[MM-MALTS-L] Teaspooned IB Single Casks from named distilleries

[Horst Luening]

Hello Ralph!

This teaspooning is not new. Wm. Grant does it with Glenfiddich, Balvenie
and Kininvie since a decade. I recently sold such a teaspooned Kininvie
bottle for 150 Euros. I am sure, there is a market. The question is: How big
is it?

Edrington and others act this way to protect their investment in their
brands. There has been a sentence for the naming of a whisky bottle
according to its producing distillery in the new proposed whisky act in the
UK. May this influence the teaspooning? Can it be, that you are no longer
allowed to tell on the label, which ingredients are in a teaspooned  bottle.
Do you have to create fantasy names?

And what happens, if the teaspooning is done not with malt but with grain
whisky? Every cask would be degraded to a blend. And this would be the worst
case scenario for these teaspooned casks.

Single Malt Casks are getting rare in the last months. There are still a few
big IBs with sufficient stocks but in five to ten years we will see it
becoming worse. And on the other hand we see single cask bottlings
originated by the distilleries to extreme prices. Things are not developing
very well in the IB-world for the normal connoisseur.

Regards,
Horst

-----Ursprungliche Nachricht-----
Von: mm-malts-l-bounces at grsnet.net
[mailto:mm-malts-l-bounces at grsnet.net]Im Auftrag von Ralph Katzenell
Gesendet: Donnerstag, 10. Juli 2008 09:21
An: MaltManiacs operated former 'MALT-L' Whisky List
Betreff: [MM-MALTS-L] Teaspooned IB Single Casks from named distilleries


Greetings all.

There is a story that the Edrington are intending vigorously enforce a
policy of not releasing attributable casks outside the group. All casks
will, from some time in the very near future, be "teaspooned". No more IB
bottlings. Suppression of trade.

Is there a "work-around"?

OK, so they "teaspoon" a cask. Is it a fair guess that teaspooning will not
alter the essential characteristics in any noticeable way?
Suppose you were to create a new class of whisky, the Teaspoon series.
For example, you can get a "Pure Malt" from a teaspooned cask of Macallan,
18 yo from a sherry butt. You declare the usual details, and include the
fact that it has been teaspooned from an unknown distillery.
Think of the interest that such bottlings would generate.
I predict the following:
1) The punters will buy.
2) It will establish a new category of whisky.
3) Your access to potential stock is enhanced.
4) Lots to gossip about, lots of interest.

Offer me a teaspooned pure malt with semi believable tasting notes, I'll
give it a whirl.

At the far reaches of wild thought, it might even generate a "spoiled cod
fish" trade effect!!

Ralph