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. 8,002,530 downloads when Firefox sets a new Guinness World Record Wednesday, 2 July 2008, 10:48 pm
      It’s a quite impressive number. 8,002,530 people all over the world helped Mozilla in setting the Guinness World Record that they officially achieved the record for the “largest number. […]
  2. A comment on Nokia buying Symbian Tuesday, 24 June 2008, 10:14 pm
    Read on Last100 that Nokia announced that they will buy Symbian.     That’s all I have to say about that.    
  3. Implement “Ideastorms” on any company Tuesday, 24 June 2008, 10:00 pm
      Some companies get it, some don’t but now at least it’s easier for you to do something about it.   Dell hosts this fantastic site called Ideastorm where they invite everyone to be invo. […]
  4. So what is this Midsummer thing Friday, 20 June 2008, 6:41 am
      Today it’s Midsummer evé in Sweden. This means all Swedes go to the country side, collect flowers all day and drink all night. To round it up we all end up in the grass with someone and make. […]
  5. Everything communicates Monday, 16 June 2008, 11:22 pm
    We talk a lot about how logotypes, advertising, products, packaging, tone of voice, TV commercials, websites etc etc etc communicates the brand. But usually, the more business-oriented the purpose, t. […]
  6. BMW innovates Saturday, 14 June 2008, 3:27 pm
    Nothing impresses me like a company that has found out exactly what they should do to build their brand and then sticks to the formula.   I don’t drive a BMW but I must say these guys from Germ. […]
  7. Twingly turns server problems into branding Saturday, 14 June 2008, 3:12 pm
    I pointed my browser towards Twingly when I landed on an Error 500: Internal server error page. Once there I was greeted by this beautiful error message.     It’s funny how a little bit of hu. […]
  8. Why the Eurocup 2012 will be broadcasted on Socialtelevision.com Thursday, 12 June 2008, 4:57 am
      Right now people all over the world tune into Eurocup 08 in Switzerland/Austria. I live in Sweden, so TV4 and Canal+ are the channels of my choice since they are the ones holding the rights to the. […]
  9. What is this Social Media? Tuesday, 10 June 2008, 6:13 am
    Today I am: happy about iPhone 3G, working on signing people up, had Japanese Gyoza for lunch and talked to Björn.   Björn, is a good friend of mine who tipped me about a YouTube video that outline. […]
  10. …and here is the Apple iPhone 3G commercial Monday, 9 June 2008, 2:05 pm
      As fresh as it comes.   Apple already published lot’s of info on the iPhone 3G.    
  11. The new iPhone 3G Monday, 9 June 2008, 12:45 pm
      I’m listening (reading) in on the Apple Worldwide Developer Conference 2008 Keynote Live Coverage over at Macrumours.   Lot’s of goodies of course. But the news about the iPhone is st. […]
  12. Rest in peace Yves Monday, 2 June 2008, 2:17 pm
      One of the worlds greatest fashion icons Yves Saint Laurent died this Sunday in Paris at 71.   Yves dominated much of 20th century fashion along with his contemporaries Coco Chanel and Christian D. […]