Some more articles of interest about the world of whisky this week. First up, the industry seems to be going from strength to strength according to the the Daily Record:
“Whisky exports rose by 12 per cent in the year to the end of June. The export value increased to £4.2billion, according to the Scotch Whisky Association. They said whisky continues to attract younger, affluent consumers in newly emerging markets.”
However, according to the BBC, growth has stalled!
“The Scotch Whisky Association (SWA) said the value of trade stood at £1.8bn – the same as the first half of 2011. There was a 13% boost in demand from the US, while sales were also up strongly to Russia and Venezuela. But with the eurozone economy struggling, exports to Spain – the fifth biggest market for Scotch – fell by 24%.”
So two news articles using information from the SWA, each coming to completely different conclusions. Anyone would think newspapers can spin facts. Imagine a world where that happens!
In more disturbing news, the Whisky Shop has deigned that Jura Superstition is the best single malt whisky of the year:
“The results were taken from a combination of customer choice, sales and store manager recommendations from its 20 UK stores that retail to 3 million customers per year. Previous winners of the award are Dalmore 12 Year Old, Laphroaig Quarter Cask, Auchentoshan 12 Year Old, Bowmore 12 Year Old and Bunnahabhain 12 Year Old.”
Interestingly, all of the previous winners seem to be standard, mass-market distillery bottlings. Not saying they’re bad at all, but the best? Probably solid and widely accessible drams, if you ask me. But Jura Superstition? Really? Well, that’s one opinion I can safely ignore in future then….
Here’s a nice little feature on London’s first Whisky Distillery in 100 years:
“The London Distillery Company was founded last year and is gearing up to start whisky production next month from the site of a former Victorian dairy in Battersea (a building shared with a bar, a food outlet, and an arts and events space). As an independent (or ‘artisanal’, according to their publicity) distillery, they’re able to take a non-traditional approach to producing spirits…”
Nice to see the renaissance in English whisky distillation taking shape. If you’ve not seen it, check out our interview with Paul Currie from the Lakes Malt Distillery in Cumbria, from a few weeks back.
I often cringe at the Whisky Shop’s awards or even their Top 10 list in every magazine release. They’ve expanded well, catering for a wide range of whisky fans, but their award is firmly pitched at the more accessible consumer end of the scale. It’s probably time to issue a series of awards across a range of categories.
Yeah, their Top Ten is pretty dire isn’t it? I wonder if it happens to coincide with whatever they’re trying to promote heavily that week.
I’m confused as to why you have a problem with this. Surely these sort of votes are always subjective, and it seems a little unfair to dismiss the entire whisky of the year customer vote just because you personally aren’t that bothered about the whiskies that win. It’s hardly that surprising that more expensive whiskies that many people can’t afford – and therefore haven’t tried – don’t win is it?
Hi Gareth, thanks for stopping by.
We’ll probably differ our opinions here, but I think the use of the phrase ‘best single malt’ seems misleading, since it’s likely to be so small and disparate a sample, and even then it’s most likely guided by what a chain has promoted through the store beforehand.
Basically, the whisky is a bit shit and many others at that price point could and do outshine it. Do I care all that much? Not really.
“The whisky is a bit shit.”
I’m assuming you mean “I think the whisky is a bit shit.” Opinion and fact aren’t the same thing.
Sure, what were you expecting? Isn’t it all opinion? This is the Internet, after all.