What's New ... Press Release 31 December 2002 CELTICMALTS  Presents our First  Annual CELTICMALTS Spirits Ambassador to the World Award!! Each year, the Whiskies of the World Expo brings you hundreds of representatives of the world of fine distilled spirits. Starting this year, we shall select and honor one of these important expert ambassadors. To qualify, our candidate must meet the following standards: Be an exceptional educator with a mission to bring knowledge and experience of exemplary distilled spirits to both the consumer public and the trade Utilize his/her talents as a spirits specialist/expert in several settings which improve the public’s awareness of the intricacies of fine distilled spirits and raise the benchmark for trade understanding of these same spirits. Create a relationship within the trade and consumer world that has resulted in an industry wide reputation of high performance, enthusiasm and diplomacy in all his/her professional endeavours. Continues to update and improve his/her knowledge of distilled spirits and the production of small batch whiskies with a goal of disseminating this knowledge effectively to both trade and consumer audiences. Exhibits a community minded spirit outside of his/her professional life.   We are proud and honored to present the 2003 CelticMalts SPIRTS AMBASSADOR TO THE WORLD AWARD to: Stephen Beal  Steve, a very familiar figure to both the consumers who enjoy them and the trade handling fine single malts in the San Francisco Bay Area, has earned the respect of everyone he meets with his endless energy and passion for all things Scottish and single malts in particular. Steve is admired and well known by almost every top-shelf bartender, chef and waitperson in the Bay Area. Although he is the official brand ambassador for the Classic Malts & Johnny Walker, many have come to consider him the unofficial brand ambassador for the category of single malts as a whole in Northern California.  Today, we make that title official as well!!  Stephen’s start in the whisky business was one of fate and being in the right place at the right time. He was working for a well known culinary school when he received a call from someone looking for “…a Scotsman with a kilt who knew something about whisky..”. The next thing he knew, Steve was standing in front of huge crowds, extolling the virtues of the water of life. From lecturing  future chefs about whisky, he was now sharing his knowledge with the world. Steve comes to his knowledge of whisky through a very personal journey. He has trained at several distilleries, including Dalwhinnie, Cragganmore, Oban, Talisker, Lagavulin, Glenkinchie, Cardhu and Royal Lochnagar. He has worked for The Whisky Shops of Scotland (Scotland’s largest retailer of fine malts) in their launch of the San Francisco Whisky Shop, their first U.S. based location. He is a pioneer in internet whisky sales and consults for a large number of retailers, both on and off premise. He has presented training and sales programs to almost all the major single malt brands and done private venue tastings for the consumer in settings to numerous to list. In addition to his work as an educator and ambassador, Steve is also a judge for the Bon Appetit yearly World Spirits Competition. Steve jokes that whisky ‘was the first true food which ever passed my lips”. He is descended from a long line of Scots, some of whom have been in the whisky business, but as he says..”most of them have kept the industry alive single handedly as loyal consumers”. Stephen is a graduate of the University of Arizona and  Oxford University. He studied culinary arts in Paris and holds a M.A. of Divinity from the Church Divinity Schools of the Pacific in Berkeley. Stephen is an ordained Priest of the Episcopal church and when he isn’t busy teaching the world about fine spirits, he spends a great deal of his time working with San Francisco’s homeless population. It is with the greatest pleasure that we acknowledge Stephen Beal’s wonderful contributions to the world of hand crafted, fine distilled spirits and to the community of San Francisco at large. Congratulations Steve!  Cheers!