The Quinta Rubin?

Glenmorangie has a number of claims to fame. It's the best-selling malt whisky in Scotland. It rescued Ardbeg from purgatory 1997. And it is the originator of the "wood finishing" trend in recent years. Its whisky had always been aged exclusively in ex-Bourbon barrels (and, indeed, the 10 year old bottling, pictured to the left, is one of the very few malt Scotches to be so aged), but they began to take mature whisky out of the Bourbon barrels and store them in ex-sherry, ex-Port, or ex-Burgundy casks for a relatively short period of time (six months to two years). It was a wildly successful experiment, and it has been widely imitated.

Glenmorangie was the last remaining independent whisky distiller until 2004, when its owners, the Macdonald family, sold out to luxury goods conglomerate LVMH. Now, The Scotch Blog notes an article in The Herald, a British paper, about the plans that LVMH has to "enhance" the Glenmorangie brand:

As part of the rebranding, the company - which has its headquarters and a warehouse in Broxburn, West Lothian, as well as a distillery in Tain, Ross-shire - will rename some of its most popular lines to give them a more continental flavour.

The prosaically named Port, Sherry, Madeira and Burgundy Wood Finish whiskies will be reborn under new names such as The Quinta Ruban, Nectar d'Or and LaSanta.

The bottles have also been redesigned and now look like "curvy cognac bottles", according to a company source. They will also feature an image of the Stone of Cadboll, a Pictish carved slab which was discovered in Easter Ross.

One of the marketing problems that Scotch has is that it is the drink of older, well-to-do men. Producers have not done a good job of enlisting younger consumers, who often find single malt Scotch confusing and overly-complex. I don't think that putting Glenmorangie in trendy, Cognac-like bottles and calling the Port-finished expression The Quinta Ruban will help matters. Worse than this, the article reports that Glenmorangie "plans to increase the price of a bottle of single malt by £10 to project itself as an exclusive, expensive luxury brand." It's already an expensive whisky in the United States. The 10 year old is more than $45 a fifth, and the wood-finished line, which is 12 years old, now goes for almost $54 a fifth. Bumping the price $10 or $20 a fifth will mean that I won't be buying it anymore, and I suspect that the same is true for many people.

The Scotch Blog has a followup post about an e-mail that blog proprietor Kevin Erskine received from an industry source saying that it's not as bad as The Herald article makes it sound. Here's to hoping.