Scotland Conversations
It was an interesting day yesterday, meeting with bottlers of various sizes and listening to their stories about the industry status quo. We found many commonalities in our words and bonded over the shared experiences that we recognized in one another. Two themes were consistent throughout all of our appointments:
1) The market has become focused on specific types or flavors of single malt whisky, leading to negative associations with whiskies that differ in style.
2) Producers have had to look at younger stocks and consider bottling casks that before would never have been considered.
Regarding the first point, we all seemed to have a story regarding an encounter with someone who only drank one type of whisky.
"We want a representation of all types of single malt whisky, even grain whisky, in our portfolio," one bottler told us. "However, the fact that we bottle light, fruity whisky along side our darker sherried selections doesn't seem to interest certain whisky drinkers."
"Not only are they not interested, but some have come to believe that a light and fruity whisky is inferior in quality or is lacking in some way," another producer said. We nodded our heads in agreement. We've encountered the same situation from certain customers who thought that our lighter, less oak-driven whiskies were poorly-made and lacking in quality, rather than just different or "not for them." It's funny to get feedback from consumers that differ so wildly in their assessment. Some people have written to tell me that the Royal Lochnagar Faultline was a terrible selection. Others have written to ask if they can buy a case because it's the best whisky they've had in ages.
What we have to remember is that different people like different styles of whisky. I know some of us out there pride ourselves on our expansive and open-minded taste, but it's alright to not like something. That being said, just because you don't like it doesn't mean the whisky is bad and it certainly doesn't mean you have to tell everyone it sucks. It might just be the case that you don't like the whisky – and that's it. However, even though there's a tendency for consumers to enjoy sherried whisky over lighter, fruitier whisky doesn't mean we're not going to import a broad selection of casks. It just means we're going to have to be vigilant about explaining the flavors in each selection, making sure we put the right bottles into the right hands.
The second point also made for interesting discussion.
"It's true that the lack of supply is forcing us to bottle younger stock, but at the same time we're finding delicious barrels in the five to eight year range. It's not that we didn't think they were good before, it's merely that we never thought about drawing samples. Why would we taste those casks when we had older barrels ready to go?" one bottler stated. That made total sense to me.
We've found some great young peated whiskies over the last year and, yesterday, tasted a five year old sherry butt that tasted like it was a twelve year old. There are some great options to be considered, now that we're actually considering them. There's a skepticism that believes the philosophy is changing from old to young simply out of convenience (and there's plenty of truth in that), but at the same time that necessity has changed the way many producers look at young whisky now that they've been forced to focus on it. They're finding it's often better than they expected.
-David Driscoll