Crazy in the Canaries
Dominic Roskrow finds the competition heating up
in the Scotch sector …
Sometime in January, I thought it had finally happened: I had gone stark raving bonkers. Or if I hadn’t, the rest of the world had.
I had taken a holiday to Lanzarote in the Canary Islands and was watching one of those mid-morning light news television shows that you feel guilty watching when you’re meant to be making a living as a freelance writer. A feature came on about ‘eco-sexuals’: people who basically writhe around naked in mud and leaves making love to the Earth. It’s not enough to just hug a tree; they have to have a physical relationship with it. They hold ceremonies in which they marry the sky. Harmless enough, but a bit weird, from my point of view.
After a minute of this poppycock, I decided to catch up on news from the spirits industry instead. And the first thing I read about was a bottle of Glendronach 30-year-old selling for £20,000 ($NZ40,400). That, in itself, was unsurprising – Scottish whisky owners do this sort of elitist bling thing all the time. No, it was more the comment from a highly respected global sales manager, who said: “It’s worth every penny, if not more.”
What? “If not more”? This is the product of a country where poverty is growing, homelessness is at an all-time high, where a cost-of-living crisis is looming and where food banks are rife? Please!
These special bottles aren’t aimed at us, of course. They’re aimed at consumers with silly amounts of money in Russia, the Far East and Southeast Asia. Instead, we are being offered young, often inadequate non-age statement whiskies at well under the 10 or 12 years required to make good Scottish whisky.
“While Scotland rightly dominates the single malt whisky market over 12 years old, all bets are off when it comes to younger malts.”
The producers are playing a dangerous game. While Scotland rightly dominates the single malt whisky market over 12 years old, all bets are off when it comes to younger malts. ‘New World’ countries such as Australia, India, Israel and England are proving that they can make much better whisky than Scotland can when aged six years and younger.
And with scores of new distilleries being set up now, competition will grow even more intense in a few years.
It gets worse. For a long time, producers of aged brown rum have argued that they have cheaper alternatives to average, over-priced Scotch. While on my break on Lanzarote I noticed a trend towards that good old favourite, rum and black. Younger drinkers were heading for the cocktail menu. Whisky wasn’t at the races – even on Burns Night.
All pretty predictable really. But there’s one other dark beast lurking in the shadows. After years of trying its hardest at being taken seriously outside its core territories, tequila may at last be gaining traction. A new report shows a significant rise in sales, albeit from a small base.
All this, of course, makes healthy reading for those making their living from the bar trade. After all, the customer will want to dabble in the New World whisky, rum and tequila sectors by buying by the glass before splashing out for full bottles to take home. After the virus, a range of these spirits may provide the very boost the on-trade sector needs.
What is for sure, is that Scotch whisky producers need to keep their eye on the ball and stay in touch with regular drinkers. Crazy times indeed.
Dominic Roskrow is a UK-based world spirits expert and editor of Stills Crazy
