Best of: Call A Spade a Spade: SWA Response

David Williamson of the Scotch Whisky Association (SWA) got back to me with the SWA's position on the Call A Spade A Spade story:

Many thanks for forwarding your proposals.  I have taken the opportunity to pass them to our team which considered all the responses to the industry consultation last year.

When the industry working group considered the range of possible category descriptions, the system you propose was indeed examined.  It is a logical approach, in line with that ultimately agreed by the industry (i.e. approaching classification in terms of 'Singles' and 'Blends'), and easily understandable.  In the end, however, it was considered that the approach had certain disadvantages.

One is that it would mean moving away from 'Blended Scotch Whisky', a description already protected in law (since 1969) and a term that has been used for many years on 90% of the industry's sales worldwide.  (In contrast, the 'Blended Malt Scotch Whisky' category represents less than 1% of worldwide sales.)   There is also a very practical reason around front label size/space and the need to incorporate the descriptions in a clear way when amending existing labels.  It is also necessary to specify 'Scotch Whisky' as part of each sales description.   This would have meant that the description on a bottle of Blended Scotch Whisky would have become 'A blend of Single Malt Scotch Whiskies and Single Grain Scotch Whiskies', which we believe is overly cumbersome.  

On 'Blended Malt Scotch Whisky' specifically, it is important to remember the reasons for its choice.  The term was the industry's favoured option after carefully considering a range of alternatives, consumer research, and the views of overseas distributors.  A wide consultation of SWA members and non-members suggested the same conclusion.  The term clearly indicates to the consumer there is more than one malt whisky in the product, is easily understood in international markets, and is compatible with European law where any combination of malt whiskies is already legally a 'blend'.  The fact that many Blended Malts are already using the description voluntarily, ahead of legislation, is testament to support for the term.

We will of course keep you posted as the package of proposals is taken forward. 

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It's good to know that so many options were considered. But I still think that clearer is better. It seems that there are consumers and industry folks who think so as well. Perhaps using the more descriptive text can start being used on a voluntary basis, along with the SWA terms. (For some of the reader responses,go read the comments from the original posting.)

Time will tell how this all turns out.