely to be a dance – a town social. Like those old fiddle and accordion affairs, only updated and with a DJ. But there was deep tradition and a kind of unchanging community spirit embodied in the Jura ceilidh that I’d not really seen in any other context.

And it was joyous. Madness set to violins and accordions.

It’s the kind of thing that makes somewhere like this so magical. It’s not just that everyone was cutting loose and having a great time – that happens in any nightclub in any town all over the world. It’s that it’s an all-embracing, chaotic, ecstatic celebration of what it means to be an islander – a Diurach.

Nobody was trying to be cool. Everyone was everyone’s best friend. Everyone was there to not only enjoy themselves, but to make sure everyone else enjoyed themselves. And everyone did – immensely.

As the Polish waitress who had served us at dinner said to me, after finally convincing me to dance (and believe me when I say – I REALLY don’t dance): “THIS is why I come here every summer.”

By the way, make sure you stick around to the end of the video for some Clutch-dancing.

I was telling some friends about the Talisker promotion (as you do) and we were meeting in town anyway, so we went down to Bacchus Bar, which is where Clutch and I got our lovely glasses from last night.

I asked the woman behind the bar for two Taliskers, and she served them in the weeble-glasses.

“Oh – these are the glasses you get free as part of the promotion,” I said to Jon. “They’re pretty cool aren’t they? I didn’t realise they were serving in them as well.”

The manager approaches.

“We’re not giving any glasses away. I’m not aware of any promotion.”

I explain the promotion to him, and tell him that the single reason we’ve come into his bar is because it’s one of the three named bars in Birmingham that is involved – and the only one of those three I know how to find without consulting a map.

I certainly don’t go there for the ambience. The place has an Ancient Greek room, an Ancient Egyptian room, and what appears to be a faux Victorian library. Classy. And I don’t go there for the convenience either. It’s in an underground bunker, impervious to wireless signals and cellphone connections.

But I did go there to have a Talisker, so my friend could try it for the first time, and get a couple of the cool glasses I’d picked up the night before. However, the manager was having none of it.

“No – if our bar was doing a promotion, I’d know about it. Doesn’t matter what any website might say – websites are wrong all the time. I’m the manager here, and there’s no free glass promotion.”

And then I realised – what he’d clearly done was open the presentation boxes, and stock the bar with brand new glassware courtesy of the nice people of Diageo.

We had a bit of a debate about it (false advertising and so forth), but it wasn’t worth it so I let it go, and went and had a nice glass of whisky with my friends.

An hour or so later, as we stood up to leave, the manager approached again. By this time, we’d enjoyed a nice drink and good company, and had more or less forgotten about our little exchange and the fact he’d essentially called me a liar. In fact, we’d wiped him from our minds, and had instead been having a rather nice time. So it was a shame to leave on a re-soured note.

“Oh, that promotion thing…” he said, checking furtively, but rather obviously, to make sure we hadn’t stolen his fancy new glasses on the way out the door, “…I think that’s happening only on Burns’ Night.”

Fine. Whatever. They’re nice glasses, but I’m not going to get into a fight over them no matter how wrong and bad at hospitality he might be. Hopefully the marketing people will let him know what’s going on sooner rather than later, before he accuses too many Talisker enthusiasts of being liars and thieves.

To be fair, the promotion doesn’t quite work the way I thought it did either. We imagined (because the previous night’s barman had clearly thought this too) that it was one drink, one glass. In fact, it’s two drinks, one glass. So we’d done all right – even if tonight’s friends had not.

According to the rules:

To receive a free Rocking Glass you must in a single visit purchase 2 x 25ml (1.1 UK units of alcohol each) or 2 x 35ml (1.6 UK units of alcohol each measures of TALISKER 10 yr Single Malt Scotch Whisky) one for you and one for a friend. The promotion is on between 17th and 25th January 2009. The closing date for this promotion is 31st Jan 2009. Only one entry per person per day.

Only – that doesn’t work at Bacchus – because the manager has decided to hang on to the nice glasses.

If you want the freebies (or, actually, if you just want to drink somewhere that doesn’t resemble the interior design of a Tomb Raider game) avoid Bacchus.

Those other two bars who ARE taking part in the promotion (one assumes) are:
New Inn 71 Summer Row Erdington, B23 6UT
Old Contemptibles 176 Edmund Street B3 2HB

If you’re outside of Birmingham, you can get information about the bars nearest you doing the Talisker promotion on their website (under News).

Talisker have a promotion on at the moment. It started on Saturday, and it’s lasting till Burns Night this Sunday (did we mention there’s a Twhisky event on Sunday?).

Buy a glass of Talisker from certain approved outlets (our most convenient approved bar is Bacchus in the Birmingham City Centre), and you’ll receive a free Talisker glass.

But the cool thing is – these are rocking glasses. They have a round bottom, with a good hefty weight to them, and I’m happy to report that they are very nice to drink out of. They’re a bit like Weebles from my childhood: they wobble, but they don’t fall down.

I have a Moleskine notebook. I’d wanted one for years, and I could never justify the fact that they are so much more expensive than anything else out there in that category of product.

But once I actually bought one in a moment of self-indulgence, I realised what the cost factor was. Moleskine notebooks are three times the price of other notebooks because they are five times as satisfying to write in.

I love it to bits. Really seriously love it. My £10 pocket sized unlined Moleskine notebook is a prized possession on a par with the Macbook. I lost my phone and wallet last week (on the way back from a whisky tasting in Stourbridge, as it happens) – and the first thing I checked when I noticed that things were missing was that I still had the Moleskine.

Of course, it has something to do with the things I’ve noted inside that I want to keep and remember, but it also has to do with the artefact itself. Hard to explain. If you feel anything for stationery, you’ll know what I’m talking about. I know it’s not just me…

What’s more, as a result of the Moleskine, I’ve rediscovered the joys of writing in pencil.

I’m a bit of a stationery nerd, and I love a good pen. On special occasions, I’ve been known to drop quite a hefty sum on a good Cross pen, and even for day to day use, I’m fussy about my writing implements. But purely by accident, I found myself with an HB and my Moleskine one day and haven’t looked back.

I’ve since graduated to a cheap retractable, and I’m on the lookout for the right mechanical pencil for the feel and the writing style. I don’t know much about good pencils, though I guess the brands will be much the same as the higher quality pens.

But in the meantime, for someone who spends most of his time tapping into the computer, I’ve gone retro for notetaking. Ink is out – graphite in.

And one of the great things you can do when you have a pencil and a notebook with you at all times is you can pull it out and make notes about whiskies that you try. My own notes are meagre, and contain just brief impressionistic notes like:

“caramel / berries / paint stripper”

But now that I have more of a reason to be more thorough – so that I can report back in full here – I have another reason to experience the geeky joys of nice writing implements. Your advice and suggestions for the best whisky notetaking tools would be much appreciated.

If only I had attractive handwriting. Does anyone teach remedial penmanship these days?

There’s this sense you get, when you’re talking to someone who knows a little bit more about something you’re interested in, that they have access to something that’s just a little bit outside your reach.

Like when you play chess or tennis against someone you know can beat you – but they have to work at it. It’s not a walkover. It’s like – they have something that impresses you, but you know that somehow, it’s attainable.

With just a little bit of practice and a little bit of help, you could do what they do. You could beat you at tennis. Because although you enjoy it, you know deep down that you’d enjoy it that much more if you had just a little skill. It’s not mastery you’re after, but a few of the tricks would go a long way.

That’s where I’m at with the whisky – and the person who’s ahead of the game is my friend Clutch. So I’ve asked him to join me on this blog, so I can reinvigorate it, and start having the conversations about whisky that I love having with him, here in public.

And don’t get me wrong. He’s no expert. He’d be the first to tell you he’s still learning. But he knows a little more than I do – enough to impress me. And there are some people who are just getting started with their first little bit of discovery – and maybe I can be that guy for them.

Whatever your level of whisky connoisseurship, you’re more than welcome here.

If you know your stuff, perhaps you could chip in in the comments, and let us know what you think so we can all learn from you. If this is new territory, perhaps you’ll find it helpful.

So – this is our blog. It’s about whisky. We’re not experts, but we’re learning. Glad to have you along.