Whisky focus: Single minded

While blends struggle to find the light in the reflected glow of sexy bourbons and quality Irish whiskeys, single malts are beginning to find more and more fans in the pub trade.

Traditionally something the 30 to 50-year-old whisky fan would take out at home on special occasions, single malts are now finding a younger consumer and being drunk more in the pub.

So is this success being achieved? Well, there is absolutely no doubt that single malts do not suffer from the image problems that blends do. However, as well as this, several brand owners have set about marketing single malts inventively.

Maxxium, whose single malt brands include the Macallan and Highland Park, says the company has had great success with its 'Malt of the Month' promotion

."It's a tried and tested mechanic - a point-of-sale (PoS) kit with posters, tent cards and stock to enable bars to sell a dram at a promotional price for a short period to encourage consumers to experiment and trade up to a brand they may not ordinarily try," says Emma Heath. The PoS material contains tasting notes. "The more you know, the better it tastes!" Emma adds.

Aileen Nicol from Beam Global UK suggests consumer habits are changing and that pub drinkers are now happy to go straight to a single malt for their first taste of whisky - rather than by trading up slowly.

"Historically, consumers have entered into the malt whisky category having been blended whisky drinkers first but the trend is changing and more people are choosing malts first through introductions from friends or more experienced consumers," she says. "This is more likely to happen in the on-trade because customers are able to discuss their choices and try a glass without investing in a whole bottle. It is therefore worth stocking a rang to cater for all tastes and encourage consumers to talk about what they enjoy or don't."

However, no single malt producer would yet suggest that the battle for pub customers has been won. Perhaps their heads have been turned but most customers know very little about what they are drinking.

"People still find this category very intimidating," says James Pennefather at Diageo. "If you take our target market of 30+ and ask them to describe a single malt they have very little language with which to do so - apart from 'smooth' and 'smoky'."

With this concern for consumer education in mind Diageo has unveiled a new flavour map, which it hopes will help both licensees and drinkers understand the category better. It maps out every major single malt whisky in the market and puts them on a scale denoting richness of flavour (depending on how long the product has been aged for etc) and on how peaty the product is.

Consumers can find the kind of whisky they like and then see other brands mapped out nearby that they could try. The map was put together with the help of whisky expert and writer Dave Broom, who felt that too many consumers were buying whisky on the back of its region of origin in Scotland (e.g. Speyside or Islay), rather than its flavour qualities.

"If you speak to the blenders in Scotland they have always characterised their whiskies by flavour rather than region. And now a lot of off-trade multiples are doing this. Threshers, Budgens, Tesco and Sainsbury's are going to divide their whisky sales areas into ranges of flavours.

"So often I see whiskies stocked alphabetically by licensees. The only thing that helps you with is stocktaking!"

Dave believes the flavour map will give licensees the knowledge to stock a full range of single malts, catering for all tastes. "Licensees will be able to assess their whisky range - to see if in fact there are gaping holes in it - for lighter whiskies or more mature ones."

Diageo is taking the innovation to the industry at the Whisky Live! show next month, along with other distillers. It will also be sent out through Diageo's 'Friends of Classic Malts' club - which has 75,000 members and it will be used in a scotch whisky supplement being sent out with The Times next month.