Posts by Peter Ranscombe
First look at Johnnie Walker Princes Street
WHISKY maker Diageo has this morning raised the veil for a sneak-peak at its Johnnie Walker visitors’ centre on Princes Street. The tourist attraction, which is due to open next summer, is built inside a former department store. The company has released the first artist’s impressions of the interior of the centre and the views…
Read More12 Wines of Christmas: Gimblett Gravels
Peter Ranscombe continues trekking through his 12 wines of Christmas with bottles from the Gimblett Gravels in New Zealand. LORD of the Rings has a lot to answer for. Watching Frodo gurn his way across Middle Earth could lead filmgoers to conclude that New Zealand has a uniform cool climate of snow-capped mountains and turf-roofed…
Read MoreArtists take to waves for residency
ARTISTS are being offered a residency with a difference – on a yacht. The chosen artists will spent a week aboard a 50ft yacht exploring Arran and the Firth of Clyde. They be able to set their own itinerary for their voyage aboard the Whimbrel catamaran and will receive a stipend plus travel expenses to…
Read MoreScots ski champ lands sponsorship deal
A SCOTTISH skiing champion has signed a sponsorship deal. Owen Vinter, the 2019 British Senior National Champion, is being sponsored by Tillicoultry Quarries as he builds towards the Europa Cup Tour and next year’s World Junior Skiing Championships. The 19 year old from Glasgow is one of ten athletes on the Europa Cup Alpine Ski…
Read MoreOnFarm podcast beats Nigella, Jamie, and Heston
THE “OnFarm” podcast is preparing to celebrate its first birthday – after beating Heston Blumenthal, Nigella Lawson, and Jamie Oliver in the streaming charts. The podcast, which covers rural life in Scotland, reached third place in the Apple food podcast charts in November, beating the brigade of celebrity chefs. Anna Davies, the podcast’s presenter, said:…
Read MoreCrieff Hydro continues Christmas piping tradition
CRIEFF Hydro Hotel boss Stephen Leckie and his family continued their tradition of ringing in Christmas day with a pipes and drums performance. Leckie has played the pipes at the family’s hotel at Christmas and Hogmanay for the past 47 years. He was joined this year by his children – Charlie, Richard, and Louisa –…
Read More12 wines of Christmas: Rutherglen
Peter Ranscombe continues his 12 wines of Christmas with “stickies” from Rutherglen in Australia. ONE of the most fun aspects of writing about wine from a Scottish point of view is tracing how our ancestors and our place names pop up around the globe. Arguably the most famous of those connections is Rutherglen, the South…
Read More12 Wines of Christmas: Argentina
Peter Ranscombe continues his journey through the 12 wines of Christmas with top-end bottles from Argentina. TAKE a walk along a supermarket wine aisle and it’s easy to dismiss Argentina as a land full of simple malbec. Row after row of cheap and usually very cheerful red wines demonstrate how the country and the grape…
Read More12 wines of Christmas: California
Peter Ranscombe begins his journey through the 12 wines of Christmas with Marimar Estate in California. HEAR the name “Torres” and its natural to think of the family’s Spanish vineyards. Yet the country’s most famous winemaking dynasty is now arguably equally as famous for its vines in Chile. What’s perhaps less well-known is that the…
Read MoreCalls to ‘care for the countryside’ this Christmas
SCOTTISH Land & Estates (SLE) – which represents farmers, land managers and rural businesses – has called on Christmas walkers to take litter home, not disturb wildlife, and keep dogs under control near cows and sheep. The organisation’s plea follows high-profile issues of littering, anti-social behaviour, vandalism, and flytipping in rural Scotland during the pandemic.…
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