Strong demand for scotch whisky in the US and Latin America has boosted trading at UK drinks firm Diageo, whose brands include Johnnie Walker.
Whisky brands remained the “key driver” of its global growth, Diageo said, while adding that Guinness continued to perform strongly in Africa.
European trade has been tougher, with the alcopop market in decline.
Diageo reiterated earlier forecasts of 8% profit growth this year but said the weak dollar would cost it £80m.
The US remains the firm’s most important market, making exchange rate movements important to its business.
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from Scotsman.com…
WHISKY prices will have to rise at more than three times the rate of inflation to meet growing demand from China, a senior industry executive has warned.
Demand for whisky has nearly doubled in the past year and supplies have been reduced to such an extent that price rises of 10% or more a year are on the cards.
Ken Grier, head of malts at Edrington, the distiller behind The Macallan and Famous Grouse, is one of a handful of senior figures in the industry who have admitted the days of cheap whisky are over.
He said: “Scotch whisky is now the peerless international spirits brand.
“No other spirit can compete with its delicate, multi-faceted palate.
“Demand is such that we just simply do not have the supply to meet it. Prices will have to go up and we will see that this year.”
Whisky consumption in China has risen from 700,000 to 5.7 million litres over the past 10 years, fuelled by a burgeoning middle class, who have acquired a taste for Scotch.
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This excerpt is from the local Walkerville Times Magazine.
Tunnel Vision
Due to the Civil War, in 1864, a loonie was worth $2.50 U.S. Hiram Walker purchased as many U.S. dollars as he could.
Demand for alcohol was so great his distillery was busy loading whiskey into boats headed for thirsty Americans. By the time the war ended and the U.S. dollar returned to par, he was rich.
Walker’s success made competitors jealous; from a place called “Swill Point” in
Detroit, a concocted story emerged that in order to avoid customs, he had constructed a whisky pipeline under the river from his distillery to his
Detroit
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A stout matured in whisky casks.
link
…from.. Aberdeen Journals - 01 June 2007
A Beer maker has scooped a top business award.
James Watt, from Fraserburgh, has been named Scotland’s Shell Livewire Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2007.The 25-year-old won the £3,000 first prize at the Scotland final and the chance to compete in the National Final in London on June 13 for a top prize of £10,000.
James outshone nine other young entrepreneurs from Scotland with BrewDog, an innovative micro brewery business which produces hand-made beers made from high quality ingredients from around the world.
BrewDog, which Mr Watt runs with Martin Dickie, already supplies to Sainsbury and currently produces 10,000 bottles of beer each week.
One of the flagship products is Paradox - a stout matured in whisky casks.
brewdog
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…this from whiskyfun…
Uberach Alsace Whisky (43.8%, OB, France, 2006) 
Another weird idea: maturing this novelty from my region in Banyuls casks while they could have used some genuine Alsatian casks. This one’s made by Distillerie Bertrand, a small unit in Northern Alsace that belongs to a huge wine cooperative. The result is quite good I think but extremely sweet, even sugary and syrupy like a liqueur. Very drinkable but like often, it doesn’t really taste like a single malt I think. Did they use pot stills or Holstein eau-de-vie stills?
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another story from whisky grotto
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A special from Pernod Ricard Canada
During each business day, Windsor area residents (over 300,000) witness
Hiram Walker & Sons Ltd.truck trailers making 10 round trips along a 20km
passage of Windsor/Essex County roads.
Our fleet of seven, 16 metre trailers are specifically designed to carry
barrels from the Pike Creek maturing warehouses to the Walkerville drain
and fill department on the distillery site.This constant traffic flow
between Pike Creek and Walkerville have made our trailers Windsor area
icons, proudly displaying the brand of whisky they carry.
Due to a lot of hard work from a cross-functional team we’ve been able to
transform these trailers, incorporating an exciting Wiser’s image, into
“moving” billboards! The trailers dramatically display the Wiser’s logo
and proudly announce “Windsor, Proud home of Wiser’s Whisky. Canada’s best
selling whisky family”. Residents and visitors along Highway #2, EC Row
Expressway will not only see the trailers on their daily route, but these
hard working units will also be strategically staged across the distillery
site on weekends and holidays for maximum impact. Additionally, those
exiting the Windsor train station, US visitors, residents travelling along
Riverside Drive and visitors to sites close to Hiram Walker will behold
the Wiser’s message!
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Scotland’s £1bn whisky industry yesterday welcomed tighter rules on the production and labelling of the spirit in the European Union, claiming they will bolster exports and protect jobs.Members of the European Parliament approved an updated and clearer legal definition of whisky, designed to help distillers tackle labelling which they have criticised as unfair and misleading.
The rules state that whisky cannot be flavoured or sweetened. They also update the protection of the geographical indication “Scotch whisky” in line with World Trade Organisation rules.
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