Joe Bates on what to look for when in transit
Store Focus
Sky Connection, Hong Kong international airport
It’s not often duty-free shops make headlines around the world, but Hong Kong airport retailer Sky Connection managed just that in February by purchasing the last six bottles of the world’s most expensive whisky, Glenfiddich 1937.
They we...
By Joe Bates
from Issue 48 published on 10/06/2005
Stuart Maclean Ransay makes a nostalgic return to Ireland after twenty years and finds that, despite the pace of life accelerating, a little bit of Dublin is still 'an oasis of Celtic civility'
While staying in a spiffy hotel in Dublin not too long ago I needed directions to Mitchell & Son, Wine Merchants and home of the outstanding Green Spot Irish whiskey. The first three employees I ask are French and haven’t a clue where it is but one of them points out a real Irish person who says: “T...
By Stuart MacLean Ramsay
from Issue 15 published on 16/4/2001
David Stirk makes a pilgrimage to the heart of Speyside to meet Fiona Murdoch at the Whisky Shop, Dufftown, and collect his medal for visiting this 'obscure corner of Scotland'
Until three years ago, Dufftown, the heart of Speyside and malt whisky country, did not have a whisky shop. It had a kilt maker, seven distilleries, a cooperage and a clock tower but nowhere to buy uisge beatha. A paradoxical situation comparable to visiting Cuba and finding that it does not even ha...
By David Stirk
from Issue 14 published on 16/2/2001
Martin Betts visits a veritable whisky paradise well hidden in the extreme north-west of England.
Nestled in between the seaside kitsch of Blackpool and the historic industrial town of Preston, St Annes on Sea is found in the eminently northern county of Lancashire. This quaint little seaside town on England's north-west coast stares out over the Irish Sea towards the emerald isle, a land of tri...
By Martin Betts
from Issue 13 published on 16/12/2000
Damian Riley-Smith dropped in on the Park Avenue Liquor shop and emerged energised and inspired.
“If you don’t have it you can’t sell it”, exclaims Michael Goldstein, who has adopted this phrase as his mantra for retailing excellence. It is a far cry from the 1920s when his business started (as the HJG Liquor Corporation) specialising in window displays for the drinks industry.
Herman Joseph G...
By Damian Riley-Smith
from Issue 11 published on 16/9/2000
Young entrepreneur Keir Sword is going places with Scotch. Marcin Miller met up with him at his shop on Edinburgh’s famous thoroughfare
Keir Sword – you can’t forget a name like that in a hurry – thrives on change and the special buzz that only seizing a daring opportunity can bring.
Three years ago he took over Royal Mile Whiskies, situated on Edinburgh’s legendary street. Set up in 1991 by Ken and Ian Taylor, Keir had previously ...
By Marcin Miller
from Issue 8 published on 16/2/2000
