NEWS Digital radio network designed to protect staff and customers Chef David Gault gets a lift.
Scrum dine with me
THE Hilton Glasgow Grosvenor got its hands dirty earlier this month when rugby team Glasgow Hawks unveiled its new kit.
The hotel is the official sponsor of the amateur team and David Gault, chef de partie at the Hilton Glasgow Grosvenor, joined players from Glasgow Hawks at the launch of the new strip.
City venues link up in safety drive
By Gillian McKenzie
A NEW digital radio network linking Glasgow’s bars and clubs to the city’s CCTV control centre has been launched. Around 50 city centre premis-
es have signed up to the scheme, which is designed to provide better protection to staff, door stewards and customers. The network replaces the pre- vious analogue system. For a fee of £40 a month,
operators receive a handheld digital radio, offering a range of functions, which is linked to the CCTV control centre at Glasgow Community and Safety Services (GCSS). Radio traffic is monitored 24
hours a day, seven days a week, by a dedicated officer, who will log incidents on the system and contact the police if required. Stewards can use the radio to
alert other venues in the net- work to potential problems or request CCTV coverage of their venue. There’s also an emergency button stewards can press if they require police assistance;
Benromach 10 year old.
Toasting the festive season
SPEYSIDE distillery Benromach is targeting the festive gifting market with a new product. The distillery, which is owned by Elgin-based Gordon and MacPhail, has introduced a new 20cl bottling of Benromach 10 year old single malt, priced at £11.50 (compared to £28.50 for the 70cl bottle). Joint MD David Urquhart said the new bottle is the perfect ‘stocking filler’ for malt whisky lovers. “We pride ourselves
on creating unusual and ‘boutique’ whiskies, and believe these are perfect for people who are looking for something a little bit different over the Christmas season,” he said.
6 - SLTN - November 11, 2010
if there’s an incident rather than we find out about it ret- rospectively. There won’t be a black mark against you for call- ing the police.
“Most premises don’t cause
Pictured at the launch of the new digital radio (left to right), Eddie Tobin, Superintendent Nelson Telfer and Glasgow City Council leader Gordon Matheson.
and a ‘call-back’ button that enables a premises to share sensitive information with the controller or police. Taxi marshals at the city centre Nite Zones will be pro- vided with the radios, as well as Glasgow Taxis, First Bus and the street pastors. Speaking to SLTN ahead of the launch, Euan Baillie, licens-
ing constable at Anderston po- lice office, said the system is de- signed to provide an extra layer of protection for premises’ staff and customers. “If you’ve had an incident at
your premises, it’s good prac- tice to let others know about it,” he said. “We’ve always advocated that premises should call the police
The wine industry has good reason to target the Far East, as Guy Chatfield explains
HOW do you take a case of French wine and increase its value by £4000 in the space of twelve hours? The answer is to paint two red lines that look like an upside down broken V on the front of the bottle then release the wine at auction in Hong Kong! When bidding closed last week, the val- ue of 12 bottles of Chateau Lafite-Roth-
any problems but because of the footfall there will be inci- dents; it’s about how premises manage those incidents. The digital radio will act as a safe- guard for stewards and staff.” Eddie Tobin, chairman of the Scottish Late Night Operators’ Association, welcomed the de- velopment. “It’s much faster, much more efficient and, frankly, a wonder- ful idea,” he told SLTN. “It’s another tool in the box for operators.”
Among the businesses which
have signed up so far are G1 Group, CPL, Mitchells & But- lers, Wetherspoon, Lynnet Lei- sure and Campus.
Baillie said he hopes to have around 100 premises on board by the end of the year. He also said it could be rolled out to the west end and south side follow- ing an evaluation early in the new year.
The Cork Dork fact:
China has the fourth largest area under vine in the world – more than Chile, Australia and South Africa combined.
schild, the uber-famous ‘first growth’ from the Medoc, rose from £9000 to £13,000. Now this red squiggle is not just any squiggle. It’s the Mandarin symbol for the number eight – a number considered one of the luckiest in Chinese culture. The reason for this is that when it is spo-
ken, the sound for eight is very similar to the word for ‘fortune’. Superstition surrounding luck in China is so prevalent that the opening ceremo- ny of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing began on 08/08/08 at eight minutes and eight seconds past 8pm (local time). As China, Singapore and Hong Kong are the fastest-growing wine consumer markets in the world, it is a no-brainer that big brands and big-money wines are setting up their stalls there. The wine industry is no different from
any other, constantly looking for new consumers – and the virgin markets in the Far East are its current target. Culturally, a display of extravagance signifies your status as a major player and, given the way claret has soared in
price over the last decade, it is a favourite with the wealthy Chinese. Although wine has not taken the place
of the incumbent favourite Cognac, sales of the big-name chateaux, like Margaux, Petrus and Le Pin, are showing significant growth. Apropos of this, wine merchants such as Berry Bros & Rudd, Justerini & Brooks and Farr Vintners all have a pres- ence in either Hong Kong or Singapore. Traditionally, the wine industry is
anything but unified in its approach to things, but as the desire of the vast Chi- nese public to taste the forbidden fruit of western decadence increases, I believe demand-pull will be significant. It will take a monumental effort to break the four thousand-year association with rice wine, and getting the message to the masses outside the major cities will be extremely laborious, but as the size of the prize is so significant, every company worth its salt will be throwing as much resource at this opportunity as they can.
THE WINE GUY
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