News

Holyrood Distillery, the first single malt distillery in Edinburgh for almost 100 years, has launched a cask programme that offers the opportunity to create a truly bespoke whisky.

With a limited run of only 200 whisky casks in 2020, the programme allows customers to tailor the whisky to their tastes, by involving them in every stage of the production process, working alongside Distillery Manager Jack Mayo and Co-Founder David Robertson.

Given the current restrictions, the cask programme will take place via a face-to-face consultation at the distillery, with appropriate social distancing measures taken, or as a unique virtual experience with indicative samples delivered to the participant in advance and an online session with the distillery team.

The distillery is focusing on four core new make spirit flavours – fruity & floral, sweet, spicy and smoky – with a variety of casks sourced in which to mature these impactful spirits.  Cask purchasers are able to tailor their choices or explore something completely different. The unique process starts with an in-depth consultation allowing the buyer to identify exactly which flavours they’d like their bespoke spirit to carry.

However, customisation does not stop there. The buyer can then participate in every part of the journey, including the selection of:

• The type of malted barley: from a range of classic spring distiller’s, to smoked, peated or roasted malts (crystal, amber and chocolate for example).
• The yeasts used for fermentation: from distillers, or unusual wine strains to traditional craft brewer’s yeasts.
• The distillation approach, including cut points, flow rates, and distillation date.
• The type of cask for maturation, including its oak species, size, previous fill (e.g. bourbon, port, sherry, etc.) and the date when the cask will be filled.

The custom-made styles offered in 2020’s Cask Programme have been developed to follow different flavour profiles:

• Fruity and floral flavours: green, citrus and tropical fruits can be developed by leaving the new make spirit to slumber in American oak (ex sherry wood) hogsheads; or a red fruits profile can be gained by maturing in port barrique casks.
• Sweet tones like milk chocolate or vanilla/treacle toffee can be introduced into the new spirit by using roasted malted barleys and filling American oak (ex bourbon) barrels. A deeper, richer style of espresso coffee or dark chocolate can be brought out by maturing in toasted European oak (ex Oloroso sherry) hogsheads.
• Those seeking spicy notes will be able to bring out classic orange marmalade, dried fruits, cloves, ginger, and cinnamon spices by selecting a fruity new spirit filled to toasted European Oak (ex-Oloroso sherry) hogsheads.
• For fans of peat and smoky flavours, the distillery team can curate either a sweet fruity smoke using peated malted barleys and allowing it to mature in American oak (ex sherry) hogsheads; or for smoky sherry connoisseurs, Spanish oak (ex sherry wood) hogsheads.

Fifty casks have also been reserved for customers looking for a one-of-kind service. They could choose, for example, a rare wood like a Japanese oak or a cask that previously contained dessert wine or beer to flavour and finesse their whisky; or to select a barley used in a recipe from a bygone era (the distillery has access to varieties like Plumage Archer, Marris Otter and Golden Promise, for example). Whatever the request, the team of distillers will work with the buyer to design a totally unique recipe.

Co-founder of Holyrood Distillery, David Robertson, said:

“We built Holyrood Distillery with flavour at its very heart. We’re not bound by heritage; our priority is to be open-minded and produce a range of truly delicious whiskies rather than sticking to tradition and crafting only one or two styles. We know that our customers appreciate the opportunity to dive into the creative process. This programme allows people to share that journey with us and create something truly customised to their individual taste. It’s an invitation to own a piece of history – and to be guided through that process by our experts to create something really bespoke.”

Three barrel sizes are available – a barrel (200 litres), a barrique (225 litres), or a hogshead (both 250 litres) starting from £4,950, £5,450, and £5,950 respectively. The cost includes the personal flavour consultation, whisky creation and visits to the distillery and warehouse, the cask, storage for ten years, annual sampling, annual warehouse visits and insurance. Bottling costs, customised labelling, duty and VAT are not included but illustrated costs can be provided for UK customers.  The fully bespoke offer is priced individually depending on each client’s requirements.

Distillery Manager, Dr Jack Mayo, said:

“As a whisky distiller there is nothing better than getting the chance to create a wide range of flavours and styles and even a totally unique whisky. While other distilleries allow you to purchase casks with whisky based on their house style, this level of customisation is unique. For an inquisitive whisky fan, this is a chance to be a master distiller for a day, and a whisky maker across the decade as you watch the development of your fledgling spirit into a mature single malt and decide when the time is right for bottling. You’ll ultimately be making whisky history in our pioneering city centre distillery in Edinburgh.”

Cask sales are limited and on a first-come-first-served basis, with a deposit of £2,000 per cask required to secure a consultation, production slot and ultimately cask ownership.  The balance should be paid 30 days prior to production and cask filling.

Holyrood Distillery started distilling in September 2019 in Edinburgh’s city centre. Located right in the heart of Edinburgh’s historic distilling district – on St. Leonard’s Lane with views over Holyrood Park – the 180-year-old building has been thoughtfully renovated to produce gin, liqueurs and whisky. Currently planned to re-open to visitors by appointment only, as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, production has now resumed, enabling the team to start on this diverse, customised and bespoke cask programme.

To find out more about the Holyrood 2020 Bespoke Cask Programme, visitwww.holyrooddistillery.co.uk/cask-owners/.

Delicious fresh king prawns produced sustainably in the world’s first clear water, clean energy farm are available for the first time for delivery to households across the UK with no need for freezing or air miles. 

Great British Prawns will harvest the warm water king prawns weekly at its saltwater farm in Balfron, Stirlingshire for delivery fresh to doorsteps across the UK (mainland UK excluding Highlands and islands) in fully recyclable, insulated but collapsible parcels – with no polystyrene.  The prawns are delivered in 1kg packs (around 35-40 large king prawns) at a cost of £40 plus £4.99 delivery ready to be boiled, grilled, pan-fried or barbecued. 

Currently, most of the UK’s king prawns are sourced frozen from farms in the Far East and Central America, travelling on average 6,000 miles and produced using methods widely condemned for their environmental practices. Great British Prawns uses specially developed aquaculture technology and sustainable energy to produce warm water king prawns in clear and clean water in the United Kingdom for the first time. Unlike conventional farming methods, this clean, clear water approach means that antibiotics, pesticides and vaccines are never used and the there is no need to manually handle the prawns.

Great British Prawns Director, James McEuen, said:

“We’re really proud of our sustainable king prawns. Great British Prawns’ approach means that we are able to offer these with the highest welfare standards and with no antibiotics or air miles – delivered direct to households across the UK.  By buying Great British Prawns people across the UK are supporting a new and sustainable approach to seafood production. But just as importantly, our prawns are hugely versatile and truly delicious.”

Great British Prawns’ transformative approach is set to revolutionise the way seafood is produced.  The Stirlingshire-based farm combines expert prawn husbandry with world-leading technology, sustainable energy and a no-waste approach. Their pioneering Recirculation Aquaculture System (RAS) cleans and recycles the majority of the water used in the system every day to provide locally grown prawns, without contaminating the environment. Great British Prawns’ first farm has been designed to have minimal and an increasingly reduced impact on its surrounding environment. Using sustainable energy from an anaerobic digester on a neighbouring dairy farm, high levels of insulation along with bio-filters to clean and recycle its waste, heat that would otherwise have been lost is used to produce food. As a result constantly improving design will allow future facilities to be virtually waste free and, because of the closed filtration system, won’t require the antibiotics and other medication, chemicals and manual handling used widely in the existing prawn farming industry, resulting in uniquely ‘clean’, fresh prawns.  

To out more about Great British Prawns, visit: http://greatbritishprawns.com.  

One of Edinburgh’s best loved restaurants, Aizle will re-open its doors on 22 July at the city’s Kimpton Charlotte Square Hotel.

Opened in 2014 by husband-and-wife team Stuart Ralston and Krystal Goff, Aizle gained huge popularity as the first restaurant in Edinburgh to offer a surprise tasting menu. Diners are privy to only a list of local, seasonal ingredients which feature in their six-course dinner. The restaurant regularly appears at the top of the TripAdvisor Travellers’ Choice Awards for best fine dining restaurants across the UK.

Chef patron Stuart Ralston, has said:

“I am really delighted to announce this exciting new chapter for Aizle. We have had six outstanding years at Saint Leonard’s Street and I will be sad not to return there, but the time is right for a change. I am looking forward to having a bigger space, and being able to offer more covers. We often have a waiting list for Friday and Saturday nights, so hopefully we will be able to accommodate everyone who wishes to dine with us. Kimpton Charlotte Square is a stunning Georgian-built hotel in the heart of the New Town and very close to my other restaurant, Noto, which makes it handy if we need a cup of sugar! It also means I can bring all my staff out of furlough and guarantee them a job, which I would not have been able to do otherwise.”

Kieran Quinn, General Manager at Kimpton Charlotte Square Hotel, said:

“We’re incredibly excited to be welcoming Aizle to Kimpton Charlotte Square. From the very initial discussions it felt like a natural partnership, we share a similar ethos and values and as a team, they are as passionate about providing service as full of charm and personality as we are and Stuart’s exceptional dishes are some of the best in the UK.

“As we reopen our doors this month, it feels like the right time to make some exciting and innovative changes and Aizle will complement the existing offering within the hotel perfectly. The space is ideal for the Aizle team, an oasis at the heart of our hotel, and with BABA also reopening on 30 July this brings our Restaurant and Bar offering at Kimpton Charlotte Square to a truly exceptional level.”

Aizle will be located in The Garden in the centre of the hotel and open for dinner Wednesday to Saturday. As before it will offer a six-course tasting menu for £70 per person, with an optional £50 drink pairing. There will also be a private dining room seating up to 14 guests. Everything at Aizle is made in-house, from the live ferment in the sourdough, and the hand churned butter, to the aquavit and aged kombucha in the cocktails. The fresh, light and airy venue is filled with plants and lends itself naturally to the ethos of the restaurant. The open space means tables are well situated to ensure distancing measures are adhered to.

Stuart added: “We have the best, most loyal, regular customers and I am looking forward to seeing them again and welcoming new diners. I am sure our regulars will appreciate the lovely new, comfortable banquette booths! The dining concept will be exactly the same as before, but I will be adding some new dishes; lockdown has allowed me the time to try out a few new things.”

You can book online at www.aizle.co.uk

@aizle_edinburgh

Aizle, Kimpton Hotel, 38 Charlotte Square, Edinburgh, EH2 4HQ

The brutal economic fallout of the COVID-19 crisis on the hospitality industry is set to last long into 2020 and beyond, and so business leaders from across the UK’s craft beer sector have joined Hospitality Union’s proposals for a #NationalTimeOut rent holiday. 

The #NationalTimeOut campaign – led by London Union’s Jonathan Downey and co-signed by the CEOs of Burger King, Wahaca and Dishoom amongst many others – calls for a rent-free period for UK hospitality businesses that also translates into support for the landlords in the sector too.  In a letter to Chancellor Rishi Sunak, the proposals warn that failure to do so could mean countless businesses will go under and 2m million jobs could be lost. 

Staring at the total collapse of their biggest sales channel, business leaders from the fast-growing craft beer sector, have joined the campaign, starting with a sector wide social media campaign commencing Wednesday morning. Hundreds of breweries, distributors, events companies, business services and the on-premise trade will come together to call for help from Chancellor Sunak in order to help protect an industry that is not only of vital economic importance, but also of great cultural significance. 

Craft Beer is one of the fastest growing segments of the UK food and drink industry over the last decade, with breweries like Brewdog, Camden Town and Beavertown becoming household names, while others such as Left Handed Giant in Bristol, North Brewing in Leeds, Verdant in Cornwall and Gipsy Hill in South London have gone onto garner international recognition while becoming vibrant symbols of their local communities.

As Greg Wells, founder of festival business We Are Beer, who has been rallying the craft beer sector behind the #NationalTimeOut campaign, says, “small independent breweries have revitalised two of our great national pastimes – good beer and the pub. It’s amazing what they’ve achieved. To see something with such a great future fall apart – when disaster can be averted – is so upsetting.”

With pubs, bars and restaurants being highlighted by the government as some of the last things to come out of lockdown – the biggest sales channel for the UK’s 1500+ breweries – many breweries will struggle to survive.

John Gyngell, co-founder of North Brewing and multi award winning, 7-strong Yorkshire bar group, North Bars Ltd, says, “we’ve seen the turnover on retail side of our 23 year old business come to a complete standstill. Closing all of our bars and furloughing everyone who worked at North Bar Ltd was the stuff of our worst nightmares. We’re doing all we can, but without continued support and bold measures, the future of our bars and the breweries which support them, which are integral part of communities and people’s way of life, is under serious threat, and hundreds of jobs and livelihoods are at risk.”

Building on this theme, Bruce Gray, whose Bristol brewery, Left Handed Giant, recently opened a large riverside brewpub, regenerating a formerly derelict warehouse district, states, “We are all being told ‘we’re all in this together’. It doesn’t seem that way from where I am standing. Private landlords and insurance companies are washing their hands of the crisis and asking small businesses to saddle themselves with debt to allow them to protect their profit margins and shareholder dividends. This is not a time for profits or shareholder value. This is a time to consider only survival. We need concessions of rent, not deferments. Private landlords are refusing to offer these voluntarily, so we need the government to protect small businesses and make them. This is why we are joining our sisters and brothers across the craft beer community in supporting the #NationalTimeOut campaign.”

Nick Nairn to open family-run
restaurant in Bridge of Allan, Stirlingshire

Nick Nairn, together with his wife Julia is to
open their first restaurant together. Nick’s on Henderson Street will open on
28^th February 2020 in Bridge of Allan, Stirlingshire.

Set on the town’s main street, which is proudly
dominated by independent shops and cafés, Nick’s on Henderson Street will be a
family-friendly restaurant. Serving food and drinks throughout the day, the
menu will focus on local sourcing with classic café and bistro dishes given a
contemporary twist. Nick’s on Henderson Street fills the premises of the
popular Jam Jar restaurant, run until December by Simon Littlejohn.

Nick is looking forward to getting back to the kitchen
taking a hands-on approach together with his head chef Leon McIntyre. Leon has
worked in a number of restaurants and venues across Scotland, most recently in Edinburgh’s
Baba.

Breakfasts will include shakshouka, granola blended in-house and served with skyr, honey
and pomegranate; brioche French toast
with caramelised banana, blueberries, cream cheese or smoked bacon,
roast pecan, maple syrup; Smashed
avocado with rose harissa, tomato, and poached egg, and charred
sourdough; and a range of house pancakes.

Lunch and dinner include dishes like venison saddle with
beetroot, crowdie tartlet, blueberries and potato
rösti; House garam marsala roasted root vegetable curry; Buddha
bowls and sandwiches that range from classics to the likes of Nick’s
original cure smoked Scottish salmon, mustard cress, Katy Rodger’s Crowdie,
lemon, black pepper.  A variety of Roma-style pizzas will be made
using three-day aged dough with toppings such Great Glen venison salami, Campbells haggis, Katy Rodger’s crowdie,
bacon-toasted oats and parsley; or a North African-inspired speciality
with Miso aubergine, rose harissa, chermoula, toasted
pine nuts, brandy soaked raisins and pomegranate.

The menu also includes a range of gourmet hot dogs made in
Dumfries & Galloway by Brigston & Co served with on a brioche bun, with caramelised onions, crispy shallots and house beef chilli.
Burgers will be made in-house from traditional cuts like chuck and brisket from
slow-grown, traditional cattle breeds like shorthorn, belted Galloway and
Highland, and teamed with organic brioche buns.

Nick Nairn said:

“I was born and brought up just down the road
from Bridge of Allan so this is something of a homecoming for me and my family.
This is the first time I’ve ever worked in partnership like this and already
all the family are getting involved in shifts front of house. In short, it’s a
family-run restaurant that will appeal to other families, with food that’s
recognisable but cooked really well and given a contemporary twist. Julia and I
are delighted to be a part of Bridge of Allan’s thriving town centre – it’s our
local after all too!”

Nick’s on Henderson Street comprises 75 covers
inside plus an additional 60 covers outside. 
Redesigned interiors are rooted in Scotland with Pat
Renson
managing the project and artwork from local artists Iona Crawford and Fiona
McRae displayed.

Reservations can be made by calling 01786 831616.

MONDAY 20^TH JANUARY 2020

Fife gelateria, Jannettas is celebrating that latest research has shown us how to combat Blue Monday: ice cream for breakfast.

The third Monday of January has been coined as the most miserable day of the year and named Blue Monday.  According to Japanese research, a study by Yoshihiko Koga, a professor at Kyorin University in Tokyo, a scoop of ice cream for breakfast alters your levels of alertness and gives you a mental boost.

Drawing on this research, owners of the famous four-generation St Andrews gelateria, Nicola and Owen Hazel will be giving away a free ice cream from 9am until 11am for everyone who shows up in the pyjamas on Monday 20^th January. From classics like Chocolate or Vanilla, to Orange & Mascarpone, Jannettas will have a range of 54 flavours on offer for customers to choose from.  As Burns Night is just around the corner, Jannettas will introduce their limited-edition flavours including Haggis, Whisky and even Irn Bru Sorbet.

Nicola Hazel said: “Whether ice cream is actually magic or it’s the properties of the good stuff that reduces stress, increases positive emotions and therefore gives out a release of energy; ice cream for breakfast is always a good idea and when it’s free it’s even better! I can’t think of a better way to fend off the January blues.”

Jannettas Gelateria

31 South Street, St Andrews

Fife, KY16 9QR

jannettas.co.uk

www.facebook.com/JannettasGelateriaStAndrews

Instagram: @jannettas_gelateria

Twitter: @JannettasGelato