Press Release

As part of the Prestige Whisky marketing plan, we are going to be releasing a series of press releases to local papers/magazines and also to some specialist food and drink publications.

This is a very exciting development for www.prestigewhisky.com and a bit of a shot in the dark as I don't really know what effect or interest this might create. Essentially the press releases highlight our knowledge, our fun and education approach to whisky and how, in the midst of a recession I thought it was a good idea to set up a website selling a high end luxury item. Hopefully I can expect a call from Robert Peston at the BBC in the next fews days !

Let's see how it goes and I will of course update progress here and on the website.

Progress since launch

Well we've been formally up and running for around a week now. Time for a little breath of air and some feedback.

Very exciting time as having the site live and launched has given me some time to begin to implement our marketing strategy. At it's core I simply want as large a profile for www.prestigewhisky.com on the internet as is humanly possible. I have a number of ideas around this but I thought it would be interesting to update (the geeks amongst you) on progress to date.

According to my good friend, Mr Google Analytics, traffic to our website in the last few days has spiked from 0 on the 15th of June to 95 visits as of close of play yesterday. We've had traffic from the UK, Canada, Germany and the Middle East and visits onto the Prestige Whisky blog are nudging towards 300 as of this morning. (Hopefully well over this by now as you read this blog post).

I'm particularly encouraged by the number of people who have taken the time to 'critique' the website. So far we've had no functionality issues (on either the site itself or accepting and processing orders) and the comments on the aesthetic content has been wonderful.

Many thanks to the people who have :

1) taken the time to offer their opinion on the site

2) who've been on to the site

3) most importantly, our first customers - you know who you are, thanks for the interest and your faith in my new little business !

Chill Filtered Whisky

I’ve recently asked via the website : www.prestigewhisky.com by a customer to talk about the difference between chilled and non chill-filtered whiskies.

So here goes …..To start with most single malt whiskies are usually chilled before being sent out from the distillery. This drop in temperature can cause them to become cloudy.

The haziness that is then present actually comprises protein and various other elements which have dropped out of suspension.These are then removed by a method of filtration.

The filtration then stops a haze forming again if the purchaser of the whisky stores the liquid in the fridge or adds ice in the drink. Bear in mind though that In the United Kingdom most whisky lovers do not add ice or store the whisky in the fridge. This is much more prevalent within Europe or in other global overseas markets (the USA and India for example – where ‘scotch on the rocks’ is quite common).

Of course the main producers of whisky are aware that much of their product is exported to those overseas markets thus the practice of chill/filtration.

1992 Glen Scotia, bottled by Gordon and MacPhail

Just added to the site, at a price of £ 35.99 this would make an interesting gift for someone new to whisky.

One of the few Campbeltown malts we're featuring, this whisky has a sweet nose initially and a delicate briny edge.

To add to the experience, the Glen Scotia distillery has it's own ghost !

Truly a magnificent spirit in every department.

Drop onto www.prestigewhisky.com to buy

The Future of the Prestige Whisky Blog

The good news is that the PW blog is going to continue in partnership with our 'big brother' site www.prestigewhisky.com - I'll carry on giving you the latest from the world of whisky here with edited highlights being posted in the news section of the main site.

I'm also going to try and add a blog post whenever we add a new or exciting product to the main site. This way subscribers and regular users of the blog can keep up to date on our offering as well as shoppers at the prestigewhisky.com

Here's to the future ........

We made it ....

The story of Prestige Whisky began formally in October 2008 with a vision to bring the finest in whisky to the UK market in such a way to provide an invaluable resource for both the newcomer to the majesty of Scotch Whisky but also a home for existing lovers of the water of life.

The aim of the project was always to source the finest in rare and prestigious whisky and bring them to a state of the art website, backed up by a range of marketing and sales initiatives not really currently being utilised within the sector.

After 9 months of pretty exhausting research, relationship building, web development we've now arrived at launch. Originally we were going to aim for a 1st of April launch but as ever, a plan only survives until you introduce into the real world then all bets are off.

For their on-going and stalwart support I'd like to thank Zoe and Chris at our web design partner, Budget Websites in Woking who were always available (even late on a Saturday evening).

PRESTIGE WHISKY IS GO !

I will add a more in depth blog entry later discussing our marketing and promotional plans but suffice to say as of 8.00am this morning (23/6/09) .... Prestige Whisky is live, up and running and ready to go.

Countdown to launch ......

We're slowly but surely getting there I think. The next post on the blog is likely to be the formal announcement that everything is live and ready for launch.

Technically, given that our payment integration is complete and the website is (virtually) bug free we could launch now but I'm just holding off to ensure everything is perfect.

Unfortunately we're going to be a little late for Father's Day but I'd rather the site was 100% than rush and make mistakes.

We've had nearly 300 people visit this blog so there is lot's of interest in our progress and we're already appearing high on the pages of some search engines - if you look for 'Prestige Whisky' we'll appear on page one of most search engines including google. However search for 'rare and exclusive' whisky and you'll already start to see us popping up even without a live active web site. For example, that search brings us up onto page one of Lycos at the minute !

I'm really excited with our marketing effort so far and plan to pull out all the stops when we launch.

For more information on our marketing (if you'd like to see our forthcoming Press Release) drop me an e-mail at : info@prestigewhisky.com

Please check back regularly here and once the site is up and running I look forward to welcoming you to www.prestigewhisky.com.

Launch date ?

People who view this site semi-regularly may be wondering why the Prestige Whisky site is not live and available for use by now.

We were aiming most recently for a 1st of June launch date. However, we have had a couple of delays with integrating our payment portal onto the site. As this is such a vital area I have had to ensure that it is 100% working before moving to a live payment environment.

That being said, the extra time has enabled me to run more tests on the site. Iron out/amend a couple of things that weren't as I expected and of course enabled me to get a really good volume of wonderful whiskies loaded onto the site ready for launch.

I've just spent 30 minutes having a play and I think the site is really impressive - as good as I imagined.

In addition we now have a new feature - a selection of recommended whisky books to accompany our range of malts.

I'm not going to put a date in this post - but I'm hoping all the above small wrinkles will be smoothed out in the next four or five days and that we can still launch before Fathers Day - fingers crossed.

Consumer choice in the Whisky market

Too much choice for whisky buyers ?

Prestige Whisky are of course going to stock a wide range of exquisite malt whiskies – are we helping or hindering the UK whisky consumer ?

Whisky producers are being urged to improve their UK marketing and encourage more drinkers to trade up to single malts in the wake of figures showing domestic sales lagging behind exports.

Exports of bottled single malt whisky grew a record 9% to £497m over 2008, and blended sales increased 9% to £2.43bn, Scotch Whisky Association figures revealed this week. But blended whisky sales in the UK rose 4% to £774m and malt sales were up 3% to £134m.

Campbell Evans, director of government and consumer affairs at the Scotch Whisky Association, blamed the weaker growth on a market "congested due to the sheer number of choices" for consumers.

"Even though the UK is the third-largest consumer of Scotch whisky in the world, more than 90% of our business remains overseas and encouraging British consumers to trade up to higher-value bottled malt whisky rather than blended remains challenging."

To stand out and keep UK sales buoyant through the recession, companies must concentrate on raising awareness of their brands to encourage consumer loyalty, said Rob Bruce, Whyte & Mackay's communications head.

"The UK Scotch whisky market is going through a tough time. The key to survival in this climate is remaining relevant to consumers to ensure you are their brand of choice," he said.

"But we feel confident that, in these difficult times, consumers here still want to treat themselves to a good whisky, particularly one from a brand they know and trust."

Perhaps the key is for retailers like Prestige whisky to lend the consumer an informed and expert hand. Our job I think is to tell our customers :

What are the key differences between a blended whisky and malt ?

What is the value in trading up or indeed down ?

Indeed the core mission of Prestige Whisky is to help our customer make these kinds of choices and feel confident that their whisky is the right one for them at the right price. In many ways the figures quoted above belay the fact that perhaps it is the whisky industry itself which is preventing customers from understanding their drinks by failing to offer enough relevant information on the choices available.

Article factual information courtesy of the grocer magazine, opening and closing comment by Prestige Whisky June ‘09