The Scotch Blog

We scoop everyone. Again.

On May 7th, here on The Scotch Blog, Sam Simmons announced that Edrington would stop selling JMR whisky in the UK markets.

From May 10th's edition of  "The Herald":

Efforts to rejuvenate whisky are scotched

Meanwhile, JMR Easy Drinking Whisky Company, founded in 2003, has withdrawn its range of three blended malt whiskies - the Big Spicy One, The Smokey Peaty One and The Smooth Sweeter One - from the UK market after disappointing sales.

The company, backed by Edrington, had hoped to "demystify" the world of Scotch and make the sector more palatable to outsiders. Its three founders, brothers Jon and Mark Geary and master blender David "Robbo" Robertson, claimed they had "chucked out the Scotch whisky rule book" through their quirky and irreverent approach to marketing.

However, the company yesterday (TSB ed. - May 9th) confirmed it has thrown in the towel in the UK market. Founder director Mark Geary said it will instead be focusing on the US market.

Yeah, that's right. You heard it here first on May 7th:).

Single Malt is now free...

Singlemalt.tv that is.

Effective Monday April 30th Singlemalt.tv is free to air. The channel opened more than 200 VOD's to all comers and will be implementing added functionality, a member competition of global proportions and a dedicated Mac user section.  Mac users will soon have download capability of H264 Quicktime Hi Def clips AND clips encoded for iPod.

The channel is embarking on an aggressive production schedule this Summer/Autumn with special features being filmed in Spain/USA, Russia, China, Japan and Tibet. Special features will be available on the channel in Pay-per-view format but everything else will be free.

Singlemalt tv is also in the final stages of preparation for a rollout on ALL mobile devices in SE Asia, China and India. This will allow users to view the channel on mobile phones, PDA's, in Taxi's, buses, subways and in China on cable TV.

I did question how long the subscription model could last (or IF it would work) back in September 2006 after the launch...

New Distillery on Islay

BREAKING NEWS!

Yep, It's finally official. Bruichladdich has announced plans to open a new distillery on Islay - The Port Charlotte distillery.

I expect this will be the home of Bruichladdich's peat monsters and that Bruichladdich distillery will return to the lighter style of whisky that one expects - but you never know with these guys.

I saw the plans for the new distillery back in September on my last trip to Islay, and promised Mark Reynier I wouldn't talk about it until it was announced.

Unless the plans have changed, it will be a very stylish looking building - with room for community events for the residents of Port Charlotte . The existing Loch Indaal distillery warehouses will continue to be used for maturation.

More info from Ron Steenvoorden's Islay Blog

Blend it like Bleech-em

Apparently, a certain large multi-national liquor conglomerate has decided that blending "high quality" Scotch malts with Indian made malt and grain whiskies, is a good way to help ease into the Indian market.

This will certainly keep costs down on the production side as well as on the shelf - so you can't argue with the concept from a purely financial perspective.

But, of course the purist will contend that this product will be an abomination. Clearly, if the intent was to mix the Scotch malt with Indian molasses-based "whisky" (which is prevented from being sold throughout the world because it fails to meet the definition of whisky as an alcoholic beverage made from grains), I'd completely agree.

In this case it's a little more complex. Clearly the product will not be allowed to be labeled as "Scotch".

John Sutherland Passes On

This sad news from our friends at The Glenrothes

It is with great sadness that I have to tell you that John Sutherland, the Distillery Manager at Glenrothes, died at the weekend. John was taken into hospital last week, initially to Elgin then to Aberdeen and Edinburgh. He went home at the end of the week, apparently never really felt well, and died at home on Saturday morning.

John was so much more than the distillery manager. First and foremost a true friend, John was a great character - larger than life, with a fantastic and wicked sense of humour. He was an active and devoted ambassador for The Glenrothes, fully involved both at the heart of its production and as an evangelist on a global level.

I'm sure you will be as shocked and devastated as we are, as we will miss him immeasurably. It goes without saying that our thoughts are with John's Family.

We will of course let you know of the funeral arrangements and will be liasing with John's family on behalf of everyone at Berry Bros.

Can I ask that you kindly let other people know who may have met John at Rothes or elsewhere, and whom I have missed off this note.

Yours

Luke

Luke Tegner
Brands Director: The Glenrothes

Columba Cream Responds

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Unless something REALLY big pops up, this will be the only story this week.

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A few months (September 6th) ago, I did one of my news wrap-up stories (Whisky Season = News Stories) which included a short clip on how Columba Cream was having issues with its plans to take on Diageo's

That story was a summary of a story from The Scotsman called Columba Cream Plan Hits The Rocks.

I just received a response from Jamie Morrison of the Scottish Liqueur Centre, who took some issues with my story and attempted to clarify some statements. It's great to get more information and I thank Jamie for writing me.

Below is his email, my response to some of his comments as well as the text of the original story.

Re-org at Inver House

Inver House has announced a major re-org - four of their five distilleries now have new managers.

The moves include:

Pulteney Distillery Manager, Malcolm Waring
Balblair Distillery Manager, John MacDonald
Knockdhu Distillery Manager, Gordon Bruce
Balmenach Distillery Manager, Fred Sinclair

Bobby Anderson stays in place at Speyburn.

In addition, Derek Sinclair takes the helm as Group Distilleries Manager – a promotion from his previous position as DM at Balblair.

John MacDonald, previously worked as the Assistant Distillery Manager of Glenmorangie, is the outsider  and brings 17 years of malt whisky distilling experience with him to the role.

Malcolm Waring, who previously worked at Pulteney is looking forward to returning to Pulteney.

I am delighted to be returning to Pulteney as Distillery Manager.  All the DMs at Inver House are close and we regularly speak to each other - sharing our ideas and experiences. It is an incredibly proud moment for me and a great opportunity for us all.

Martin Leonard, Operations Director of Inver House adds:

It is an exciting time for Inver House. We are growing as a group and are delighted that we have been able to promote a number of our experienced and loyal members of staff in these changes. We have a great mix of talent, experience and enthusiasm within the team and I wish them success in their new roles.

Scotch = Golf = Racism. WTF?

If the title of the story doesn't make sense to you, that's very likely because you are not an idiot. But apparently Billy Connelly IS an idiot because he very clearly sees the connection.

He thinks that Scotch is snobbish, Scotch Drinkers play golf, and golfers are Racist, Sexist and Anti-semitic.

I'm not making this up. Here is what he said in an interview with an arts magazine/site in Canada called Canoe.ca:

"There's a snobbishness involved in it," says of scotch connoisseurs..."And they all tend to be golfers, and that pisses me off. It's so racist, sexist, it's anti-Semitic; it's everything I dislike."

Listen, I don't particularly like golf - but it's more about the clothing and my lack of patience than anything else.

So, besides being incredibly unfunny, Billy Connelly hates two of the hallmarks of his native land. (I wonder if he says these things in Scotland to the Scottish press?)

Read on for more stupid statements about Scotch drinkers and a link to the full interview.

WTO to deal with India

BREAKING NEWS...

The Scotch Whisky Association (SWA) announced that today the EU will be officially requesting the World Trade Organization (WTO) to address India’s failure to reform its discriminatory tax treatment of imported spirits and wines.

A recent EU investigation into the situation found ‘blatant violations’ of WTO rules. The system unfairly distorts competition by subjecting Scotch Whisky and other imported spirits to a much higher tax burden - of up to 550% - than faced by Indian distillers.

The EU report, delivered in July 2006, concluded that several aspects of the Indian fiscal regime are contrary to WTO rules, including an ‘Additional duty’ (25%-150%) on imported spirits and wine which
distorts competition by unfairly exceeding the taxation of local products.

More damned foreigners buy distilleries

The Scotsman reports that Thailand-based InterBev has bought Inver House. Negotiations probably took place whilst everyone had their eyes on Whyte & Mackay and the Mallya soap-opera.
Pulteney, Balblair, Knockdhu, Speyburn, Balmenach are the distilleries under the aegis of Inverhouse, but they also have gin, vodka, and liqueur brands as well

I have a story or two in the works on some of InverHouse's products - which are sadly unappreciated. Hopefully, InterBev will infuse some more money into InverHouse, so that gems like Old Pulteney get into the hands of more people.

The full Scotsman story below...