#press-release

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Press releases do not work because you wrote one. They work because a journalist wanted to cover it.

If you remember nothing else from this post, remember that.

The 5 formats that still get picked up in 2026

Funding rounds with a named investor or category narrative

Product launches that redefine a category

Original data or survey studies

Partnerships or acquisitions with a recognizable brand on either side

Rapid-response expert commentary on breaking news

Everything else is internal communications dressed up in a template.

The 3 things that matter

Headline. Specific, news-like, under 100 characters. If it sounds like marketing, rewrite.

Lede. Who, what, when, where, why in the first 40-60 words. Journalists read paragraph one and decide.

One great quote. A line so quotable a reporter can pull it without edits. Declarative. Specific. No corporate jargon.

What wire services do

Wire services syndicate to passive feed sites. Yahoo Finance, MarketWatch, AP. That is their job. They do not produce editorial coverage.

Editorial coverage comes from direct pitching to named journalists. Ten to forty pitches per release. Each one personalized. Each one referencing a recent piece that journalist wrote.

One dollar on wire, seven dollars on direct outreach. That is the ratio that works.

The AEO upgrade

Press releases in 2026 are written for two audiences: Google and large language models.

Add specific stats with sources. LLMs favor attributed content.

Lead with a self-contained answer. LLMs extract answer snippets.

Skip hedging verbs. LLMs prune "may" and "could." They surface declarative claims.

A well-written release from 2024 can still earn citations in ChatGPT today. Compounding is real.

What kills a release

Writing for yourself instead of for the reporter

Listing every feature instead of picking one angle

Burying the news under three paragraphs of context

Generic boilerplate with no specificity

Sending to journalists you have never researched

The test before you send

Three questions:

Would a reporter cover this without being pitched?

Can you name ten journalists who should receive it?

Does the headline make you want to click?

Three yes answers means send. One no means do not.

The pull-quote

Great press releases compound for years. Mediocre ones train journalists to ignore you.

Choose carefully.

Want the full guide? Read the complete press release playbook.

New Post has been published on https://www.buildthebottle.com/2020/10/14/walnut-tree-distillery-news-experiments/

Walnut Tree Distillery News Experiments

Walnut Tree Distillery News Experiments

Rainbows & Homemade Hessian Sacks,

This week we’ve been playing around with different types of distillations and really small batch experimentation.  The gins that we produce are already made on a small scale, roughly 80 bottles a distillation which in comparison to may distillers is very small, but we took this even smaller so we could play around with flavour. 

Graham’s experience as an analytical chemist means he’s always keen to play with the chemistry side of the process so the distillery has been engulfed (between distillations) with conical flasks, botanicals and notebooks.  We don’t have a new gin yet but it’s always fun to see how different flavors work together and the more we play around the more we can offer something bespoke to our customers.

Whilst Graham has been housed in the distillery I have been out and about looking for some autumn inspiration around the farm.  The one bonus of the continued wet weather has been the appearance of a number of rather spectacular rainbows.  Nature often has a habit of throwing these at us when we have nothing to capture them on or more typically when we are driving! I got lucky this week and actually managed to picture one, on film, over one of the hills on the farm.  If only every cloud had a rainbow as well as a silver lining!

Holiday Gifts

New Post has been published on https://www.buildthebottle.com/2020/10/01/lindores-abbey-distillery/

Lindores Abbey Distillery

Lindores Abbey Distillery

The History Of Alcohol

As the amber liquid swirls in your glass and you take the first warming sip, feeling the fire spread down your throat and filling your veins, do you ever stop to think about where it all began? Not the process of easing open the cork with a squeak and pouring yourself a dram, but the story of whisky itself.

Or should that be Aqua Vitae? This term, translated from the Latin for Water of Life, dates back to Roman times and was used to describe anything from holy baptismal waters to distilled tinctures. The term eventually came to specifically describe alcohol, and as people’s thirst grew, its popularity spread. News of Aqua Vitae reached Scottish shores, and the Gaelic term uisge beatha was born, giving us the modern word ‘whisky’. 

While the alchemists of yore would happily distill anything they could get their hands on – including human blood – the Scots, particularly monks, decided to make use of the abundant natural ingredients they had and stuck largely to barley. The resulting distilled malt liquid was used for everything, and the list of its purported effects was endless. It was thought to ‘sloeth age, abandoneth melancholy, keep the stomacke from wambling and the teeth from chatteryng.’ High praise indeed!

But taste was not initially top of the agenda. Aqua Vitae was a medicine and antiseptic above all, however the monks’ experimental nature got the better of them. They began to make use of the herbs growing in abbey gardens to infuse the aqua vitae with more palatable flavors, and this proto-whisky became the drink of choice for kings and commoners alike.

Lindores Abbey Distillery Is Born

King James IV in particular had a strong thirst for the stuff. In fact, the first ever written record of Scotch whisky production is a command from King James IV to Friar John Cor of Lindores Abbey. The Exchequer Roll of 1494 reads: “To Brother John Cor, 8 bolls of malt, wherewith to make aqua vitae for the King.” 8 bolls of malt would be enough to make approximately 400 bottles of whisky, so production was clearly continuing apace at Lindores Abbey.

Today, a mere 526 years after the King’s order, whisky is once again flowing at its spiritual home. Lindores Abbey Distillery, situated outside Newburgh, Fife, opened in 2017 following years of work by the Abbey’s custodians, Drew and Helen McKenzie Smith. The distillery is a glass-fronted temple to whisky, with soaring copper stills and complicated distilling machinery buzzing away.

But where there now stands gleaming metal there once were pigs, horses, and children tearing around on bikes. For many years a working farm, the steading lies opposite the childhood home of the McKenzie Smith family and their Howison ancestors for a century before them. The remains of the abbey in the garden served generations as the perfect location for games of hide and seek, with little heed paid to the structure’s rich history.

Drew’s curiosity finally got the better of him, and he undertook some initial research in to ‘the abbey in the garden.’ What he uncovered was a fascinating, turbulent history of kings, queens, knights and battles. Edward I, David II, James IV and William Wallace all passed through the ancient site, with the latter declaring of the Lindores water ‘that the wine in France I ne’er thought half so good.’ 

The Abbey

The Abbey, founded in 1191 by David Earl of Huntingdon, was perfectly positioned for working life. The land was given to the Earl by his brother King William I, and sits on the banks of the Tay, surrounded by plentiful supplies of timber and stone. The Abbey was part of the Tironensian order, with the mother abbey located at Tiron, near Paris. Tironensians prided themselves on their work ethic, and were known as master craftsmen, educators, cultivators and traders. Unlike many other religious orders, the Tironensian monks believed that hard physical work cleansed the soul, and they threw themselves into agricultural labour and cultivation with alacrity. 

Lindores thrived, with the monks trading Tay salmon, wool, and fruit for money, tapestries and silks as far away as Flanders. The Abbey owned property across England and Scotland, and amassed great wealth during the Crusades by praying for the soldiers’ souls in exchange for donations. 

Unfortunately, the peaceful and productive lives of the Lindores monks were cut short by rabble-rousing John Knox in the 16th century. While Scotland was wracked by political and religious unrest, the beautiful sandstone abbey was twice besieged and overthrown by Reformers. On 23rd June 1559, Knox recorded: ‘In the whilk of the abbay of Lindores, we reformed: their alters overthrew we, their idols and mass books we burnt in their presence, and commanded them to cask away their monkish habits.’

The Abbey was dismantled – its fine clock was purchased by Edinburgh Town Council – and by the 17th century it was being used as a quarry, with its slate and stone being used in the construction of houses in Newburgh, many of which still stand today. 

The Abbey – or simply ‘the ruins’ as they are locally known led a gentler life for many years, acting as grazing for farm animals and welcoming occasional whisky enthusiasts.

The Distillery Is Born

In 2001, there was a knock on the door from a gentleman in a crumpled linen suit who asked to look around the ruins. Kenneth, Drew’s father and the former custodian of the ruins, was happy to let him explore and thought little more of it until several months later, a beautiful copy of Scotland and its Whiskies appeared in the post with a note from the author, respected whisky writer Michael Jackson, to turn to page 127. 

‘For the whisky lover, it is a pilgrimage,’ it read. These eight simple words cemented Lindores Abbey as the spiritual home of Scotch whisky and explained its primordial role in our national drink. 

Seizing upon the exciting revelation, Drew and Helen began campaigning, researching, planning and pitching to raise the funds to preserve the rich history of Lindores and create a distillery. A fortunate introduction via the team at the Fife Business Gateway led to a flourishing business partnership with international investors with a passion for whisky and an appreciation for the unique opportunity presented by Lindores. 

It has been a tantalising wait for the whisky to come of age since the first casks were filled in 2017. In December, the spirit will finally reach its 3rd birthday and the distillery can turn its thoughts to bottling – but only if the time feels right. After all, Lindores has been waiting to welcome whisky back to its spiritual home for more than 5 centuries, so what’s a few months longer in the pursuit of perfection?