He’s shunned Facebook and Twitter and is often to be found in the V&A library at weekends. Some say Carokis is developing an intellectual side but his day job is more typically Greek. This diplomat’s son works in shipping and is especially talented at making Greek salads. His costume choices for fancy dress parties are anything other than conservative.
Tag: Germany
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Eugene Carokis
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Anouska Hempel (Lady Weinberg)
The founder of the world’s first boutique hotel moved to London in 1962 with just £10 to her name. She’s acted with Anton Rodgers in Zodiac and was in the 1969 James Bond film On Her Majesty’s Secret Service but it as a designer of global repute that she is best known. Married to Sir Mark Weinberg, the founder of St. James’s Place Wealth Management, Hempel was born on a boat sailing from Papua New Guinea to New Zealand. This society figure’s first hotel, Blakes, created in 1978, is the favourite of personalities such as Sharon Stone and Seal and still sets the barometer for style today. -
Andrey Melnichenko
This billionaire co-founded one of Russia’s largest private banks, MDM Bank, in 1993, and has interests in companies producing mineral fertilisers and extracting coal. His £300 million yacht, “A,” named after his Serbian model wife Aleksandra, is 400ft long and designed by Philippe Starck. With 42 staff to look after the whims of just 14 guests, it is no wonder that Melnichenko decided to sail on it to Norway to collect three paintings by Claude Monet that he’d purchased. By collecting them there he also cleverly avoided the EU’s import taxes. -
Vidal Sassoon CBE (1928 – 2012)
He created the “wedge bob” hairstyle and liberated women from the “tyranny of the salon.” Four times married and a Sephardi Jew, Sassoon sold his brand in 1993 to concentrate on philanthropy. The Daily Telegraph once described him as an “anti-fascist warrior-hairdresser” and he will indeed be remembered as a man who led a revolution. -
Nancy Wake AC GM (1912 – 2011)
Churchill’s most highly decorated special agent. A resistance heroine who lived at The Stafford Hotel from 2001 to 2003 and regaled visitors with tales of her time as the legendary “White Mouse.” Her tipple of choice, gin and tonics, flowed as freely as did the stories of her time interviewing Hitler in the 1930s and 500-mile missions on bicycles. -
Terry Venables
“El Tel” is best known as a footballer manager but he’s a man of many talents. Few know that this national team manager of England (1994 to 1996) also co-authored four novels with Gordon Williams and was the co-creator of the ITV detective series Hazell. A Chelsea resident, he’s often to be found at Motcomb’s, the Rib Room Bar & Restaurant and Sette in Sydney Street. -
Sir Christopher and Lady Meyer
Sir Christopher and Lady Meyer love the media circuit and television sofas. (more…) -
Valting Vodka
A review of Valt Single Malt Scottish Vodka
When thinking of places where vodka is made, Poland and Russia are probably the first places that come to mind.
Valt Single Malt Scottish Vodka Valt Single Malt Scottish Vodka, however, is unique in being the only single malt vodka from Scotland and Ricky Christie, it’s founder, claims to be on a mission to “change your perspective.”
Christie describes his vodka, which currently sells around 3,000 cases a year, as having a “barley sugar and cream nose, [a] sweet vanilla ice cream taste [and a] warm melting butter finish.” I personally found it very distinctive and much more punchy than the standard “colourless, odourless and tasteless” description that is applied to most vodkas. Valt is not a vodka for a traditional Stoli fan but more one for someone willing to be a little more adventurous in what they consume.
Ricky Christie with a bottle of Valt Single Malt Scottish Vodka and his reflux column copper pot still The spirit is made with water from the famous salmon fishing river, the 107-mile long Spey, and Scottish malted barley. Using a traditional copper still, Valt is a vodka that undergoes a charcoal and chill filtration and one that is quintuple distilled. The result is a pure and mellow taste.
Christie first launched Valt in the UK but it is now also available in Germany, Italy, Austria, Spain, Malta, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Latvia and Poland. It can also be found in Thailand, Taiwan, Singapore and Jakarta but the brand has yet to conquer the biggest and toughest spirits market, the United States of America.
Nonetheless, Valt’s progress since launch in 2006 is somewhat impressive and case sales of some 10,000 a year are now within reach. Rabbie Burns would be proud.
For more information about Valt Single Malt Scottish Vodka, go to: http://www.valtvodka.com
Follow Valt Single Malt Scottish Vodka on Twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/valtvodka
To purchase Valt Single Malt Scottish Vodka for £24.95 a bottle, go to Master of Malt: http://www.masterofmalt.com/vodka/valt-single-malt-vodka/?agegate=true&gclid=CKu2nZTiz64CFcImtAod9XXhlw