Whisky Magazine October 2021

Back in issue #167 (April 2020) I reported on the progress made toward the sustainability targets of the Scotch whisky industry. At the time, there was a real feeling that, finally, the public was beginning to properly focus on green issues and hold big business, the media and policy makers to account. Just as it seemed environmentalism had reached the top of the policy agenda, a pandemic began. Now, 18 months later, it is becoming clear that an ecological disaster has run parallel to the public health crisis. Though emissions dropped significantly during lockdowns, they have already begun to bounce back to 2019 levels. What’s more, billions of single-use plastics such as masks, gloves, aprons and bottles of sanitiser, at the time so vital in the effort to protect lives…

The team behind Whisky Live London is proud to announce that Whisky Live At Home is returning for a second year. As last year’s ticket holders will know, this truly is a new breed of whisky tasting experience, and Whisky Live is delighted to be offering this opportunity to whisky fans around the UK once more. This year’s tasting pack will whisk participants away on a journey to a host of outstanding distilleries, as they receive a total of 30 x 30ml samples, including three ‘guest samples’ of gin and Tequila. All these, plus extra gifts, are delivered with UK postage included in the price. What’s more, this year will see the launch of season two of Whisky Live TV. Each episode focuses on one of the mouth-watering drams in…

I know I continually harp on this point, but bourbon is just an agricultural process that got refined over time until it became marketable. Farmers on the frontier distilled their excess grain into whiskey, first storing it in earthenware jugs and later transitioning to wooden barrels. The rest, as they say, is history. From an environmental perspective, though, isn’t a bourbon barrel, which can only be used once, seriously wasteful? Historically, bourbon barrels were only used once because that was the package in which the whiskey was sold to the end user. Grocery stores and taverns would buy whiskey by the barrel and sell it by the drink or by the jug to their customers. Distilleries couldn’t plan to get those barrels back, and they were more economical than individual…

If there is any certainty in the American alcohol industry, it’s that the laws and regulations can be completely absurd. Some of it is a hangover from the so-called ‘blue laws’, put in place in the colonial era. Iterations of some of them are still on the books in some states, like the banning of Sunday sales. Massachusetts prohibits ‘happy hours’ (read: drink specials) and, before the law was repealed, Utah required bartenders to mix drinks behind a partition, thanks to the political force of the state’s largely teetotal Mormon population. The Distilled Spirits Council of the United States (DISCUS), a trade organisation, has worked for years to bring logic to liquor laws, helping to eliminate bans on Sunday sales and ensure that spirits are put on even ground with…

Tariff and trade barriers are still present today, seven decades since the World Trade Organisation began dismantling them after World War Two. The planet’s two most powerful countries recently ‘weaponised’ tariffs against whisky and wine, seeking concessions on unrelated trade disputes and punishment for political grievances. The Communist Party of China hit Australian wine exports with tariffs up to 218 per cent in December 2020. In October 2019, the Trump administration executed a 25 per cent tariff on classes of EU liquor over airline subsidies. In retaliation, the EU put tariffs on categories of American spirits, notably bourbon. The impact to both parties after 18 months has been a fall in whisky sales of around 33 per cent, costing the Scotch industry more than half a billion pounds. On the…

Located in the West Highlands, Nc’nean recently became the first distillery in the UK to achieve an independently verified net-zero carbon footprint for its on-site operations. Though no others have yet followed suit, distilleries of all shapes and sizes are adapting to meet the Scotch Whisky Association’s (SWA) Sustainability Strategy target of achieving net-zero emissions by 2040. Nc’nean is located on the remote Morvern peninsula and was designed from the outset by founder Annabel Thomas to be as environmentally responsible as possible. For the entirety of its production, the company utilises organic malted barley, a biomass boiler, extensive recycling of waste heat and water, and bottles that are made from 100 per cent recycled glass. Unfortunately, according to Sasha Holt, head of marketing for Nc’nean, this hasn’t come without its…