Latest news with #Balvenie
Scottish Sun
24-05-2025
- Scottish Sun
Escape the crowds and take a dip in basement pool of Edinburgh's Apex Hotel
The hotel on Waterloo Place is set in one of the best locations in the capital. PEX APPEAL Escape the crowds and take a dip in basement pool of Edinburgh's Apex Hotel Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) ONE of the most important things on any city break is location, location, location. And Edinburgh's Apex Hotel couldn't be better placed — smack bang in the middle of Auld Reekie's buzzing centre. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 5 The basement pool offers a livening dip in the morning. 5 The steam room lets you sweat it out. 5 Bartenders knock up fantastic fresh cocktails in Bar 1819. My wife Emma, and I arrived on Sunday afternoon by train and it was only a matter of crossing the road and walking a few hundred paces before we arrived at our city sanctuary on Waterloo Place. The hotel sits in the shadow of Calton Hill, at the top of Princes Street and Leith Walk. And even late on the Sabbath, this part of the town was still thronging, as open top bus tours loaded and unloaded tourists, with people streaming round every corner. Once you step through the doors of the Apex, though, all the noise and bustle on the street quickly dissolves. We were taken up to our room on the ninth floor — where we could see all the way down to Leith and the River Forth and beyond to Fife. The room was well kitted out, modern, clean with touches of luxury — perfect for a quick break. There was even a special Apex branded rubber duck with a note instructing us to take it home. We'd be quackers not to! Making the most of our night of freedom from the kids, we wandered down Rose Street where the bars and restaurants were busy with punters enjoying the sunshine. We stopped off at one for a couple of pre-dinner drinks and some bar snacks, before slowly meandering past the shops on the splendour of George Street. Then it was back to base as we were booked in for dinner at the hotel's Liberte Brasserie. The wine list was stacked with a good selection of bottles right up to a very pricey variety of Pomerol, which David Beckham was seen clutching at his 50th birthday a few weeks ago. Our lovely waitress recommended a lesser-known Dolcetto d'Alba from her home region of Piedmont in northern Italy. Emma and I were happy to take her up on the suggestion and were really glad we did. Once the wine was flowing, we kicked off the meal with some bread and olives before getting stuck into the main event. I started off with a beautiful burrata, drizzled in single malt honey, while Emma had the Balvenie smoked salmon finished with a lemony creme fraiche and herring roe. Both were perfectly portioned and packed with flavour. Emma kept the fish theme going for the mains, opting for a pan-fried cod fillet with sea veg, mussels and brown butter. I went for the sirloin steak, cooked rare, with a peppercorn sauce. I'm a big steak lover and not shy about sending one back if it's overdone. But this was genuinely one of the best steaks I've ever tasted and was cooked to perfection. I made sure to send my praises to the chef. He absolutely nailed it. For dessert, Emma had the sticky toffee pudding, while I plumped for the pistachio creme brulee, which was nothing short of spectacular. The portion was huge, so my wife quickly helped herself to spoonfuls of mine too. Afterwards, we shuffled next door to the very cool Bar 1819 for a well-earned seat on a plush velvet couch and a few cocktails. Emma loved the elderflower-based Hugo Spritz while I knocked back a few Regent Terrace Sours, which combined whisky and absinthe. After that we hit the town for a few more at a piano bar a few blocks away where we were treated to multiple Billy Joel hits from the resident piano man. It's no surprise then that we slept in and missed breakfast. But the menu had all the classics including smoked kippers and eggs Benedict. Thankfully we hadn't missed out on the pool in the basement, situated next to the inhouse Yu Spa. 5 The bedrooms are modern with little touches of luxury. 5 The food in restaurant Liberte is knock-out good. Credit: We took full advantage of the steam room and sauna, before getting a few lengths in the sun-dappled pool. When it was time to head home, we found out there was a secret back exit that took us straight to Waverley underneath Princes Street — making our escape even easier. The Apex's location is truly fantastic, but it has far more going for it than that.
Scotsman
18-05-2025
- Business
- Scotsman
Whisky chief buys Aberdeenshire estate castle and grounds after rewilding company has to sell up
The sale is one of many made across the Highlands Rewilding portfolio. Sign up to our daily newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... One of Scotland's prominent whisky figures has bought an Aberdeenshire castle and grounds from a rewilding company that was forced to sell up over financial issues. Beldorney estate has been sold by Highlands Rewilding Grant Gordon, a scion of the William Grant & Sons whisky empire, which produces single malts including Balvenie and Glenfiddich, is in the process of buying Beldorney Castle and part of its 350-hectare estate. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The property has been owned by former Greenpeace director Jeremy Leggett's company Highlands Rewilding since 2021. The mass-ownership company currently manages two rewilding projects in the Highlands of Scotland at the Bunloit Estate and here on the Beldorney Estate. It was previously in Mr Gordon's family when Sir William Grant, the founder of William Grant & Sons, owned the estate for a period in the early 1900s. The Scotsman understands the whisky chief has bought a large chunk of the estate including its castle, while a neighbouring landowner in the community has bought a smaller bit of land. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The statues of William and Elizabeth Grant, the founders of the distillery, can be seen in the courtyard of the distillery. No plans on the future management of the Aberdeenshire estate have been made public yet. Highlands Rewilding, a company set up to rewild areas of the country, was forced to sell off its estates, which also include Tayvallich on the west coast and Bunloit in Inverness-shire, to pay back an £11m loan taken out to purchase land for its initiatives. Entrepreneur Jeremy Leggett is founder and chief executive of Highlands Rewilding, which owns three estates in Scotland – he hopes the ground-breaking sale and agreement can be copied in other places Mr Leggett said a total of 17 buildings across the company's three areas of operation had been sold and most of its land - approaching 1,500 hectares - has been sold to buyers who he said 'still want to partner with the company on land management.' Some 500 hectares are still on the market, with Mr Leggett saying he hopes they will go to a buyer or buyers who will be 'willing to partner with us on land management so our team would be able to continue its nature-recovery work on the whole estate.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad These include the island of Danna and the Ulva Peninsula on the west coast, which are on the market in two lots for offers over £3,350,000 with Strutt and Parker. Commenting on the Beldorney sale, Mr Leggett said: 'I and the Highlands Rewilding team are very pleased with the end result of our sales of land and buildings on Beldorney. 'The land has been sold to two local families who are intent on continuing nature restoration. 'The buildings have returned to local families. We are delighted to see the same pattern of ownership transfer to local interests intent on nature recovery unfolding on Tayvallich. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'That pattern is a considerable secondary benefit of the Highlands Rewilding model. Meanwhile the primary benefit - data-led land-management for investable nature recovery - remains firmly in play, via partnerships underway and in train.' Mr Leggett said the large bridging loan from the state-owned UK Infrastructure Bank had been a 'risky' but necessary move to secure land at Tayvallich initially, half of which was then sold in a much-lauded deal to the Barrahormid Trust which will hold it in perpetuity for nature restoration and community development, including house building. Dr Josh Doble, Community Land Scotland's (CLS) policy manager, previously said CLS was 'deeply concerned' about the sales 'to repay enormous loans they took out to buy the land in the first place.' He previously told The Scotsman: 'Scottish land acquisitions should not be based upon these speculative financial models which require the rapid creation of underdeveloped natural capital markets in order to be financially viable.' Grant Gordon is a trustee of the Cabrach Trust, which he founded in 2011.
STV News
16-05-2025
- Business
- STV News
Danish billionaire remains Scotland's richest man with £7.7bn fortune
Danish billionaire Anders Holch Povlsen has been named the richest man in Scotland for the fourth year in a row. Mr Povlsen, the CEO of the international retail clothing chain Bestseller and the largest shareholder in ASOS, increased his wealth by £974m last year – bringing his net worth to £7.7bn. Mr Povlsen is closely followed in second place by whisky tycoon Glenn Gordon and Family, whose firm is known for brands like Glenfiddich and Balvenie. Sir Ian Wood and family remain in third place, having seen their fortune increase by £3m to just over £1.9bn. Lady Philomena Clark and family, owners of car retailer Arnold Clark, jump up to fourth spot, followed by Highland Spring owner Mahdi Al-Tajir. Media and television personality Georgia Toffolo, who is married to BrewDog entrepreneur James Watt, ranked top in Scotland for the richest under 40 category, with a wealth of £425m. Getty Images The 76-page special edition of The Sunday Times Magazine reveals the largest fall in the billionaire count in the guide's 37-year history, from a peak of 177 in 2022 to 156 this year. The number of billionaires has dropped for three successive years – but this year's decline is the sharpest yet. This year's list of 350 individuals and families together hold combined wealth of £772.8bn — 3% down on last year. Sir Elton John, Lord Lloyd-Webber, Sir Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Euan Blair, Sir Lewis Hamilton and Sir Christopher Nolan all appear in the annual survey. The combined wealth in the 37th annual edition is £772.8bn – a sum larger than the annual GDP of minimum entry level flatlines at £350m – another indicator of a subdued Watts, compiler of the Sunday Times Rich List, said: 'The Sunday Times Rich List is changing. Our billionaire count is down and the combined wealth of those who feature in our research is falling. 'We are also finding fewer of the world's super-rich are coming to live in the UK.'This year we were also struck by the strength of criticism for Rachel Reeves's Treasury. We expected the abolition of non-dom status would anger affluent people from overseas. 'But homegrown young tech entrepreneurs and those running centuries-old family firms are also warning of serious consequences to a range of tax changes unveiled in last October's budget.'Our research continues to find a wide variety of self-made entrepreneurs building fortunes not just fromartificial intelligence, video games and new technologies but also mundane, everyday items such as makeup, radiators and jogging bottoms. 'We know many of our readers find these people and their stories inspiring — especially the many who had tough starts or setbacks to their lives and careers.' Get all the latest news from around the country Follow STV News Scan the QR code on your mobile device for all the latest news from around the country
Forbes
14-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
The Balvenie Taps Into Art To Craft A New Audience For Scotch
Designer Samuel Ross debuted a new structural installation called 'Transposition" with Scotch maker ... More The Balvenie, the latest example of a liquor purveyor leaning into art for brand building. When designer Samuel Ross visited The Balvenie last year, the designer found himself submerged in Scottish landscapes filled with open lakes and rivers that all seemed to point directly at the distillery. 'And from that moment, I knew there'd be a factor and focus on water,' Ross tells me during an interview. The trip helped inspire a new immersive, structural installation called 'Transposition,' which debuted earlier this month at Milan Design Week. The artwork features three towers, incrementally rising by 15% in height from the smallest to to the tallest, and each churning through more than 50,000 liters of cascading water per hour. Ross used 1.5 tons of copper-painted steel to build the three vertical rivers, a nod to the copper stills used in the Scotch whisky-making process. Both The Balvenie and Ross say they wanted the piece to have its own identity and not be a to-on-the-nose branding activation. 'He was able to create something we thought was pretty amazing that had whisky making at its absolute heart,' Andrew Furley, global brand managing director of The Balvenie, tells me during a separate interview. A Balvenie whisky tasting, held in the distillery's home in Dufftown during Ross' visit, would also influence the British-Caribbean artist. 'The sweetness and the profile drew me initially,' says Ross, who personally prefers dark spirits like whisky and rum. 'My objective was to pull on the strands and the profiles of that tasting experience, and the level of depth and character in that process, and transform it into a physical sensory experience.' Liquor brands have long sought to work closely with artists and designers to broaden their appeal, a trend that began in the 1980s when Andy Warhol created a piece based on the silhouette of a bottle of Absolut vodka. These partnerships can give spirits makers vibrant new ways to engage with consumers and stand out on the shelf. Most artist-liquor tie ups tend to result in limited-edition bottle creations, including tequila maker Don Julio's creation with designer Willy Chavarría, Scotch brand Johnnie Walker's Lunar New Year design with visual artist James Jean, and a collaboration between brandy St-Rémy and French artist Lucas Beaufort. All of those partnerships debuted over the past two years. The artwork features three towers, which incrementally get higher by 15% from the smallest to the ... More tallest, and each churn through more than 50,000 liters of cascading water per hour. Furley says the artistic activation with Ross reflects a recent focus by The Balvenie to seek out opportunities to raise global awareness of a Scotch brand that isn't as well known as rivals like Johnnie Walker or Macallan. Past partnerships that point to The Balvenie's thinking include initially launching The Balvenie Fifty First Edition exclusively at the London luxury department store Harrods and a furniture collaboration with designer Bill Amberg. While luxury is a persistent theme through all those branding exercises, The Balvenie says it is also angling to become more than just a Scotch sold to collectors and industry insiders. 'The Balvenie has been a 'if you know, you know' brand; it's very well known by whisky connoisseurs and enthusiasts, but not by the more general audience,' says Furley. 'I think what we are trying to do is give ourselves a little more of a shop window to a broader audience who maybe don't know the brand as well as some of those connoisseurs.' Born in Brixton, an area of South London, Ross says he was primarily raised in the midlands in a part of England that was historically known for shoemaking. That helped inform his preference to work with raw materials when he studied graphic design and illustration at De Montfort University. Industrialism is a through line that consistently appears in his work, ranging from the luxury sportswear brand A-Cold-Wall that he founded in 2014 and work that sits in the permanent collections at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. 'Over the past ten years, I've just been chiseling out and refining that proposition,' says Ross. British-born designer Samuel Ross says he was raised in an industrial region and that industrialism ... More and raw materials are a through line that consistently appears in his work. Ross has designed wearable objects for luxury giant LVMH Group, athletic gear purveyor Nike and tech behemoth Apple. 'We're looking to learn from the best,' says Ross, of the partners he works with, which now includes The Balvenie. 'As a custodian of commercial products, and also expression in the arts, I want to understand and have a fair exchange with these parties," adds Ross. "To give them a new context, that's my role as an artist. But also, with a founder hat on, I want to learn how these maisons work and exchange ideas.' For 'Transposition,' Ross says he sought to sensorially represent the whisky-making process. Each of the three towers represents part of that process: the water, the fermentation process and finally the distilled liquid that goes into a barrel, where it extracts flavor from the wood. 'There's almost this perpetual rhythm of seeing the water and the liquid fall, and you've got the light temperature shifting slightly to give a different optic,' says Ross 'It's all about the senses.'
