... Interesting facts and figures.

What can Scotch whisky imports tells us about emerging economies?

Brazilian whisky collector Claive Vidiz - Image by Getty Images via @daylife

A few days ago, The Economist published aninfo-graphic showing the countries that import the most Scotch whisky. France and the United States topped the list, with each country importing well over 100 million bottles, but the interesting information was the dramatic increase in imports from South America, Venezuela and Brazil in particular.

Venezuela’s Scotch imports jumped 77 percent and Brazil’s 56 percent in 2009, according to The Economist.

And this in a year that was characterized by recession, Venezuela’s economy was inflation-plagued and shrank by 2.9 percent in 2009, while Brazil’s growth flat-lined at 0.2 percent

So what’s going on? Is there a contradiction here? This is how The Economistexplained it:

In Brazil whisky is a status symbol for the growing middle class (in the north-east of the country it is often drunk with coconut water over ice). In Venezuela bottles of whisky may be serving as both a store of value and as a diversion in an economy in deep trouble.

So, for The Economist, this jump in Scotch consumption is a reflection of Brazil’s increasingly robust and more widespread prosperity, a result of a decade of economic stability. The 2009 recession, then, was just a ding for a well-oiled machine that continued attracting investment and creating wealth and hence middle class lifestyles.

I don’t know about whisky as a “diversion” from a troubled economy, but lets parse “troubled.” It is persuasive that as inflation ate away at Venezuelans’ pocketbooks they rushed to buy and stockpile their beloved Scotch before it became prohibitively expensive.

I buy that. As any Latin American with a memory of the 1980s knows, when inflation begins to creep up to a 30 percent annualized rate, as it has in Venezuela, consumers begin acting kooky and all manners of distortions may occur.

And Venezuelans do love their Scotch. The country imported about as much as Brazil in 2009 and has like one-ninth its population.

However, in The Economist’s comment string there was an alternative interpretation on offer,  a reader arguing that President Hugo Chávez’s social policies were helping to create new coterie of Scotch guzzlers. The commenter’s handle, “soyrojarojita,” (i.e., “I am red”) made it clear she had a dog in this fight. She wrote:

Historically for forty years Venezuela has been the principal importer of whisky in South America. To drink whisky you have to buy it and how can you buy it if the economy is ailing. We have an economy that is better than most and the money is reaching more people because due to government pressure the private sector has dignified salaries, banks are giving credits, and some companies have been nacionalized (sic) permitting workers access to shares.

This comment raises an interesting question: did Venezuelans’ Scotch consumption rise because of redistributive economic policies or because of a hoarding impulse triggered by inflation? I think the latter but it would be interesting to hear other points of view.

The same question might be asked with regards to Brazil. Is it really evidence of a newly strong middle class, or is it a semi-panicked hedge brought on by importers worried about future Scotch costs vis-a-vis inflation and local currency value, since Brazil did shovel billions of stimulus dollars into its economy?

Incidentally, even though Brazil imported some 40 million bottles of Scotch in 2009, per-capita consumption is still at about an eighth of the levels in the United States, 4 servings per year in Brazil compared to 32 in the United States, according to a recent study by drinks company Diageo.

... if have you got more money than sense ?

Savour every drop: reporter Alistair Foster takes care not to spill his Balvenie, possibly London’s dearest whisky

Try a (very) wee dram of London's most expensive whisky

Alistair Foster

At £760 for a double measure, could this be      London's most expensive whisky? A 50-year-old Balvenie, one of only 83 bottles to come from a single cask, has gone on sale at Scottish bar Albannach in Trafalgar Square.

It is the smallest ever release from the distiller and bottles from Cask 191 can fetch up to £9,000 among collectors. Albannach has already sold “quite a few” measures.

The bar's expert, Cat Spencer, said: “It's for someone who really, really cares about their whisky. There's simply nothing else in the world like it.

“A lot of whiskies are moved from cask to cask when they are distilled to add flavours, but this has been in a single sherry cask for 50 years. It was the first time Balvenie had used a sherry cask to distil a whisky and it's their last batch from the Fifties. The taste is almost emotional... there are so many flavours that evoke nostalgic feelings.”

When the single malt was made in 1952, the cask contained 250 bottles of liquid. Most evaporated and left a yield of just 83 which were bottled in 2002, at a strength of 45.1 per cent. It is one of up to 130 whiskies at Albannach. The next most expensive, a 40-year-old Laphroaig, is a mere £250 a measure.

"Experiencing" Whisky .... a marketing strategy.

The resurgent whisky market and the quest for experiences

In its latest number, The Economist reports on the whisky industry and how, after years of stagnant sales, sales are growing again. Scotch whisky producers will certainly be happy with the prospect of emerging markets buying more of their produce…but, as the article warns, they should beware of up and coming competitors from outside Scotland. For obvious reasons these overseas companies can not produce the real “Scotch Whisky” but could prove to be serious competitors nevertheless.

I think that, in the face of competition, the Scottish whisky industry should put great effort in making feel their potential customers that the purchase of a whisky bottle is an “experience”. This is a World apart from binge drinking. It is all about appreciating the quality of a product that often takes years to create and valuing the elements that make of each prime whisky a unique product that can be tracked down to a specific place of production. For example, I have to confess that I do not usually drink whisky, however I my perception of whisky changed after I was invited to a Scotch tasting at an Oxford University college earlier this year: I understood how interesting and fascinating the World of fine whisky could be…I am still a neophyte in this field, but when I am in a shop I no longer watch the bottle racks with the same eyes of indifference, for example, if I see a whisky has been produced near the coast I can guess it might have a salty touch, or, it might have a smoky taste, an earthy taste,…

One place where they have understood the power of this “experience” factor is many miles away from Scotland’s rainy mountains…The pictures below are from a whisky shop at Larnaca airport, in Cyprus. You can see how they have created the set where clients can immerse themselves in this “experience”.

Information about where the different types of whisky originate

The whisky shop at Larnaca airport

Each of the whisky regions is featured

... that English Whisky, ... again !

First English Peated Single-Malt Whisky Released

by David Kiley (RSS feed) Jun 12th 2010 at 10:02AM

Scotland is the undisputed King of whisky in terms of the number of superior distilleries turning out the gold nectar. But there are great whiskies coming from everywhere: Japan, Wales, Scandanavia, as well as the traditional spots of Kentucky, and a bevy of micro-distilleries everywhere increasingly capturing the imaginations of whisky drinkers.

The latest is Scotland's nemesis to the South: England. It's hard to believe that England hasn't had a significant whisky distillery. Gin still comes from a few prominent stills. But perhaps the Scots and Irish have been so established, nobody bothered to challenge them.

Until now. The English Whisky Company's St. George's Distillery at Roudham has released its third whisky expression. The first was a limited run of Chapter 4, 18- month old Peated Malt Spirit that was so pale as to make me doubt it was actually whisky in my glass. The second was a non-peated single-malt, aged three years, which sells for £34.99, or $51.00. This month, the company released Chapter 9, a three-year old expression and hails it as England's first peated Single-Malt Whisky. Price, £39.99, or $57.00.

Managing director Andrew Nelstrop said: "The whole point behind Chapter 9 is to find a peated whisky that appeals to everyone, not just the real peat fanatics out there." The three-year-old spirit takes its peaty taste from drying barley over smoking peat, which then infuses into the grain.

It's hard not to think that the company is emulating Islay distillery Ardbeg, which set the whisky world afire a few years ago when it began releasing young whiskies before they reached the 10-year mark, which has been the traditional minimum age-statement for premium single-malt whisky. Ardbeg's phenomenal success with expressions called "Very Young," and "Still Young," which quickly became collectible and have traded into the hundreds of dollars per bottle, has led to a series of young whisky releases.

There is a practical, if risky, reason to release young whisky from a new distillery--it starts bringing in much needed revenue. This is why many new distilleries with ambitions to sell premium whisky also sell vodka and gin in the early going. The white spirits don't need aging, and can be sold right away.

Barrel aging in ex-Bourbon barrels, Sherry casks and the like is what gives whisky its true character and quality.

Chapter 7 will undoubtedly benefit from the novelty of being the only peated English single-malt. But the English Whisky Co. will have to earn its points with the established arbiters of quality if it wants to sustain premium pricing. And that's going to take a bit more time in the barrel. But it is off to a very tasty start.

Tags: Ardbeg, Chapter 6 whisky,

Peated English Whisky, ... yes please !

New English whisky praised

Published on Fri Jun 11 08:33:12 BST 2010

The plaudits have rained in from connoisseurs for the latest whisky to be released by the English Whisky Company at Roudham.

The peated version of their hugely popular and first ever whisky launched on Monday and is once again predicted to fly off the shelves both in England and abroad.

In keeping with their tradition as a company of firsts, the new spirit, called Chapter 9 is the first publicly available peated whisky available in England.

Managing director Andrew Nelstrop said: “The whole point behind Chapter 9 is to find a peated whisky that appeals to everyone, not just the real peat fanatics out there.”

The three-year-old spirit takes its peaty taste from drying barley over smoking peat, which then infuses into the grain.

Dominic Roskrow, a freelance whisky writer and former editor of Whisky Magazine, who was tasting the spirit, said: “It is fascinating.

‘‘We are talking about a whisky that is just three years old when they would normally be ‘untamable’.

“It is very impressive and there will be a lot of people watching very carefully. They have something to be very proud of.”

Rob Allanson, Whisky Magazine’s current editor, who was also tasting, said the product, priced at £39.99 would sell well, but said that just because it was English whisky did not guarantee success.

“The fact that it is English whisky is only a gimmick – you live and die by the quality of your product.”

Independent Ambassadorial Duties

Whisky is in his blood

The Nelson Mail.

COLIN SMITH/Nelson Mail

SPIT IT OUT: Respected "whisky man" and Scottish nobleman the Hon Alex Bruce, sales and marketing director of Adelphi Distillery, savours the aroma of one his company's single malts during his visit to NelsonThe Honourable Alex Bruce spits out more whisky than he drinks.As a director of Scotland-based Adelphi Distillery, Mr Bruce tastes more than 2000 whiskies a year. But he does not swallow them all.

The Honourable Alex Bruce spits out more whisky than he drinks.

As a director of Scotland-based Adelphi Distillery, Mr Bruce tastes more than 2000 whiskies a year. But he does not swallow them all

"If I did my liver would be in a bit of a state."

Mr Bruce was in Nelson yesterday bestowing his knowledge of the "water of life" to enthusiastic punters who lined up at the Moutere Inn to taste some of the rarest whiskies going.

"We want every bottle to have that wow factor that you can't find anywhere else," Mr Bruce said.

He has been in the whisky game for six years but it has always been in his blood.

His mother is a direct descendant of Andrew Usher who is credited with pioneering blended whisky. His father, Lord Elgin, is a patron and former Grand Master of the Keepers of the Quaich, a title which recognises service to the whisky cause. Mr Bruce was also made a Keeper of the Quaich in 2006.

He travels the world, from his base in Fife, displaying some of the finest whiskies his company offers.

For a beginner there are broadly three types of whisky – grain (made from wheat), malt (made from barley) and blended (a mixture of the two).

In the last 40 years single malt whisky (one that has not been blended with grain) has emerged as the taste of choice for most connoisseurs.

Where casks of single malt are usually blended with other casks, Adelphi Distillery's point of difference is that it selects individual casks of single malt which it does not blend.

"We cherrypick the best and most interesting whiskies for flavour."

A dark single malt will have been matured in an English oak sherry cask and a lighter whisky in an American oak bourbon cask. It is in this process where the most important changes occur, and that takes time.

For a whisky to become Scotch, it has to be in a cask for at least three years but Mr Bruce said for it to be any good it needs at least eight to 10. It also needs to be at least 40 per cent alcohol and distilled in Scotland.

But what about drinking it?

Adding ice is a big "no no" as it destroys the "nose" or smell of the whisky. If needed, only a small amount of water should be added which broadens the flavour and can take away the "prickle nose" factor.

For the best effect it should be drunk out of a wine-shaped glass, to concentrate the nose.

How does Mr Bruce like his whisky?

"It's like any job. If you are a mechanic the last thing you do is go home to mend your own car but on a nice winter evening I would enjoy a smoky whisky by the fire place.And his favorite whisky?

"There is no such thing. Only your next one.

Biogas at Bruichladdich.

                                                                                                                                        

 -- Creating renewable energy from whisky might sound like a harebrained scheme conceived at the end of a long evening drinking the amber nectar.

CNN -  An independently-owned Scottish distillery is hoping that the installation of a new biogas generator will prove to be a lasting moment of environmental clarity and help solve their energy problems.

This month, Bruichladdich -- one of eight distilleries to be found on the Scottish isle of Islay -- will take delivery of an anaerobic digester which will start turning their whisky waste into electricity.

Mark Reynier, owner of Bruichladdich Distillery, hopes the digester will meet around 80 percent of its electricity needs and save the company up to £120,000 ($175,000) every year.

Reynier told CNN: "Our waste product is basically water left over after you've stripped all the alcohol out. It's called, rather unromantically, pot ale."

Every year, several hundred thousand liters of pot ale waste are taken away by a tanker and poured down a pipeline that feeds it into the Sound of Islay off the eastern coast of the island.

Its disposal is a costly business (in the region of $30,000 annually) and allied to rising energy costs it has forced the distillery to rethink how it sources its energy.

"We've looked at biomass and green energies and dismissed them one by one as being completely impractical and uneconomic for an industrial purpose," Reynier said.

"But one thing we can do is use this proven technology and generate biogas."

Anaerobic digestion occurs when natural food stuffs decompose in the absence of oxygen. The end product of this process creates methane which Reynier says will be fed into the generator and converted into green electricity. The only by-product is water.

There has been a distillery at Bruichladdich (pronounced "Brook-Laddie") on the shores of Loch Indaal since 188, and when Reynier took on the business in 2000 he wanted to return it to its "artisan" roots.

"We wanted to take it back to distilling as it used to be," he said.

So that means no coloring, no chill-filtering and all bottling is done on-site. Furthermore, 40 percent of the 2,500 tons of locally grown barley used last year was organic.

Bruichladdich say they produce Scotland's purest single malt using, where possible, original 19th century equipment. In 2009, they distilled 800,000 liters of whisky.

If the biogas trial proves a success, the pot ale that was pumped into the sea on a daily basis will instead be continuously fed into the digester creating something of a virtuous production circle.