Last Night's Tipple

These are boom times for Scotch. Single malt sales have been growing robustly for the past several years, fueled (presumably) mostly by boomers with lots of disposable income. Existing distilleries are producing more Scotch, and new distilleries are coming online for the first time in many, many years. Everything sounds perfect! But it's not. Boomers are buying the Scotch, not younger drinkers. Younger drinkers are busy sucking down mojitos, sour apple martinis, and other Kool-Aid-like drinks (note: the mojito need not be like Kool-Aid but usually is nowadays; Ernest Hemingway is spinning in his grave), all made from white liquor. Worse than that, younger drinkers believe that Scotch is snobby and an old man's drink. What will happen to Scotch sales when the boomers die off or lack the disposable income to buy as much?

Liquor companies recognize the problem and have begun to introduce Scotch products aimed at younger consumers. Some are abject failures, like Diageo's J&B -6, a nearly-clear Scotch that was pushed on trendy bars in the UK. Some have been reasonably successful, like William Grant & Sons' Monkey Shoulder, which is a vatting of three different malt whiskies that is intended for use in mixed drinks. And some are somewhere in between, like Edrington's Easy Drinking Whisky Company (or, as it's usually referred to, Jon, Mark and Robbo). Edrington is the owner of a number of distilleries, including powerhouses like Highland Park and Macallan, and Robbo is Dave Robertson, former Master Distiller at Macallan. The stated goal of the brand is to demystify Scotch and to make it fun, not to appeal to young consumers; although it is undeniable that being successful at the first would help with the second. There are four expressions, labeled by the tastes that the vatters are attempting to show: The Smooth Sweet One, which is a vatting of Irish malt whiskey and Scotch malt whiskey; The Rich Spicy One, which is intended to remind the drinker of a sherried malt like the Macallan; The Smoky Peaty One, which is supposed to be Islay-like; and a new one called The Fresh Fruity One, which is a vatting of Scotch grain whiskeys (echoes of Compass Box's Hedonism?). It's hard to tell exactly how things are going for the brand, but I get the idea that all is not peachy. Dave Robertson has jumped ship, and the brand has exited the UK market to concentrate on the US. I think that part of their problem is whisky snobbery: many of the existing consumers of Scotch like it to be mystifying because the mystification makes them feel superior. Consider this comment to a post about JMR on The Scotch Blog:

I personally can't comment on the whisky; I've never had it. I'd be as embarrassed to carry a bottle to the check-out counter as I would be to enter a four-star restaurant wearing a pair of oversized gym shorts and a backwards baseball cap. But plenty of people in this country do such without a trace of self-consciousness, so JMR should continue to do well here.

Got that? Buying JMR whisky is like wearing gym shorts and a backwards baseball cap to a four-star restaurant. The quality of the whisky inside the bottles makes no difference: the product is to be avoided because the marketing is not stately enough. What a load of crap.

Such snobbery rubs me the wrong way, so I bought a bottle of The Rich Spicy One this weekend. According to Kevin Erskine, author of The Scotch Blog (which you should read if you have any interest in Scotch), who got the information from Dave Robertson, still at JMR at the time, The Rich Spicy One is a vatting of the following:

• Tamdhu Spanish Oak Sherry Butts 50%
• Tamdhu American oak bourbon dump hogsheads 10%
• Highland Park Spanish Oak Mature Butts 10%
• Glenrothes Spanish Oak Sherry Butts 20%
• Bunnahabhain American oak sherry puncheons 10%

Tamdhu and Glenrothes are both lesser-known Speyside distilleries owned by Edrington. This means that only the 10% Bunnahabhain in the blend is non-Edrington whisky. The stated goal is to produce a big, sherried malt like the Macallan, and they have succeeded. There is sherry overflowing from this whisky, although it has a bit more smoke than I recall Macallan having. In addition, it has more of that Scotch-y smell than Macallan has. Still, though, this is very good whisky. If snobbery kills it, we will be the poorer for it.