The second largest player in the Scotch whisky industry and makers of such famous brands such as Chivas Regal, Aberlour, Royal Salute, Ballantine’s, 100 Pipers and Scapa has announced plans to open a new distillery in Speyside.  French owned Chivas announced earlier in the year that it would be looking to increase its whisky producing capacity by 25% in the coming years and building a new distillery on the site of the old Imperial distillery close to the village of Carron is key to their expansion plans. Chivas have already announced plans to increase production at Glenlivet by a whopping 75% as well as increasing production at other whisky distilleries. Glen Keith distillery is also being re-opened.  All this will mean an extra 5 million litres of whisky each year.

The new site near Carron is not a done deal and has to get past the planning department and they are expecting some objections as the site is visible on a popular walking route, however, Chivas have committed to building a whisky distillery which fits in with the local environment.

Pernod-Ricard now own 21% of Scotch whisky production and there plans are in response to Diageo’s £1bn of new investment in whisky distilling.

The Canadians have set a new record for the most expensive bottle of whisky sold on Canadian soil. A bottle of Glenfiddich Janet Sheed Roberts Reserve single malt scotch whisky was sold to a couple known only as Laurie and Dave for $52,000 Canadian dollars (£33,000) at auction and all proceeds were donated to charity.  The lucky charity was Wounded Warriors who are a non- profit organisation who support injured Canadian troops.  The 1 of only 11 bottles of Glenfiddich was collected by the founder of Wounded Warriors, Wayne Johnston who stated ‘I am truly overwhelmed with the level of support we’ve received from the William Grant & Sons family distillery through this auction’ He continued ‘Every penny from this bottle’s auction will go towards wounded Canadian soldiers and their families’.

This very rare whisky was bottled in recognition of ‘wee Janie Roberts’ or Janet Sheed Roberts to give her proper name who was the granddaughter of William Grant. She was an early whisky pioneer and is largely credited with the success of William Grant & Sons scotch whisky distillers.  The question is an obvious one, why was the name never changed to William Grant & Daughters?

Allan Shiach the former chairman of Macallan is putting up his Macallan scotch whisky collection for sale the 72 bottles include two bottles which were distilled in 1928 and are said to worth up to £10,000 each. There are also 2 rare bottles from 1946 and a single malt whisky from 1951 which are estimated at around the £5000 mark.  The auction will take place at McTear’s Auctioneers in Glasgow at the end of October and excitement is building as there a several serious Macallan collectors. Allan Shiach has reportedly said that he believes the bottles are too pricy to drink and too pricy to replace so decided to sell up.

Allan Shiach was born in Elgin in the north east of Scotland and a key town for whisky production and distribution. He has worked in the whisky industry for just short of 50 years and rose to become the Chairman of Macallan-Glenlivet.  He left his post in 1996 when Macallan-Glenlivet was bought out by the Erdington group. Allan Shiach was not just a stalwart of the whisky industry and whisky enthusiast but this talented Scotsman was also a screenwriter and his most famous work was an executive producer of hit film Shallow Grave which starred Ewan McGregor. The collection is a mix of Macallans which also tell you a little about the man who collected them.

The British media are in frenzy (not unusual) this morning after a 2 year old was served whisky in a Frankie and Benny restaurant in Swansea, Wales. The boy Sonny Rees was there for his birthday celebration with his family when human error led to the boy being served whisky instead of the fruit juice his parents had ordered. The food chain has apologised for the error. The child was taken to hospital to be checked over but was OK and allowed to leave a few hours later and advised to eat a full English breakfast and keep off the booze for a few days. There is no information as to what type or brand of whisky is favoured by 2 year olds.  The Scottish Whisky Store would be interested to know if it was Irish whiskey, American whiskey or Scottish whisky which this 2 year old was gulping down.

What makes this story even more interesting is that the boy drank it and according to his parents almost drank all of it! Well it was his birthday!

I know my 2 year old isn’t too keen on whisky as when he gets close to the smell he pulls a funny face. I remember as child my father and grandfather drinking whisky and the smell was enough to put me off.  How things have changed. Although we are taking a tongue and cheek view of this story the Scottish Whisky Store does not think giving whisky, scotch or otherwise, to anyone under the legal drinking age.

What is hybrid whisk(e)y I hear you ask; well it is controversial to start with.  Hybrid whisky is effectively vatted whisky (different single malts mixed in a barrel and left to mature) from two different countries. Now before I start getting mail from the powerful Scottish Whisky Association the Scottish Whisky Store is not in support of such sacrilege. The reason we don’t support it is that no-one has managed to make a good hybrid whisky yet. Previously Bruichladdich of Islay teamed up with Cooley distillery in Ireland and produced a whisky called ‘Celtic Malt’ which had the Scottish Whisky Association up in arms and confined ‘Celtic Malt’ to the naughty step however reports were that it wasn’t that good anyway.

However the owners of Cooley distillery have not forgotten the idea. The Teeling brothers sold the Cooley distillery to the American Whisky company Beam Global (Jim Beam) and have not rested on their cool $95 million.  They have started the Teeling Whisky Company and have created another Hybrid Whisky to release to the market. Again they used Cooley Irish whiskey and Bruichladdich single malt whisky to create this bastard whisky. So is it any good? The retail price of £30 would suggest not that good, however reviews so far have been relatively positive although the purists will never be satisfied, and neither will the SWA.

Scotch whisky sales have remained static in the 1st 6 months of 2012 largely due the economic crises in the Eurozone.  The Scotch Whisky Association said the new report stated exports of Scotch whisky stood at £1.8bn which is the same figure as 2011.  Sales to the USA have grown despite the economic problems faced there and sales to Russia, India and Venezuela have soared.

The only good news in the Eurozone came from Germany where whisky exports were up 4% on 2011 however overall the exports of scotch whisky to the Eurozone were down a whopping 24%. This massive drop is most pronounced in France and Spain which are the 2nd and 5th largest whisky importers in the world.  The Spanish economic problems are well documented but what about the French the 2nd largest importer of whisky?

The drop in the Eurozone has been further impacted by protectionist measures by the French government has seen whisky duty (and all spirit duty) in France increase taking it over 40%. Conveniently the French have not increased wine duty. We are all Europeans now, what happened to the ‘Auld Alliance’? In other protectionist measures around Europe the Swedish government monopoly on alcohol sales ‘Systembolaget’ has started delivering to people’s doors after Swedes were increasingly buying whisky online from European based online whisky retailers such as the Scottish Whisky Store. During hard times are we really all Europeans in it together?

Whisky and golf? Yes I know some of you are thinking paradise, but we thought after the epic comeback by Europe in the Ryder Cup last night it would be remiss of us not to look at 2 of Scotland’s greatest exports. Scotland’s own golfing export Paul Lawrie massacred his American opponent winning 5 holes up with 3 to play. We greatly enjoyed with one of Bruichladdich’s 15 year old links –Valhalla single malt whiskies which is part of a ‘links’ range released some time ago. This range of links whiskies are now set to be even more popular over the next few days, however the Scottish Whisky Store still has the above plus Bruichladdich 15 Year Old Links VIII-Torrey Pines and Bruichladdich Links 16 Year Old Vancouver single malt whiskies still in stock.

I expect there is a whisky marketing man working away right now to release a single malt whisky in honour of the amazing win at Medinah, outside Chicago last night. The Europeans fought back from a 9-4 score line to take the Ryder cup 13 ½ to 14 ½ in the Americans own back yard.  The Americans had been their confident selves during most of the tournament however piece of magic from Ian Poulter on the evening of the 2nd last day gave Europe a chance. With legend Seve Ballasteros on their arm the Europeans largely led by their British contingent stormed away on the last day with 5 straight wins and the Americans simply bottled it.

After our recent blog regarding the recycling of whisky barrels to make whisky barrel flooring, the Scottish tabloid newspaper the Daily Record released a story that Tullibardine scotch whisky distillery has teamed up with Napier University in Edinburgh to research the possibility of turning whisky bi-product into biofuel. The project is being supported by the Scottish government in the form of a grant as part of their zero waste initiative renewables. Tullibardine whisky distillery stated that they currently spend £250,000 per annum converting their current bi-product into cattle feed and fertiliser and are looking for a more cost effective and environmentally friendly solution. So the aim of Napier University is to use the bacteria left over from the whisky production to make butanol.  Butanol can be made to power cars and is already being used in Brazil as little change is required in the car manufacturing process.

Tullibardine whisky distillery is located at the gateway to the Highlands in Perthshire and has the brilliant tagline of ‘eminently quaffable’. The location of Tullibardine whisky distillery has a long and interesting history, it is fed by the ‘Danny Burn’ which also fed Scotland’s first licenced brewery.  It is  believed King James IV ordered beer from this brewery in 1488 for his coronation.

Scotland has had the Scottish National Party in power for over 7 years and 2014 will see the electorate get to decide whether Scotland will remain as part of the United Kingdom or ‘rise now and be a nation again’. This is not the first time Scotland has went to polls on this issue and in the mid  1970’s with the oil find in the North Sea still in its infancy Scots rejected the idea of an independent Scotland.  The polls today suggest there will be a similar result this time round in the middle of massive recession with a wave of Britishness sweeping the country after the Olympics. However there is a long way to go before 2014 and with the nationalist kicking off the campaign with a march in Edinburgh last week it is time to have a look at how this will impact the whisky industry in Scotland.

As much of the whisky industry is owned by global firms such as Diageo it may not have much impact if Scotland were to leave the UK.  With corporation tax, alcohol duty, and VAT still as changeable as the Scottish weather no-one can really predict what the UK government or independent Scottish government would do as far as whisky is concerned. Both governments will be very keen to keep whisky tax revenue as whisky is one of Europe’s top export products. An independent Scottish Government you would think would put more focus on promoting the product however the Scottish Government and Scottish whisky industry do not see eye to eye at the moment and set to take each other on in the European courts of minimum alcohol pricing in the UK.

Prestonfield House in Scotland’s capital city of Edinburgh was host of the 2012 Icon’s of Whisky Awards on the 7th September 2012. After a series of international heats the winner of the Distiller of the year went to Japanese owned Bowmore whisky distillery. Bowmore is a well- known Islay whisky with global sales with quality stamped all over it which led to Japanese whisky distiller buying the distillery a number of years ago. Not only did Bowmore walk away with the Distiller of the year award but completed a hat-trick of awards taking the whisky ambassador of the year and the Distillery manager of the year award.  The whisky industry does like its awards.

In the view of the Scottish Whisky Store there couldn’t be a more deserved winner (my tipple just now is a Bowmore 17 year old) than Bowmore, a visit to their distillery and wonderful bar and tourist shop will leave you in love with Bowmore whisky. Bowmore is focussed on single malt whisky and the passion for it has reaped its rewards although this strategy requires a huge amount of patience.  The 17 year old and 18 year old have been a particular success along with their more easily available retail brands including the relatively new Bowmore Surf. If you haven’t tried Bowmore we suggest you do, but don’t expect the big Islay peat hit of an Ardbeg or and Laphroig as there isn’t one.  Bowmore single malt whisky has peat but a much more subtle peat which has matured at below sea level in their basement warehouse. Congratulations to Bowmore well deserved.