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Slideshow
The week in pictures
Wines from Rioja was the sponsor of the 6th Annual Global Gift Gala London on Monday evening, as part of a series of gala events around the world in support of the Global Gift Foundation.
Over 200 guests attended the Global Gift Gala at the Four Seasons Park Lane in London, where Wines from Rioja was the exclusive wine supplier to the event. Guests were served a selection of top scoring wines from the recent Rioja 10 x 10 Trade Tasting.
Wines from Rioja gifted a collector’s case for the live auction – a rare collection of six bottles of Rioja from notable vintages 1951, 1964, 1970, 1973 and 1978.
Stakeholder of Arsenal football club, Farhad Moshiri, donated £50,000 for the collection. Other items up for auction included The Eva Longoria Telenovela Experience, original Salvador Dali, Picasso drawings and Frederique Constant Watches. A total of £330,000 was raised for the Foundation.
Eva Longoria (honorary chair of the awards ceremony) was joined by supporter Victoria Beckham, who presented The Global Gift Humanitarian award to Katie Piper. Guests were entertained with live performances by Ronan Keating and Anastacia. The next gala takes place in Miami on 3 December.
From Monday 30 November, a limited edition AB InBev “Beer Bicycle”– billed as the UK’s first tandem-bicycle beer delivery service – took to the streets of central London fronted by Michelin-star hospitality expert Fred Sirieix.
Jefferson’s Barrel Aged Comp finalists, with winner Jess Cheeseman (centre)
Jess Cheeseman of the new Big Easy in Canary Wharf has won the UK’s first Jefferson’s barrel aged cocktail competition with his original creation The Jefferson’s Experiment. He competed amongst five finalists in London in the competition presented by Cellar Trends.
His prize is a trip to the home of Jefferson’s in Louisville USA, hosted by Trey Zoeller who is the founder and master blender of Jefferson’s Bourbon. The prize also includes a never-released bottling from Trey’s personal archive.
Sarah Duncan from Glenturret and Fergus Clark from Inveralmond Brewery with the new Ooskabeer (Photo: Fraser Band)
The Inveralmond Brewery has launched a whisky-aged beer after collaborating with Scotland’s oldest distillery.
The Perthshire based brewery has launched the limited edition Ooskabeer Batch #1 with Glenturret Distillery, as part of the distillery’s 240th anniversary celebrations.
Only 1775 bottles of the whisky-aged beer have been produced and these will be sold through the brewery and distillery’s respective shops, online and through selected independent specialist retail shops and selected bars.
London craft brewer Meantime has announced the launch of its latest limited edition Brewer’s Collection, IPA 2000, to celebrate achieving its 2000th beer tap listing.
Launching on 1 December at the Crafty Pig in Manchester, Meantime has combined one of its most traditional styles of beer, the Meantime IPA, with champagne yeast to infuse the beer with a more delicate carbonation.
Presented in a 750ml Champagne corked bottle, the beer is 8% ABV.
Sotheby’s has announced that its last sale of the 2015 season will take place in London on 16-17 December. With lots of red Bordeaux dating back to the 1920s and Sauternes back to 1899 as well as top Burgundy and Rhône on offer, the house declared it was going to be the “sale of the decade”.
Going, going, gone! James Espey OBE founder of The Last Drop Distillers and Keepers of the Quaich enjoys a wee dram at the South African Chapters Banquet, where he was guest speaker. The event was held on Monday at The Castle in Cape Town, South Africa’s oldest building dating back to the 1670s.
Last week the dbHK team hosted a baijiu masterclass in Hong Kong. Ian Wo (pictured), director of HK and Macau for auction house Googut and a baijiu specialist led the event at the China Club which was attended by 12 members of Hong Kong’s trade and media. A full report will appear in the December-January issue of dbHK.
Photo by Chris Jackson/Getty Images for Royal Salute
Prince Harry during the trophy presentation at the Sentebale Royal Salute Polo Cup at Val de Vie Estate on 28 November in Paarl, South Africa (and below, playing the game). This is the first time Sentebale Royal Salute Polo Cup has taken place on the African continent. Sentebale is a charity started by Prince Harry and Prince Seeiso of Lesotho 10 years ago to help the vulnerable communities of Lesotho.