The Week in Pictures: 15-21 May

This week in pictures features the db awards winners, a return to ‘Planet Ardbeg’, a trip to Mount Etna, the opening of a new pub in Clapham and £80,000 whisky decanters.

The Drinks Business Awards 2023 and London Wine Fair

This week saw the 20th The Drinks Business Awards at the London Wine Fair with a variety of winners celebrating across a number of categories, including design and packaging, campaigns, retail and our young person, woman and man of the year awards. We were also present at the Fair itself, showcasing db and the Global Wine Masters.

To find out who won at the Awards – and why – check out our profile of the winners here.

Planet Ardbeg

Islay’s single malt Scotch whisky Ardbeg has relaunched its immersive experience for its graphic novel universe Planet Ardbeg in London this summer.

The experience will take place on Saturday 3rd June 2023 at The Light Bar on Shoreditch High Street and is inspired by the 40-page sci-fi anthology, which it launched last year.

Sicily

db attended the 19th edition of Sicilia En Primeur. Last Saturday, Radicepura, on the eastern side of Mount Etna, hosted a press conference and tasting of the latest releases with the assembled Assovini Sicilia member producers, including the likes of Planeta, Donnafugata, and Principe di Corleone.

New pub

Following the success of The Hunter’s Moon in South Kensington and Ganymede in Belgravia, boutique hospitality group Lunar Pub Company – co-founded by Owner Director Hubert Beatson-Hird and Owner Chef Director Oliver Marlowe – is set to open its third site this spring – The Apollo Arms in Clapham.

The Glenturret

Running to 179 metres, Burlington Arcade – London’s finest shopping mall – opened in 1819, 56 years after Scotland’s oldest distillery, The Glenturret, was officially established. At one long table evoking the Fairy washing up liquid ads of the 1980s, guests in their glad rags including Douglas Blyde, congregated on a chilly spring evening to discover a particularly precious, warming whisky assembled by whisky maker, Bob Dalgarno and his team, as well as glowing artworks displayed in Lalique’s art gallery at the location. Limited to eighty decanters costing £80,000 apiece, designed by octogenarian, James Turrell, “Eight Decades” encapsulates whiskies from casks from the 1980s to the late 1990s, including an American quarter cask in honour of the nationality of Turrell. The result, at 41.5%, subject to a light filtration, was a whisky of delicacy, alertness and vivacity, with hints of pineapple then chocolate orange. “The collaboration with The Glenturret and James Turrell makes perfect sense when you recall that René Lalique was known as the ‘sculptor of light” said Silvio Denz, Lalique Group CEO and Chairman.