Is The Image of Bourbon Changing?

[bourbonv]

I went to the Wild Turkey dinner at the Bourbon's Bistro last night. The dinner tastings were led by Jimmy Russell and of course the food and drink were excellent. While eating dinner though I thought of this thread of the forum. The prime example of a brand trying to change its image is Wild Turkey. The brand Wild Turkey has been around for years, but as they have created more brands the "Turkey" has gotten smaller and less noticable. The latest product, Russell's Reserve, has little or no mention of Wild Turkey and no depiction of the Turkey on the bottle at all.

[EllenJ]

You got it, Linn!
That lady in the striped stocking-cap! Ugh! I sure wouldn't want my favorite bourbon associated with HER!!

[Brewer]

... I think we have to remember that the success of the Single Malts is also relatively new. Scotland had its years of hard times, with the closing of many distilleries. But, the sudden popularity of Single Malts, along with the promotion from Michael Jackson, Malt Advocate (and their WhiskyFests) naturally brought along renewed interest in bourbon and rye. So, although there are the fickle, trendy folks that hop onto the newest and latest craze, I do think that the current interest in bourbon/rye is not just a flash in the pan.

Bob you are a confusing writter. When I first read this post I just dismissed it out of hand as you being confused. Because I happen to know that you are a smart guy I went back and disected your post to see that you do have a couple of good points on Scottish single malt whiskies.

Things I would like to know are:

1) What was the total decilne of sales & production of Scottish whiskies during the whisk(e)y glut of the 1970's? I'd like to see this compared and contrasted with the same stats of the decline in American whiskies over the same time frame.

2) Prior to 1970 how many single malt brands were there? Were they widely available on a global basis, or just in Great Britian? How many were intoduced between 1970 & 1980?

3) How many new single malts were introduced after 1985, but before 1990?

4) Discounting all blended whiskies, what were the total global sales volumes for all single and vatted malts in 1980? 1985? 1990? 1995? 2005?

My reasoning is that I have never seen any truely reliable facts or figures for this time frame of world wide decline in whisky sales and it's rebound and revival in the late 1980's.

Linn

Linn,

Sorry for presenting my thoughts to you (& possibly others) in a confusing manner. I'm not going to be able to answer all of your questions noted above, as I'm not a whisk(e)y historian. What I can tell you is this. Scotland is broken down into various regions: lowlands, highlands, Speyside, etc. In the area of Scotland known as Campbeltown, there were 32 licensed distilleries in the mid 1700's. Today, there are 2. The Lowlands region has seen the closing of 6 distilleries, while 5 remain operating. This info is as per Michael Jackson's "Scotland and Its Whiskies". I could go on and on regarding the other regions of Scotland, but for the sake of brevity, and to minimize confusion, I'd just like people to know that there were many other distilleries throughout Scotland that have closed over the years. Now, with the popularity of Single Malts, some distilleries are experiencing similiar problems as US distilleries...not enough product to meet demand. Nice position for them, not so nice for the consumer.

Single Malts surged in popularity before bourbon, but bourbon is catching up. I believe this is not a momentary fad; it is my hope that with distilleries such as BT putting out great bourbons on a regular basis, as well as trying new products, we will continue to see an interest in this spirit for a long time to come.

I hope this has clarified my initial post. I imagine I could answer your more detailed questions if I had the time or desire to do all that research, but I do not. Maybe someone else would more readily be able to answer those questions.

[bunghole]

Thanks for your reply, Bob. Those questions are for anyone to answer if they can. Obviously, I myself don't know the real hard facts of the matter. Your point on the number of distillery closings is lucid and speaks volumes. Yet some folks erroneously rely on the opinions of some whiskey writers, and then bandy them about as if they are actual facts. I guess we all must be more critical in what we read and to what extent it is believable and therefore trustworthy.

Linn

[cowdery]

I would not say bourbon is exactly catching up with scotch. Bourbon sales, worldwide, are still a fraction of scotch sales. But bourbon is, I believe, growing a little faster than scotch, especially in markets like China (and unlike, say, India) where there is no historic bias in favor of scotch.

Bourbon will do just fine as long as the rising tide raises all ships, as has been happening. Today, since every major scotch company also sells bourbon, they have no motive to diss one over the other (although some people on the production side in Scotland still diss all non-Scottish whiskey as only the Scots can).

In most worldwide markets, American whiskey benefits from the nearly universal attractiveness of American culture (as opposed to American policies). Love our Levi's, love our whiskey. That's our big advantage over scotch. When American movie stars drink American whiskey in American movies, the impact on image and sales is huge.

But the fact remains, as Popeye Doyle discovers to his chagrin in "French Connection II," that in most of the world "whiskey" still means "scotch."