Major shake-up for Scotch whisky

by Rosie Davenport

Tough new laws on how Scotch whisky is marketed are being considered in the industry's biggest shake-up for nearly a century.

The Scotch Whisky Associa-tion (SWA) has revealed farreaching proposals to ensure distillers do not mislead drinkers with false descriptions of their products.

A working group of suppliers and trade leaders was tasked with putting together the guidelines, which centre on clarifying the different categories of whisky and the use of distillery names on packaging.

The group was set up last year after Diageo was accused by rivals of destroying the trade's integrity when it refused to change the name of its Cardhu brand ­ called after the distillery where it was first made ­ even though it was no longer a single malt made there, but a combination of spirits from different plants. Instead it swapped the term "single malt" for "pure malt" on bottles.

Now the SWA says it wants to "formalise" an agreement among producers to prevent terms such as malt and blended being misused.

David Williamson, the SWA's public affairs manager, said labels should clearly state whether a whisky is a "single", which can be either a "single malt" or a "single grain", or a "blend" ­ broken down into either blended Scotch whisky, blended malts or blended grains. The use of the term "pure malt" would be banned.

Under the SWA's proposals, suppliers will only be allowed to use the name of one of the whisky producing regions or a distillery on bottles if the liquid has been distilled there.

Williamson added: "Not only would new rules help prevent misleading marketing and therefore consumer confusion, they would also build a better understanding of Scotch whisky for consumers."