God Bless America and God Bless our Brave men and women fighting for our Freedom and the Freedom of those less fortunate.

Cheers,

The Wild Scotsman Family

Diageo axes Port Dundas distillery
Jul 1 2009

AROUND 900 are to be axed after drinks giant Diageo decided to shut its historic distillery at Port Dundas.

Diageo is shutting the distillery, which has been producing whisky since 1810, and is also closing a packaging plant at Kilmarnock in Ayrshire and outsourcing some of its warehousing operations.

The group’s restructuring in Scotland will mark the end of nearly 200 years of distilling at the Port Dundas operation in Glasgow.
Around 140 jobs will be lost when the distillery and its adjacent Dundashill Cooperage close, although Diageo is hoping to relocate some staff to a new cooperage in central Scotland.

Diageo said its “long-term grain whisky requirements can be best met” at the group’s Cameronbridge distillery in Fife, which is being expanded.

The jobs will go over the next two years, but Diageo said changes in the region will also see 400 jobs created through the expansion of its packaging plant in Fife.

The decision to close its Kilmarnock packaging plant and consolidate operations in its other two facilities in Glasgow and Fife will have the biggest impact on jobs, with 700 roles to go by the end of 2011.

It hopes to transfer a number of axed positions to the Fife plant, which is being expanded under an £86 million scheme.

Changes at its Shieldhall packaging plant in Glasgow will also lead to 30 job losses, said Diageo.

And the group is relocating around 80 office-based staff from Dundas House in Glasgow to another location in central Scotland over the next two years.

Outsourcing deals for its Hurlford consolidation warehouse in Ayrshire and Speyside haulage operation for distillery co-products are set to see 80 jobs transferred.

Scotland is one of Diageo’s largest spirit supply centres, currently employing around 4,500 people and producing nearly 50 million cases of Scotch whisky and white spirits.

See original post at TheDailyRecord.co.uk

It seems that Diageo is making good use of the global economy to re-structure its operations. I am of the opinion, however, that the closure of Diageo’s distilleries can lead to an independant group buying the facilities, which is good for Scotland.

Jeff & John Bottle Pose

Hope to see you there in the forum,

Cheers,
The Wild Scotsman

I call them like I see them,
Jeffrey Topping aka The Wild Scotsman

One-man law firm scotched whisky group’s case

By CLARE MELLOR Business Reporter
Sat. Jun 13 – 4:46 AM
David Copp doesn’t have a big law office, or even a secretary for that matter, but the Halifax lawyer didn’t think twice about taking on the forces of the Scotch Whisky Association in what has become one of the most notorious trademark cases in the country.

“I am a Cape Bretoner and I am very sensitive to anything that threatens or is damaging to the people and economy of the place that is my home,” he said Friday.

On Thursday, Mr. Copp’s client, Glenora Distillers International Ltd., won a major victory when the Supreme Court of Canada refused to hear the whisky’s association’s appeal of a Federal Court of Appeal decision. The ruling allows Glenora to register the name Glen Breton, Canada’s only single malt whisky, under the Trademarks Act of Canada.

Mr. Copp, who practices law by himself in Halifax, was hired by the Cape Breton distillery about nine years ago after the Edinburgh-based association tried to stop the distillery’s use of the word Glen in the Glen Breton name. It claimed the name Glen makes consumers believe the whisky is produced in Scotland

But what started out as a seemingly straightforward administrative hearing went all the way to the Federal Court of Appeal.

“It is a little distillery and resort area . . . (and) it has been the subject of a really determined and relentless attack by the Scotch Whisky Association on its primary brand,” Mr. Copp said.

The Scotch Whisky Association represents some multinational corporations like Diageo Plc, which produces and distributes brands including Smirnoff vodka, Johnnie Walker Scotch whiskies, Guinness, Bailey’s; J&B Scotch whisky, Captain Morgan rum and Tanqueray gin, according to its website.

Mr. Copp said he did not believe the association’s attack on Glenora had any merit.

“It is an example of how difficult it can be when large commercial forces align themselves to oppose what is a really important element of success in business — mainly having a good trademark,” he said.

Mr. Copp, who worked as lawyer for the former crown corporation International Centre for Ocean Development in Halifax, has practiced law by himself since 1992, and taken on many trademark cases.

But he concedes they have never been as complicated and time consuming as this case.

He was forced to bring in some paralegal reinforcement to help him keep on top of the massive amounts of documents that the case generated.

“The filing for the Court of Appeal was almost 4,000 pages. Each level produced several bankers boxes (of documents.) . . . We are dealing with tens of thousands of pages of printing.”

The Scotch Whisky Association was represented by national law firm Gowlings in the case.

And while it might be the end of the trademark battle in this county, the Scotch Whisky Association said Friday it could take action outside Canada depending on how Glenora markets its products internationally.

“Our job now, on behalf of the Scotch whisky industry, is to monitor very carefully how the product is marketed and to ensure there is no risk of confusion in any other market,” said the association’s David Williamson.

( cmellor@herald.ca)

Cheers, Jeffrey Topping aka The Wild Scotsman

Taking a sip? Taking a trip? Kentucky hopes to capitalize

By David Holthaus

FRANKFORT – Time can seem to stand still in Bourbon Country, but change is under way in one of Kentucky’s signature industries as it works to cash in on a growing interest in expensive bourbon and bourbon tourism.

Bourbon sales went stagnant in the last year, growing by just 1 percent. But, even as the recession deepened, the native American spirit gained cachet among cocktail drinkers with a taste for the expensive stuff.

The resurgence in high-end bourbons is behind some recent shifts in an industry that maintains its rural, homegrown feel even as it’s come to be controlled by a handful of global companies.

A New Orleans company best known for lending its name to a cocktail made from cognac recently bought several brands of Kentucky bourbon and is planning to invest nearly $30 million in Frankfort and Owensboro.

Meanwhile, an Italian company best known for a liquor made with fruit and herbs just completed its purchase of American icon Wild Turkey.

And that stalwart of American whiskey-making, Jim Beam, plans to pump millions into its bourbon headquarters in Clermont, Ky., not to make the stuff but to bring in more tourist dollars.

The moves come amid a counter-intuitive trend in U.S. sales of bourbon (and its cousin, Tennessee whiskey). Even as Americans felt poorer, they increasingly moved toward more expensive brands. Case sales of “super-premium” brands such as Woodford Reserve, Van Winkle and Knob Creek, soared 16.5 percent from 2007 to 2008 as classic cocktails, many made with expensive bourbon and rye, continued making a comeback.

“The higher end has been getting more attention, more sales and more volume,” said Danielle Eddy of the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States.

But super-premium brands account for only a fraction – 4 percent – of all the cases sold in the U.S.

Any other industry could ramp up production of the high-priced product to meet the demand. But federal law requires bourbon to be aged at least two years and the expensive brands can spend 10, 15, 20 years or more mellowing in oak barrels before they’re bottled and sold. Quick response to a change in consumer tastes just isn’t possible.

If you want to sell high-end bourbon, you’ve got to buy into it.

New Orleans-based Sazerac North America bought into Kentucky bourbon in 1991with its purchase of the former George T. Stagg distillery in Frankfort. Sazerac is a 159-year-old spirits maker that gave its name to what some say is the original cocktail, the Sazerac, made with bitters and cognac.

Sazerac renamed the distillery Buffalo Trace in 1999 after the Buffalo that once crossed the Kentucky River at the wide, shallow spot there. Buffalo Trace is the oldest continuously operating distillery in the U.S., having operated legally during Prohibition producing spirits for “medicinal use.”

Some of the equipment has been there that long, so a $9 million investment in machinery and equipment is planned, adding 39 jobs to the 270 currently working there.

In March, Sazerac bought more Kentucky bourbon, snapping up the Bardstown-made, value brands such as Kentucky Tavern and Kentucky Gentleman. But with the $334 million deal with Constellation Brands came super-premium Ridgemont Reserve 1792 and the historic Tom Moore Distillery in Bardstown, a potential destination for bourbon tourism.

The purchase also included the Glenmore Distillery in Owensboro, no longer a distillery but a modern bottling and warehouse operation. Sazerac plans to invest about $19 million there to expand by 300,000 feet, add new machinery and about 50 new jobs.

“This is a first in a series of steps to become more competitive nationally and globally,” said Sazerac CEO Mark Brown.

The New Orleans company is also thinking about locating some administrative offices in Louisville, which would bring about 50 jobs.

Overall, bourbon sales may have hit the wall, but the taste for it overseas continues to grow. Bourbon exports grew 14.6 percent in 2007.

But limited supply and the aging requirement make it difficult to increase exports quickly.

“We can’t make as much as the world market can consume. We just can’t do it,” said Harlen Wheatley, master distiller at Buffalo Trace.

His distillery has the capacity to produce 200,000 barrels a year, but is only putting out 61,000. “You have to invest the money, then wait three years, or four, or seven….” he said.

That may be why Jim Beam is planning to invest in something that could have a quicker return. Clermont, off Interstate 65, is the western gateway to the Bourbon Trail, and Jim Beam wants to capitalize on that with major renovations to its visitor center. About 80,000 tourists each year pass through the center. There are plans to spend $16 million over three years to expand and renovate, in hopes of doubling or even tripling the number of visitors, said Fred Noe III.

“This is the Napa Valley of this part of the country,” Noe said.

Noe is living proof of how time can seem to stand still in Bourbon Country. The 53-year-old is a great-grandson of Jim Beam himself and the seventh generation of the Beam family to carry the title “distiller.”

The Jim Beam brand is owned by $7.5 billion global conglomerate Fortune Brands, which owns another well-known Kentucky bourbon, Maker’s Mark.

Another iconic American bourbon brand, Wild Turkey, was just purchased by Gruppo Campari, an Italy-based company whose namesake brand is an aperitif made from bitter herbs, plants and fruit.

The $581 million purchase includes the Wild Turkey brands, the distillery in Lawrenceburg, Ky. and perhaps most importantly, its substantial barrel inventory of aging and finished bourbon.

Additional Facts
Keeping up a tradition

Bourbon-making in Kentucky drips with tradition, even as global, billion-dollar companies control much of the business. Maintaining those traditions is especially important for those companies, who see it as critical to their marketing.

Jim Beam, for example, is a $2.5 billion company based in Chicago, itself a unit of Fortune Brands, a $7.5 billion company that also sells cabinets, faucets, golf balls and even kitchen sinks.

But there once was a man named Jim Beam, who took over the family business in 1894 and rebuilt it after Prohibition. Jim Beam Global keeps the family lineage alive through Beam’s great-grandson, Frederick Booker Noe III.

Noe, a 52-year-old Kentuckian, wears various titles, including master distiller emeritus, bourbon ambassador and keeper of the flame.

Noe says his role is to hang on to the traditions.

“My job isn’t to change anything,” he says. “My job is to hold it and hopefully to pass it on to my son down the road.”

That would be Frederick Booker Noe IV, currently a college student.

Bourbon Rules

Contrary to popular belief, bourbon does not have to be made in Kentucky as long as its production follows these rules:

- It must be made in the United States.

- At least 51 percent of the content must come from corn; the rest from grains.

- It must be aged at least two years in a new white oak barrel.

- To be labeled and marketed as “Kentucky bourbon,” it must be distilled in Kentucky and aged there for at least a year.

- To be labeled as “straight bourbon whiskey,” it must be aged at least two years.

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Wild Scotsman Black Label

Another Great Event by the Party Source

I hope to see all of your soon for another event or just grabbing a good pint with our friends at the Beer Sellar

Memorial Day was officially proclaimed on 5 May 1868 by General John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, in his General Order No. 11 , and was first observed on 30 May 1868, when flowers were placed on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery. The first state to officially recognize the holiday was New York in 1873. By 1890 it was recognized by all of the northern states. The South refused to acknowledge the day, honoring their dead on separate days until after World War I (when the holiday changed from honoring just those who died fighting in the Civil War to honoring Americans who died fighting in any war). It is now celebrated in almost every State on the last Monday in May (passed by Congress with the National Holiday Act of 1971 (P.L. 90 – 363) to ensure a three day weekend for Federal holidays), though several southern states have an additional separate day for honoring the Confederate war dead: January 19 in Texas, April 26 in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and Mississippi; May 10 in South Carolina; and June 3 (Jefferson Davis’ birthday) in Louisiana and Tennessee.

In 1915, inspired by the poem “In Flanders Fields,” Moina Michael replied with her own poem:

We cherish too, the Poppy red
That grows on fields where valor led,
It seems to signal to the skies
That blood of heroes never dies.

This weekend the Flag of my father will once again see the light of day.

The Wild Scotsman

Wild Scotsman Whisky can take your Establishment to the Next Level. The bar set so high your competition will probably not even try to step up. Anyone can have a bottle of Scotch Whisky on the shelf, however, not many can have their own brand. We are not talking about a “meaningless sticker” placed on the side of a bottle as an after thought, but your own custom designed label..

After being contacted we will discuss your needs and work out a proposal that can fit into your budget and we will only bottle what we would proudly label under our brands. We can deliever the following:

Single Cask Single Malt Scotch
Single Malt Scotch
Vatted Malt Scotch
Blended Scotch
Single Cask Aged Rum
Single Cask Aged Gin

Cheers,

The Wild Scotsman

The USA is still the top importer of Scotch by Value, however, we are down 11% from 2007 to 2008.
The USA is only second to France in total Scotch imports, however, we are also down 11% from 2007 to 2008.

Scotch Exports For 2008

Cheers,

The Wild Scotsman