/ wemyss development to launch whisky brand

one of scotland's oldest and most unusual family firms is to launch its own range of branded single malt whiskies this year after completing alliances with unnamed spirits industry partners. wemyss development company, the fife-based mini-conglomerate whose interests range from tea planting in kenya to sheep farming in australia, is targeting overseas markets for wemyss vintage malts as it seeks to diversify its business interests further...

via the herald

/ playboy magazine toasts whisky link-up

a whisky firm has created a limited edition single malt for playboy magazine: glenfiddich has previously produced private vintages to mark the first flight of concorde and for the queen mary 2. but now a 1974 whisky, which has been dubbed “play malt”, has been produced for the german edition of the men’s magazine. all 248 bottles will be sold exclusively in germany for £250 each (350 euros)...

via the scotsman

/ bruichladdich goes on the whisky trail for distilleries

the chief executive of the bruichladdich distillery on islay has approached patrick ricard regarding a possible bid for some of the smaller distilleries that are changing hands with the £7.4bn takeover of allied domecq. mark reynier has registered an interest in the glendronach and scapa distilleries - which are passing into pernod ricard hands through the joint bid with fortune brands of the us...

via the scotsman

/ msp fails to make case over whisky barley

a motion that only home-grown barley should be used to make scotch whisky found no support in parliament last night. holyrood’s newest msp, liberal democrat andrew arbuckle, made the proposal the cornerstone of his first member’s motion, arguing that the move would give scotch whisky protected geographical indicator (pgi) status...

via the scotsman

/ highland park debuts 30 year old single malt

in 1975, the whisky makers at the world's northernmost distillery highland park in scotland's orkney islands, followed the centuries-old traditions of floor-malting barley, kiln drying it over the peat cut from nearby hobbister hill, and ultimately filling casks with new spirit. while some of that spirit went on to become highland park's award-winning 12, 18 and 25 year old single malts, a select quantity now makes its debut as highland park's first-ever 30 year old single malt scotch whisky, arriving in fine wine and spirit stores nationwide in june 2005, just in time for father's day...

via marketwire

/ pernod, fortune seek to buy allied domecq

france's pernod ricard and u.s. conglomerate fortune brands are in joint talks to buy larger rival allied domecq plc in a deal that would dramatically reshape the global spirits business and create two stronger rivals to industry leader diageo...

via abcnews, financial times

/ overseas whisky sales break £2bn barrier again

more than 55million bottles of malt whisky were shipped overseas last year. export figures for 2004 released by the scotch whisky association show that shipments broke the £2billion barrier for the 12th year in succession, with more than £2.2bn worth of whisky shipped overseas ...

via evening times, scotsman

/ allied appoints new managing director

allied domecq has appointed stuart lowthian as managing director of allied distillers, its scottish division, as it gears up for an assault on the growing market for single malts. lowthian, a former technical operations director, replaces paul porter-smith in the top job at dumbarton. he is understood to have been given the task of pumping up the company’s malt whisky brands, which include glendronach from speyside, scapa from orkney and laphroaig from islay.

via the scotsman

/ pernod toasts glenlivet as profits leap

pernod ricard’s whisky brands, including chivas regal and the glenlivet, "clearly outperformed" the market last year, helping drive up the drinks giant’s profits almost 10 per cent, according to chief executive patrick ricard. the glenlivet, was second only to william grant’s glenfiddich malt in terms of world sales in 2004, with volumes rising 9 per cent to over 400,000 cases. the single malt is already the leading seller in the united states.

via the scotsman

/ glen garioch launches whisky in thailand

glen garioch distillery has released one of its rarest whiskies. the single malt distillery announced earlier this week that it has launched a 15 years old glen garioch matured in bordeaux casks. the release will be exclusive to thailand and will be limited to 1,800 bottles.

via just-drinks.com