And Now A Word From Our Sponsors: Balvenie, Bowmore, & Perrier-Jouët

Fine art and delicious bubbly — it doesn’t get much better. (Photo courtesy Perrier-Jouet)

My productivity level was way down in December, for two reasons. First, I had shingles. I’ve found that shingles is less painful than it is totally enervating. Yes, I had an annoying rash for a week or two, but I was totally exhausted for a solid month. And second, it was my wife’s 50th birthday, and we pulled out all the stops with dinners and parties and lunches and fancy cocktails and more dinners. Given my limited energy reserves, I could either work, or I could celebrate with my spouse. I chose the latter, and I think I chose wisely — I’d be in bed for two solid days after every night out, but it was totally worth it.

So yeah, it wasn’t quite a month of sloth, but I didn’t get a whole lot of writing done. I wrote exactly one article, which has yet to be published. I did, however, rouse myself from my sickbed to write three sponsored content pieces for Robb Report. First up was a long piece about the Balvenie, focusing on its 60 Year Old whisky but also touching on the career of its legendary malt master, David C. Stewart, and its new pop-up travel retail spot in the Incheon airport in Korea. I wrote it having long since given up on ever getting to taste the whisky, but lo and behold, the opportunity presented itself. So I’ll be writing about it again, from an editorial point of view. Stay tuned! Oh, and in the meantime, the link for the sponsored content is -> HERE <-.

Next up was about the famed champagne maison Perrier-Jouet (there should be two little dots over the “e” in Jouet, I know). I don’t know a whole lot about champagne, but that’s OK, because most of the piece was about an art installation by artist Fernando Laposse, sponsored by Perrier-Jouet. I don’t know a whole lot about art, either, but with sponsored content, fortunately, the brand gives you all the information. So my job was to turn that info into recognizable, grammatically correct English, presented in the style of a Robb Report article. And that’s something I do know about. Check it out! And check out the photos, too — it really is a beautiful piece of art. Link is -> HERE <-.

And finally, I got to write about the Bowmore’s latest release in its ongoing Timeless series, a 29 year old whisky that comes with a three-minute hourglass, because that’s how long you’re supposed to nose the whisky before taking a sip. I’d roll my eyes at the gimmick, but the Bowmore makes some incredible whiskies, so if they want me to time my sniffs, I’ll cut them some slack). One of these days I need to visit their famed distillery on Islay, which has been pumping out the good stuff since 1779. Link is -> HERE <-.