czechoslovakia

Hammer Head keeps Malt Whisky in Czech

Filed under: Spirits

Think of single malt whisky and Scotland usually comes to mind. Maybe Ireland, Japan if you're really with the times. But the Czech Republic?

That's where Hammer Head Malt Whisky hails from, made at the Pradlo Distillery that was built in what was then western Czechoslovakia in 1928. A thoroughly Czech product, Hammer Head – so named for the noisy iron mill used in its production – is made using Czech barely, Czech spring water and aged in Czech oak barrels.

A limited number of barrels were laid down in 1989, just before the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of Soviet dominion over Eastern Europe. 20 years of aging later, the Bohemian whisky is now available from World of Whiskies, the extensive British travel retail chain, for £34.99.

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Tags: czech, Czech Republic, czechoslovakia, hammer head, pradlo, pradlo distillery, single malt, single malt whisky, whisky

Finalists Announced for Hugo Boss Prize in Contemporary Art

by Tom Johansmeyer (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Art

guggenheim new york We're a step closer to finding out who will win the biannual Hugo Boss Prize, which is bestowed for achievement in contemporary art. Vying for the $100,000 award this year are the finalists just announced by the Guggenheim: Cao Fei from China, Hans-Peter Feldmann from Germany, Natascha Sadr Haghighian from Iran, Roman Ondak from the nation formerly known as Czechoslovakia, Walid Raad from Lebanon and Apichatpong Weerasethakul from Thailand.

In addition to the cash – and possibly more valuable in the long run – the Hugo Boss Prize winner will also get a 2011 exhibition at the Guggenheim in New York. The winners are selected by a panel of art professionals that includes Ysmil Raymond, curator of the Dia Art Foundation; Udo Kittelmann, director of Berlin's Nationalgalerie and Tirad Zolghadr, an independent writer and curator.

Last year, the honor went to Emily Jacir. Previous winners include Matthew Barney, Douglas Gordon, Pierre Huyghe, Rirkrit Tiravanija and Tacita Dean.

Unlike most art prizes, this one stipulates has no age, geographic or medium-specific qualifications. It is as open as open can be.

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