Great news for Formula One fans: Singlemalt TV will be periodically publishing video and news updates from the Brawn GP Formula One Team. The team secured the 2009 Constructors’ and Drivers’ World Championships in Brazil on Sunday October 18.

Jenson Button celebrates with the team following Brawn GP’s duel World Drivers’ and World Constructors’ Championships in Brazil.

The latest news from Brawn GP:

Jenson Pays Tribute to the Team at Brawn GP

Jenson Button made an emotional return to Brawn GP’s factory in Brackley today to pay tribute to the team which won the 2009 FIA Formula One Constructors’ and Drivers’ World Championships in Brazil on Sunday.

After a hectic forty-eight hours following Sunday’s race which saw Jenson fly back from Brazil on team-mate Rubens Barrichello’s plane and go straight to Bluewater Shopping Centre for a fan and media appearance, Jenson’s priority was to get to the factory and speak to his team.

Champagne glass in hand and in front of his six race-winning trophies from the 2009 season, Jenson led a toast to the team’s successes, gave his own heartfelt thanks for the team’s contribution to his Drivers’ title and paid tribute to those people who were no longer with the team after the difficult winter.

Entering the auditorium at the factory to the sound of his post-race ‘We are the Champions’ radio rendition Jenson received a resounding welcome from the 450 staff gathered to congratulate him.

Jenson Button celebrates with the Brawn GP staff.

Jenson said: “That’s why I didn’t have a voice for two days after the race! I’m really here today to say a massive well done and thank you to everyone at the team. We’ve worked so hard for these achievements for so many years. Some of us were here from the beginning back in 1998 and I arrived halfway through our journey in 2003 but everyone has put so much work in. I know that there have been a lot of very difficult times and over the winter there were times when we didn’t think that we would be here at all. It’s very sad that not everyone can be here who worked on this fantastic car. But the team had to become smaller to continue and together we produced a car that has been exceptional this season.

To be able to achieve the Constructors’ and the Drivers’ Championships in our first year, especially after such a difficult winter, is an amazing achievement. It’s been a rollercoaster of emotions. The first few races were magnificent. It looked like it was a walk in the park but it really wasn’t. Then we had some difficult races, especially myself but also as a team where we struggled. But we fought back hard and when we needed to improve the car, you guys did it. Rubens gave us two more wins in Valencia and Monza at an important time to boost our morale and prove just how quick the car was. We have a great leader, a fantastic leader, in Ross. The Big Bear can’t be here today but I know that when he gets back, he’ll be celebrating with you!

We proved in Brazil last weekend that we deserve these Championships. We’ve fought so hard and a Championship season is about achieving the results when you need to. We’ve had some difficult races but we always did the best job that we could. So we should raise our glasses as the new Formula One World Champions of 2009. We’ve done what we set out to achieve. It really is going to take some time to sink that we are there. Celebrating our victories here with you today means so much to me and we are really going to enjoy this moment. Thank you so very much for your amazing contribution to our successes.”

Jenson Button in action.

All images and news release courtesy of Brawn GP.

Singlemalt TV fans who happen to also be iphone users can now get a Singlemalt TV button right on the home screen of their iphone, how cool is that? It’s simple too, here’s how it works:

Step 1: launch Safari on your iPhone,
Step 2: Navigate on over to www.singlemalt.tv
Step 3: Tap the “+” at bottom of your screen, tap “Add to Home Screen”

Just like that you’ll have an SMTV button right on your home screen for easy access to your favorite whisk(e)y website. Enjoy!

Parker Beam: Heaven Hill Master Distiller since 1975.

Tonight Heaven Hill Master Distiller Parker Beam will celebrate 50 years making bourbon. Surrounded by his friends and family Parker will toast the occasion in Bardstown, Kentucky at Heaven Hill’s award-winning Bourbon Heritage Center. Singlemalt TV crews have had the honor of working with Parker quite a bit in the past year, you can catch Parker discussing his amazing career in our interview, WATCH PART ONE / WATCH PART TWO. You can also read about Parker’s Golden Anniversary in our news section HERE.

A screen grab from Parker Beam’s interview with Singlemalt TV.

Parker Beam is a remarkable man and a remarkable Master Distiller, and having collected a ton of great footage from our times with Parker—at the distillery and numerous events—we wanted to do something special for this monumental occasion.  As an honor to Parker we’ve put together a tribute video (it includes some great unseen footage and fantastic vintage photos courtesy of Heaven Hill), and Heaven Hill will be screening it tonight at the celebration!

We’ll share the video with our viewers this evening as well, so that we can all join in the festivities and raise a glass (bourbon of course) to Parker Beam.

Heaven Hill will honor Master Distiller Parker Beam tonight in Bardstown.

Heaven Hill will unveil Evan Williams Single Barrel Vintage 2000 tomorrow (Parker introduced Evan Williams Single Barrel in 1995) as their busy weekend continues.  You can watch Parker’s tasting notes on Evan Williams Single Barrel Vintage 1999 HERE.

Evan Williams Single Barrel Vintage 1999, Heaven Hill will unveil Evan Williams Single Barrel 2000 tomorrow.

Singlemalt TV crews are out location as a wet, albeit spirited relay is underway on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail. The race started this morning at the Jim Beam Distillery in Clermont. I hear that despite the inclement weather the Bourbon Chase is going wonderfully and runners are taking the showers (and torrential downpours!) in stride.

A quick recap: Last night in Lexington the Bourbon Community congregated at the Hilton Downtown to toast both the launch of Team Bourbon and the inaugural Bourbon Chase Relay. Singlemalt TV covered the event live from the Hilton, as speakers including Kentucky Distiller’s Association President Eric Gregory, Bourbon Chase Founder/ Organizer Mike Kuntz, Kentucky Tourism Commissioner Michael Cooper and Lexington CVB VP of Marketing and Tourism Mary Quinn Ramer. Each of them discussed the importance of bourbon to the culture and heritage of the Bluegrass, while explaining the new Team Bourbon initiative which will focus heavily on innovative marketing of the Bourbon Lifestyle, a blend of Bourbon-centric culture and tradition that characterizes a way of life unique to Kentucky.

Through a variety of innovative marketing campaigns Team Bourbon, which unites numerous tourism groups across Kentucky, will showcase the Bourbon Lifestyle and the many attractions along the Kentucky Bourbon Trail.

If you missed our live coverage last night you can catch it all on the channel Monday. Stay Tuned throughout the weekend for video updates as the Bourbon Chase continues!

A statue of bourbon icon Booker Noe receives a tipple of Jim Beam as the Bourbon Chase begins.

There’s been a serious buzz about bourbon for a while now, and tonight it will all come together in the launch of Kentucky’s monumental “Team Bourbon.” The brainchild of a group of spirited Kentuckians—all invested in the tourism and economic stability of the state—Team Bourbon will combine the efforts and offerings of a number of agencies interested in promoting the “Bourbon Lifestyle.”

The logo for newly formed Team Bourbon, Singlemalt TV will bring you the launch live from Lexington tonight.

Having experienced astounding growth in the past year (the Kentucky Bourbon Trail is ticking off passports left and right, as is Louisville’s restaurant-based Urban Bourbon Trail) there is no better time for Bourbon to enter the limelight. Team Bourbon members include the Anderson County Tourism Commission, Bardstown-Nelson County Tourist & Convention Commission, Frankfort Tourism Commission, Lebanon Tourist & Convention Commission, Lexington Convention & Visitors Bureau Louisville Convention & Visitors Bureau, Shepherdsville/Bullitt County Tourist & Convention Commission, Woodford County Tourist Commission, Kentucky Bourbon Festival, Kentucky Department of Travel and (of course) The Kentucky Distillers’ Association.

Team Bourbon will officially kick off tonight at the Hilton in Lexington, and will be accompanied by a reception for the runners participating in this weekend’s inaugural Bourbon Chase.

…and Singlemalt TV will be there to bring you the event LIVE at 7pm (broadcast may begin shortly after 7 depending on actual the start time of the event).

You won’t want to miss this truly historic event, the who’s who of the Bourbon industry will unite catalyze an effort that will continue to celebrate and  promote America’s Native Spirit and the Bluegrass State. Look out Napa Valley, from all forecasts Bourbon Country is looking like the next hot destination, and we’re positive Team Bourbon has some great ideas in store.

Stay tuned to Singlemalt TV on Facebook and Twitter. For updates throughout the day—we’ll keep you posted on the happenings as Team Bourbon prepares to make it’s debut! And mark your calendars for a weekend rife with Bourbon Country fun—SMTV crews will be on the scene around the clock to bring you full coverage of the Bourbon Chase beginning Saturday morning.

I’ve just learned that (in a ceremony last night) the prestigious Keepers of the Quaich named Charles MacLean Master of the Quaich, an accolade akin to the industry’s highest honor. Charlie was inducted into the Keepers of the Quaich in 1992.

Congrats Charlie!

I write this from the heart of Bardstown, where Singlemalt TV has two crews on the ground cover Kentucky Bourbon Festival….

Singlemalt TV’s Ali Mutch (left) clinks a glass with new friends at Bourbon, Cigars and Jazz on Friday.

….I guess that was all I had time to write as it is now a full week after I began this post and the Kentucky Bourbon Festival has come to an end. Back at Singlemalt TV Headquarters we’re already reminiscing about the seven days we spent in Kentucky, and while the week was packed it is impossible not to have a great time in Bourbon Country. From the incredible hospitality (bakery fresh donuts anyone?) to the fantastic bourbon (Evan Williams Single Barrel was a true champion of our cause) to the Kentucky Bourbon Festival itself–there is nothing that quite compares.

Competitors at the Legendary Barrel Relay where distillery employees show their strength.

Our Bardstown outpost, the old library right in historic Court Square, looked out over the very heart of town. The cavernous space was offered up to us by the community, and it served us remarkably well. Though our efforts were centered around that old brick building, our cameras (we were informed) were seemingly everywhere.

Our daily live webcasts were promptly followed by hours of shooting—footage was constantly arriving from the crews as they returned from each location–only to venture out once again Niki (our editor and Parker Beam’s biggest fan) working tirelessly from her editing suite in the center of the massive room. Each night, bone-tired, we gathered around her screen to watch the night’s show. Time was captured on screen as all of the meticulous detail of the day materialized on Singlemalt TV. From the red wax-dipping at Maker’s Mark in Loretto on Tuesday to the red carpet at Saturday’s Kentucky Bourbon Festival Gala–the essence of Bourbon Country seems captured in every frame.

Singlemalt TV’s Ali Mutch chats with bourbon industry icons Jimmy Russell of Wild Turkey and Fred Noe of Jim Beam.

Singlemalt TV’s Ali Mutch talks with the Wild Turkey Barrel Rolling Relay team.

Then there were the people, each of them could perhaps occupy a blog post of their own. the Master Distillers—true geniuses of the drink in all of their laughing, good-natured glory at the Kentucky Bourbon All Star Sampler. Later we caught up with some of these icons of bourbon in their tuxedoes, a world away from their distilleries but smiling and carrying on just the same. The restaurant staff on the Urban Bourbon Trail–each with a little trick or special recipe that they happily shared with our presenter as cameras rolled. All the PR and media folks from each of the distilleries, eager to have Singlemalt TV visit, for the umpteenth time in some cases. The staff of the Tourist Commissions and Vistitor Bureaus In Bardstown, Louisville, Lexington and Frankfort–all elated to have our crews in town. We encounted the same struggle with drafting the credit roll for our last show, there are just too many to list.

Ali Mutch Shares a laugh with Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear at Saturday’s Bourbon Festival Gala.

We joked that the old library had become our home, but truly it is hard not to feel at home in Bardstown–where the locals embrace strange camera-toting interlopers with open arms–and the hospitality is (truly) as good as the bourbon.

Tom Bulleit makes his Master Distiller’s Hall of Fame acceptance speech.

If you missed Kentucky Bourbon Festival we hope our coverage will transport you to Bardstown–if you were fortunate enough to attend I hope you had a chance to meet our crew (or even appear on SMTV!).

Bourbon Lovers stay tuned to Singlemalt TV, Kentucky we hope to see you soon.

In recent weeks I’ve noticed a bit of an interesting phenomenon: everywhere I go young people are drinking whisk(e)y. To clarify, the travels I’m referring to are those of the social nature,  and at every bar and event a quick glance around the room always reveals a pleasing number of hands clutching rocks glasses of that tell-tale amber spirit. When I first came to work at Singlemalt TV I did so with an open mind, and a penchant for work-related “research.”  My friends would raise their eyebrows when I ordered a (insert whisk(e)y of the night) on the rocks, and would keep those brows raised as they watched me sip (and enjoy) the drink, savoring its nuances and relegating them to my mental log of tasting notes. I wrote in an earlier post about ordering a Blanton’s at a local establishment and watching the waitress deliver it to my male companion, assuming that his vodka/grapefruit was (naturally) my order. Though I’m not sure who was more embarrassed I can assure you that I knew she was wondering about a girl like me and a drink like that. It was hard to refrain from smiling.

Last night I ventured out to see a fairly hip Boston area band, as the driver I sipped water and observed (often a great point of view for a writer!), lo and behold whisk(e)y was the drink of the night. In the mostly 24 to 35 year old crowd I’d estimate one out of three was sipping a whisk(e)y. Though the pickings were slim at this establishment everyone seemed content with a Jameson or Glenlivet (they kind of had to be!). I was floored.

It seems that whisk(e)y, in all its glory is working the young crowd with ease. The next time, when it’s not my turn to drive, I’ll be looking forward to clinking glasses with my fellow whisk(e)y drinkers—hopefully somewhere with a wide variety of great drams to choose from.

What do you think? Leave us your feedback.

When the Fedex driver walks into our studio it usually means a new piece of camera/computer/broadcast equipment has arrived, but yesterday when I saw the tall skinny box, distinctly marked “this side up,” I knew immediately that it was no high tech gadget (don’t get me wrong, that’s exciting too). In fact, it was wholly the opposite. Stranahan’s Colorado Whiskey is distilled in Denver and was created in a truly bizarre lemons-to-lemonade situation.

Neighbor’s George Stranahan and Jess Graber bonded over a shared passion for fine distilled spirits…as they watched Stranahan’s barn burn before them. Volunteer firefighter Jess Graber has responded to a report that Stranahan’s barn was on fire and in his attempt to control the flames I’m sure he could never have imagined the outcome of the seemingly horrible night. As the fire settled to embers the men discussed their appreciation for good drink, (and judging by the circumstances of their meeting I sincerely hope they were privy to a few choice libations). Of the rubble, literally, Colorado’s first and only microdistillery was born. Aged in new charred oak barrels for at least two years (our bottle was distilled on June 4, 2007 so presumably it’s spent relatively little time in the bottle) Stranahan’s has found its niche. They don’t advertise it but this whiskey is a single malt, actually made from locally produced Rocky Mountain barley. Stranahan’s is a proud one-trick-pony, producing this lone product with a remarkable level of success. Each bottle bears the barrel number and has a note, ours says, “barrel sampling today,” at 47% ABV and unchillfiltered that was probably all the commentary necessary. I will say this whiskey is one of the smoothest drinking I’ve had in a while, to me it tastes leafy and a bit botanical, but also substantial…sort of a dried-leaf and occasional hint of fruit with very earthy notes dominant to me at least ( in the interest of full disclosure I watch videos of Master Distillers passionately describing their whiskies as part of my job).

If you’ve had (or have) a bottle of Stranahan’s take a minute to submit whatever quip appears on your label, I bet there are some good ones!

….Wolffie will be presenting Stranahan’s with complete tasting notes a’la Wolffie next week on Singlemalt TV News, we’ve just got to make sure there’s some left….

I just spoke with SNP MSP for Kilmarnock and Loudoun Willie Coffey. Coffey has been one of the most adamant voices in the battle against Diageo’s restructuring, which includes shuttering an extraordinarily significant bottling plant. In addition to economically devastating Kilmarnock, the closure would effectively desecrate 189 years of history tying Johnnie Walker Scotch to Killie. A young Johnnie Walker opened his green grocer there in 1820, it was around that time that he began to make whisky to sell at his store. To date each bottle of Johnnie Walker Scotch still bears reference to Kilmarnock on the label and is bottled at the plant that is now at the mercy of Diageo.

Coffey drafted a PETITION that has received nearly 12,000 signatures to date. His most recent action was last week’s call to the Committee on the Economy for an inquiry into the Scotch Whisky Industry. Coffey got word early in the week that the committee will consider such an inquiry.

Stay tuned for a passionate and intriguing perspective from one of the men “on the front lines” of the fight to save Johnnie Walker.

Our interview will be online shortly.