TOP 10 SELLING SCOTCH WHISKY BRANDS IN 2019

 BESTSELLING SCOTCH WHISKIES THROUGH 2019

1. Johnnie Walker: The No 1 bestselling giant of 2018 continues its reign at the top, albeit with a significant drop in volumes sold vis-à-vis 2018, 2.8% at 18.4m 9-litre cases. It will be celebrating its 200^th year in the business in 2020.

The blended Scotch brand reported disparate sales across its portfolio, benefitting from the successful launch of White Walker and the HBO show Game of Thrones. It also launched the 3rd blend in its Ghost and Rare series ex stocks from the shut Glenury Royal distillery in the Highlands. The JW family use Cameronbridge and North British distilleries for its single grain binders, Auchroisk, Benrinnes, Blair Athol, Caol Ila, Talisker, Dailuaine, Cardhu, Royal Lochnagar, Inchgower, Mannochmore, Teaninich and other distilleries for its malt whiskies.    

 2. Ballantine's: The second placed brand last year, Pernod Ricard’s Ballantine’s retained its position, marking an uptick in sales, which rose 4.6% to 7.7m cases. This brand helped boost PR’s sales with strong double-digit growth in Eastern Europe, Brazil, India and China. 

The blended whiskies in its profile did rather well, from Ballantine's Finest to Ballantine's older bottlings. The former was very prominent in China.

3. Chivas Regal: Pernod Ricard’s Chivas Regal Blended Scotch whisky brand, which dropped by 1.1% to 4.4m 9-litre cases vis-à-vis 2018 has moved up the ladder from fourth to third place in 2019’s top 10. The 12 YO won the Blended Scotch Whisky 12 Year Old award in the 2019 International Whisky Competition.

 

                                                          Chivas Regal Extra 13   Chivas Regal Mizunara   Chivas Regal Ultis

Chivas Brothers has launched a range of four 13-year-old whiskies as part of a new global collection. This Chivas Extra 13 collection reportedly blends Scotch heritage with flavourful casks. Each cask during the whisky-making process contributes to its own unique combination, delivering four different flavour notes: Spanish Oloroso Sherry, Caribbean Rum, American Rye, and Mexican Tequila.

       Chivas Regal Extra Rum            Chivas Regal Extra Rye            Chivas Regal Extra Sherry   Chivas Regal Extra Tequila

4. Grant’s: William Grant & Sons Ltd is an independent Scottish company that distills Scotch whisky among others. Established in 1887 by William Grant, it is run by Grant's descendants as of 2018. It is the largest of the handful of Scotch whisky distillers remaining in family ownership. 

Grant’s whiskies in sum have declined to 4^th spot from 3^rd in 2018. The brand, owned by Scottish spirits group William Grant & Sons, saw a drop of 8.4% in 2019 to 4.2 million 9-L cases. The drop was attributed to a major brand overhaul in July 2018, including packaging redesign, a name change from ‘Family Reserve’ to ‘Triple Wood’, and the launch of new expressions – such as Grant’s Triple Wood Smoky – while other products were discontinued. Other experiments include the launch of the Glenfiddich IPA, XX and a 14 YO in honour of the USA.

Distilleries owned by William Grant & Sons are Glenfiddich, Balvenie, Kininvie, Ailsa Bay and Girvan Grain. They pioneered single malt Scotch whisky as, until Glenfiddich, only blended brands were common. Glenfiddich was first sold as a 6 YO in 1963 and is now the world’s leading single malt Scotch brand with The Balvenie a few slots lower. Another very popular seller is their blended whisky, Monkey Shoulder. 

5. William Lawson’s: A Bacardi brand, Blended Scotch William Lawson’s, witnessed a flat performance in 2019, retaining its fifth spot. Bacardi is looking to double its whisky bottling capacity in India and increase market share through entry-level whisky William Lawson’s. This is its first bottling foray outside Scotland.

 

William Lawson’s Finest Blend is sweet and medium-bodied in style, with a high malt content. At its core is the single malt of Macduff distillery, married with various bold malts and grain whiskies it owns with a difference – no peated whisky is added.

William Lawson started with ‘Lawson’s Liqueur Whiskey’ in 1889. In 1963 Clan Munro Whisky, blender of King of Kings premium whisky, bought the Lawson’s trademark, and agreed to call the brand William Lawson’s. That same year William Lawson Distillers Ltd acquired the 1962/63 Macduff distillery in Banffshire, which distilled and marketed its single malt as Glen Deveron. They expanded with the acquisition of John Dewar & Sons Ltd and five distilleries from Diageo.

Under Bacardi, William Lawson’s sales have risen dramatically, with volumes almost doubling between 2010 and 2014. Introduced into Russia in 2008, Lawson’s is now the country’s largest imported spirit brand. The blend also now enjoys strong sales in France, Spain, Portugal and Mexico.

In addition to Finest Blend, the William Lawson portfolio includes 12-year-old Scottish Gold, 13-year-old Bourbon-Cask-Finished and Super Spiced – whisky infused with vanilla and spice.

6. Dewar’s:  One of the classic blends, Dewar’s has retained its reputation as an accessible, smooth Scotch while modernising its range in recent years. Dewar’s grew volumes by 6.4% to reach 3m nine litre cases in 2019. Consistent innovation and clever marketing have taken the brand past its 2013 volumes again, and secured Dewar’s the title of Scotch Whisky Brand Champion 2020. It has moved one slot up to lie 7^th.

Last year, the Bacardi-owned brand released its travel retail-exclusive range, Dewar’s Double Double, comprising three whiskies aged for 21, 27 and 32 years, which have each undergone a four‐stage maturation process. The Dewar’s family worked hard to establish their eponymous blended Scotch whisky around the world, with the US market a particular strength.

Dewar’s followed this with its Cask Finish Series, which started with the launch of Dewar’s Caribbean Smooth Rum Cask, created by finishing eight‐year‐old Dewar’s in ex‐rum casks. The Cask Finish Series was extended further this year with the launch of eight‐year‐old, mezcal‐cask‐finished Dewar’s Ilegal Mezcal. At this brand's core, however, is Dewar’s White Label, which delivers Dewar’s signature soft honey, vanilla and floral flavours, though 12, 18 and 25-year-old expressions are also available.

7. J&B: J&B dropped to 7^th on a reduction of sales by -6% to 3 million cases in 2019. Diageo’s J&B brand has unfortunately been falling consistently for five years. J&B is notably popular in southern European markets, and promoted there as the world’s ‘party whisky’.

In May last year, Justerini & Brooks, the maker of J&B, brought distribution of the blended Scotch brand back inhouse after 21 years. The product is a blend of more than 40 Scotch whiskies. Prior to Prohibition (1920-33), J&B had sold modest quantities of whisky in the States, and when the firm’s Director visited the US in 1930 he concluded there would be great opportunities for Scotch once Prohibition ended. Accordingly, in the early 1930s, J&B Rare was developed, designed specifically to appeal to the American palate. 

8. Black & White: A Canadian, James Buchanan formed his own whisky company in 1884 naming his flagship whisky The Buchanan Blend, a light, smooth unpeated expression designed specifically to appeal to the English palate. The malts used were from Dalwhinnie, Clynelish and Glendullan distilleries.

The Buchanan Blend became an instant hit south of the border, reaching the Members Bar at the House of Commons in London. Buchanan then renamed the blend Buchanan’s House of Commons Finest Old Highland whisky, presented in a dark glass bottle with a striking white label. Before long, drinkers began ordering ‘that Black & White whisky’, and in 1902 the name was officially changed to Black and White. By then the brand was being exported across the world, and by 1907 it was being ordered by the emperor of Japan. Two years later it had become the most popular blend in England. Black and White is popular around the world in countries such as India, South Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean.

During the 1920s, the Black & White terriers began featuring more heavily in the brand’s advertising, quickly becoming iconic ambassadors for Buchanan’s flagship blend. In 2013 the brand was given a contemporary makeover, and the terriers made the move onto the bottle’s label for the first time.

9. Label 5: La Martiniquaise-Bardinet’s blended Scotch brand Label 5, which grew by 3.5% in 2019, has moved up one place to the ninth position. Last year, the French group updated the bottle design for its core Label 5 expression to spruce up its “contemporarity and impact”. In 2008, La Martiniquaise purchased the Glen Moray single malt distillery from The Glenmorangie Company, a major component in the Label 5 blend. The grain whisky comes from its 2009-built Starlaw distillery.

Over the years the brand has enhanced its portfolio with a ladder of expressions boasting a large quantity of Speyside single malt, from the flagship Label 5 Classic Black and Extra Premium 12 Year Old, through to the Extra Rare 18 Year Old, slightly smoky Gold Heritage and Sherry cask-finished Reserve No. 55.

10. Famous Grouse: Edrington’s Famous Grouse, the best selling whisky in Scotland for the past 40 years reached the 10^th slot, displacing Bell’s, once the No 1 brand in the UK, which suffered a 14.7% drop in sales.

The Famous Grouse has developed into one of the world’s leading Scotch whiskies and in recent years has been flanked by complementary expressions to form a range of its own. The Famous Grouse range also features Smoky Black, which incorporates peated whiskies from Islay and also Glenturret distillery into the blend, as well as a heavily-peated expression, Black Grouse Alpha Edition, which features a higher content of aged malts.

The Naked Grouse was introduced as a premium offering in the range, containing whiskies matured in first-fill Sherry casks for a richer, fruiter flavour. The Famous Grouse Mellow Gold, designed to impart a ‘smoother’ and sweeter palate, is the newest addition to the range. At the same time a distinctly purple-hued redesign of The Famous Grouse’s packaging was implemented in a bid to premiumise the brand.

WAS THE GLENLIVAT A REAL SCOTCH WHISKY OR A SPELLING MISTAKE

GLENLIVAT OR GLENLIVET? 

Why Are Other Whiskies Still Using Glenlivet In Their Name?

Recognised as one of Highland Scotland’s most dazzling river valleys, Glenlivet was a famous location long before The Glenlivet whisky was invented and became an enduring symbol of its place of origin. Glenlivet, or Gleann-liobh-aite in Gaelic, means “valley of the smooth flowing one.”The Livet river flows into the Avon above Ballindaloch.

Writer John Wilson, aka Christopher North, travelled to the village of Tomintoul in 1815, just a few miles south of Glenlivet. Wilson depicted Tomintoul at the height of the smuggling era as “a wild mountain village where drinking, dancing, swearing and quarrelling went on all the time.” This rowdy influence was not lost on all Glenliveters. Wilson also thought that the whisky from Glenlivet was the finest he had ever tasted. As it turned out, lovely Glenlivet, 14 miles long and 6 miles wide, was the most highly favoured location in the Highlands for smugglers. In the small parish of Glenlivet alone it was believed that two hundred small stills were operated. In the little glen, whisky of a special quality has been made for centuries. To ask why would be pointless, for no one could give a finite answer to such a question. Distillers have known it instinctively, which is why there were so many bothy stills in that tiny parish. One of these stills belonged to George Smith.

In the late winter of 1792, what one farmer Andrew Smith’s infant son George could not have known was that he was born in the epicentre of a monumental social earthquake. At its core, this deep-rooted upheaval concerned what the average Scotsman perceived to be his right to distill whisky unfettered by governmental interference, regulation, or taxation. Secluded, remote Glenlivet felt the seismic shudder more than most other places. What took place in Glenlivet over George Smith’s lifetime sent political tremors across the whole of Britain, including deep within the walls of Parliament.

The Glenlivet is the prototypical single malt whisky born in Scotland’s most renowned Highlands river valley, Glenlivet. Smugglers believed that the unusual climate of Glenlivet, the altitude of the glen, and the mossy water of the hill streams there, combined to give the whisky its unique character. As the excisemen rarely visited the glen, the locals could take a long time in distilling new spirits, running the whisky ‘lazily’ over a small fire. This was a luxury not allowed to other smugglers, constantly on the look-out for the gaugers. Glenlivet whisky, fully matured and with its unique flavour, soon became a great favourite of the Lowland connoisseurs.”

Through the beaconlike wattage of its reputation, The Glenlivet by the mid-nineteenth century made Scotland’s malt whiskies the most prized whisky of all.

The father-and-son team of Smiths—George and John Gordon—were Highlands farmers by trade in the bucolic Banffshire district called Glenlivet. As their fledgling malt whisky business grew in fame, they turned to malt whisky distilling as a primary source of income. They operated under the guiding principles that product quality and authenticity and customer service must prevail above all else. Riding those codes through the harrowing peaks and valleys of Scotland’s turbulent whisky industry in the nineteenth century, they adeptly conquered both regional and national marketplaces. They secured these triumphs, however, only at the cost of severe personal and professional tolls.

When British King George IV came to Scotland in 1822, the citizens of Edinburgh painted the whole town red. During his much ballyhooed trip in August 1822, word got out that the King had become smitten with whisky, in particular, the highly respected illicit variety produced in or around Glenlivet. The literary source for this claim is a small passage in the memoirs of Lady Elizabeth Grant of Rothiemurchus, the daughter of a Scottish Member of Parliament:

"Lord Conyngham, the Chamberlain, was looking everywhere for pure Glenlivet   whisky; the King drank nothing else. It was not to be had out of the Highlands. My father sent word to me - I was the cellarer - to empty my pet bin, where was whisky long in wood, long in uncorked bottles, mild as milk, and the true contraband goût in it. Much as I grudged this treasure it made our fortunes afterwards, showing on what trifles great events depend.”

The King reportedly consumed whisky during his visit in a concoction called the “Atholl-brose,” a thick, sweetish mixture of whisky, honey and ground grain. His supposed appreciation of smuggler’s whisky instigated a national awareness of the superior quality of whisky from Glenlivet, which became something of a brand name for better smugglers’ whisky. This wide recognition catapulted forward the mystique of Scotland’s most famous glen, even though much of the illicit whisky touted as “Glenlivet” was produced in other areas of the Highlands. The king, however, was delighted with the quality of Lady Elizabeth's Glenlivat (sic) whisky. Just one year later, the parliament passed a new tax law, The Excise Act of 1823 that allowed working on small pot stills. Now, finally, the illicit distillers in the Highlands were able to legally produce the kind of whisky that was previously available only on the black market - the “real Glenlivet".

Cardow Distillery(today known as Cardhu) in Knockando was possibly the first Speyside distillery to be licensed under the Act. While women are often absent from the history of Scotch whisky, they actually played a key role in the industry from its inception. One of those early whisky women was Helen Cumming, the founder of Cardhu distillery in Archiestown. Bessie Williamson, who owned Laphroaig in Islay in the 20th century, was equally influential.

George Smith acquired a licence in 1824 for the distillery, which he operated on his farm Upper Drumin until 1859. In old tax documents, it is listed under the name "Drumin". From October 1826 to October 1827, George Smith produced 1,340 gallons of alcohol at the Drumin Distillery, distilled from malted barley. However, the first legal distillery named "Glenlivat" was a completely different distillery. It belonged to Capt. William Grant, and was in Achorachan (now being re-established as the lost distillery of Auchorachan). The river passing by is the very same Livet, but that section was known locally as the river Livat. With a production volume of 1,130 gallons in 1826/1827, it was only slightly smaller than the Smith distillery.        

The Lost Distillery of Auchorachan

George Smith was very successful in the following years as a farmer and distillery owner. In 1837 he acquired the farm Castleton of Blairfindy, in 1838, the Nevie Farm, and in 1839 the Minmore Farm. In 1850 he acquired the farm Delnaboe above Tomintoul, where a distillery was already operating under the name Cairngrom.

By this time, most of the illegal distilleries had disappeared, and in the valley of the Livet River there were only two distilleries left: those of George Smith and Capt. William Grant. In 1852, the Glenlivat Distillery was closed by Captain Grant. In 1859, Smith also closed down his two distilleries and built a complete new distillery on Minmore Farm, and initially this distillery was also called Minmore Distillery. Only in the following years, Smith renamed it to "Glenlivet", and under this name, the former Minmore Distillery later achieved international fame.

George Smith’s The Glenlivet was a raging success when first brought to the market in 1824-25. A host of other distilleries in the Speyside area shamelessly tacked the word Glenlivet to their product, despite being nowhere near the location, some as far away as the Moray coast:                                                           

Aberlour-Glenlivet

Aultmore-Glenlivet

Balmenach-Glenlivet

Balvenie-Glenlivet

Benromach-Glenlivet

Coleburn-Glenlivet

Convalmore-Glenlivet

Cragganmore-Glenlivet

Craigellachie-Glenlivet

Dailuaine-Glenlivet

Dufftown-Glenlivet

Glenburgie-Glenlivet

Glendullan-Glenlivet

Glen Elgin-Glenlivet

Glenfarclas-Glenlivet

Glen Grant-Glenlivet

Glen Keith-Glenlivet

Glenlossie-Glenlivet

Glen Moray-Glenlivet

Glenrothes-Glenlivet

Imperial-Glenlivet

Longmorn-Glenlivet

Macallan-Glenlivet

Miltonduff-Glenlivet

Speyburn-Glenlivet

Tamdhu-Glenlivet

In 1881, George’s grandson, George Smith Grant, by then running the family firm, initiated legal proceedings along with Andrew Usher. ‘…it was not until it was brought prominently under my notice that in the large towns in Scotland and England dealers were beginning to sell as Glenlivet Whisky lower priced Whiskies of a different character bought by them as Glenfarclas Glenlivet or Cragganmore Glenlivet or some similar combination of words calculated to deceive anyone not having local knowledge and to cause such person, by tacking on the word Glenlivet to the name of a particular distillery, to buy a different class of whisky at a higher price than it would have borne in the market if left to find a purchaser under its own name.’

The Glenlivet Distillery

By 1882, Smith and Usher began forwarding individual affidavits against each of the offending distillers. This provoked countersuits, with his competitors claiming that ‘Glenlivet’ had become a generic term during the illicit era and could now be used in the same way as ‘Islay’ to define a style of whisky. By 1883, Smith and Usher’s legal bill had reached £30,000, and 400 affidavits had been served.

By May 1884, all the parties were ready to compromise, and a deed was signed stipulating that the trademark for Glenlivet stood, and only Smith’s whisky could call itself ‘The Glenlivet’. The Smiths and Usher didn’t, however, succeed in banning other distillers from using the word.

Rather, they agreed to drop all charges against the other distillers and not prevent the use of the term by 10 distilleries: Glenlossie, Macallan, Aberlour, Benrinnes, Cragganmore, Linkwood, Glenrothes, Glen Grant, Mortlach and Glenfarclas, providing that ‘Glenlivet’ was only used as a suffix, in conjunction with the distillery name. At some point, it became common practise for the ‘Glenlivet’ part of the name to be joined to the distillery name by a hyphen.

By the 1980s, 28 distilleries were either registered as being ‘X-Glenlivet’ or using the term as a trademark, or on their labels. It’s only in recent years that Macallan, for example, has dropped the suffix.

The majority of the trademarks are now dead, and most of the distilleries are now registered under their own names. Some, however, have retained the suffix. Tamnavulin, Glen Moray, Speyburn and Tomintoul all still carry -Glenlivet in their registered name. The suffix is now only used on the labels of some independent bottlers.