About Us

It’s a non-profit brainchild of Johan Ronnestam - The Man in The Grotto, an entrepreneur in advertising and whisky lover from Sweden.

Johan & Ebba

I have founded Foreign, one of Europes digital creative advertising agencies. And in the beginning of 2007 I found my self thinking about blogs on Whisky after meeting with The Macallan in Edinburgh. I was invited to talk about digital communication and possibly help The Macallan to strenghten their online presence.

On the flight back to Sweden I though…what the hell, why not start a blog and see what happens. I can always learn something from it. Said and done, I usually follow my ideas without further thought. Looking for digital brand names always involves making sure I can get a memorable domain name. Whisky Grotto…that will work.

Once home in Stockholm, I did some quick research…there wasn’t that many blogs out there that reported on news from the industry. That was to be my focus. I quickly registered the domain with Bluehost and installed a Wordpress Blog on the server. Hmm, time to get moving.

Now, many month later The WhiskyGrotto is one of the most updated blogs online (manually that is) and I’ve learned hell of a lot about whisky that I didn’t know before. My passion has become an obsession. I’ve also learned to know some of the bloggers out there that do a lot of good the wonderful drink called Whisky, and I hope I’ll meet more of you guys sooner than later.

So, there it is. Now you know why I sometimes don’t write that good English and why I every now and then like to experience with imagery and technology.

The Macallan? Well, Foreign didn’t win that one…but we’ll keep on fighting.

Slainte!
Johan Ronnestam

(If you are into advertising and wanna get updated on the latest - why don’t you follow my blog on innovative communication)

These are the latest post from my personal blog:

Blog of Ronnestam

  1. Videogame + urban sport + music + innovation = viral spread Thursday, 20 November 2008, 2:13 am
    This video below got the ingredients you gotta have to cook that viral soup. It opens up with a quick association to one of the world most sold (and best) games - Guitar Hero. The sign also promotes t. […]
  2. Ocarina shows why it’s not about having MMS in your iPhone Wednesday, 19 November 2008, 2:10 pm
    When the iPhone was launched people were judging the new mobile by its content. Well, by now I think most people has understood that what’s in there from start is not the thing, its what creativ. […]
  3. Monty Python shows the full monty on YouTube Wednesday, 19 November 2008, 1:36 pm
    Swedish music artists signed a manifesto on DN (leading Swedish newspaper) the other day. They basically told us that they will sue each and every one of us who downloads their music online. - They ha. […]
  4. So you think Minority Report is a fantasy? Wednesday, 19 November 2008, 1:46 am
    Well, think again. Here’s the G-speak spatial operating environment from Oblong Industries. Finding traffic from Daytona’s del.icio.us account led me straight to the source.
  5. How much longer can online advertising play hard to get without clients waking up? Monday, 17 November 2008, 3:22 pm
    I have spent the last hour looking through some of the latest additions to thefwa.com. What strikes me is how stunning most production are right now. The quality of the latest things released by agenc. […]
  6. Who the hell are you Monday, 17 November 2008, 6:13 am
      The image above is a screenshot from my statistics software showing you the most recent searches. 9 of the latest 18 includes ‘ronnestam’ (50%) in one way or another. So I’m wondering - who a. […]
  7. What a funny morning. But how funny really? Monday, 17 November 2008, 1:26 am
    FFFFound got the good stuff as always.
  8. A structured visualization of planning Sunday, 16 November 2008, 12:46 pm
    Leon is a planner at the Stockholm branch of Jung von Matt. Apart from that he’s running a blog called The Planning Lab that I tap into on a daily basis. The other day he posted the sweet littl. […]
  9. Eniro - Tänk om, tänk nytt och tänk annorlunda Sunday, 16 November 2008, 1:41 am
    Svenska Eniro kämpar om svenska sökmarknaden. Google, Live och Yahoo visar dock inga tecken på att tappa allt för mycket trafik, särskilt om man sätter det i relation till den mängd traditionel. […]
  10. Dion Hinchcliffe show you the innovation opportunities Saturday, 15 November 2008, 12:40 pm
    Saturday. Got my sister’s kids over. After 20 books, 10 songs and probably 10 extra visits to the toilette (without result) before the little devils finally fell asleep there’s really no r. […]
  11. Here’s an RSS feed that will go viral! Thursday, 13 November 2008, 1:30 pm
    As I was reading my stats in my Mint account a site that I hadn’t seen before. Viralvideochart.com stood out. Its a sniffy little thing where you can keep track of the virality of online videos.. […]
  12. 18 rules the best web developers follow and another 2 Thursday, 13 November 2008, 2:47 am
    As I’m sitting listening to people on stage talking about viral communication a great post flips by in my RSS reader. The post talks about 18 rules that the best web developers follow. The list. […]