Scots worried about imitation whiskies

Press, 20 July 1979, Page 12

Scots worried about imitation whiskies

By

KEN COATES

in London No-one, it seems, can make Scotch whisky quite like the Scots, not even their descendants in Dunedin, New Zealand. But these days many are trying and some of the Scotsmen are up in arms. They are worried about the production of cut-price imitations in other countries and allege that whisky frauds run into millions of dollars a year. They usually take two forms: faking a particular brand or trying to pass off an inferior local whisky as genuine, imported Scotch. The rewards lie in the huge mark-up, possible because of the heavy taxes imposed on real Scotch in most overseas countries, including New Zealand. Johnnie Walker is one of the favourite whiskies of the bogus business because of its reputation and because of the distinctive shape of the bottle. “Black Label, as sup-

plied to the House of Commons” was sold widely in Germany and Austria, according to the Scotch Whisky Association in Edinburgh. It was only the fact that “black’’ was spelled “blak” which ultimately gave the game away. Mr Quentin Stewart, the association’s director, said inquiries showed that the L o n d o n-Glasgow firm named on the label did not exist and the whisky had been distilled in the Soviet Union. Scotland is a major exporter of bulk malt but Korean attempts to buy big supplies of malt whisky are causing fresh concern about whether these bulk exports should be restricted. The bulk malt is bought by foreign whisky companies to improve the flavour of their brands, which then compete against the real imported whisky. More than 10 million gallons of bulk malt were exported last year, Japan

taking six million gallons and Spain, one million. Scotch-whisky producers are deeply divided over the practice. Distilleries in the bulk trade argue that it encourages more people to develop a taste for Scotch. It is also such big business that they would be in trouble if bulk exports were cut off suddenly, with the risk of causing a collapse in the price of Scotch as they tried to dispose of stocks. There is also a huge business in “pirate” exports. Price-cutters buy at either British homemarket prices or pass out stocks through dutv-free stores by ships’ chandlers on the west coast of the United States. This enables them to provide big buyers with Scotch at lower prices than the official agents can. But in spite of these problems the world demand for Scotch is increasing and the surplus of malt whisky is likely to disappear.