I expected tartan, tassels and heady aromas at the single-malt “nosing” last week. What I didn't expect was mint juleps.
“These are very good,” said a kilt-clad Charles MacLean, the Edinburgh-based author of nine whisky books, as we chatted over cocktails prior to his Scotch whisky tutorial at Toronto's Massey College. “You can really taste The Glenrothes.”
The Glenrothes would be the single-malt brand whose local agent helped sponsor the evening, held partly in support of the Scholars-at-Risk program, which assists academic refugees in Canada.
Single malt sitting in for pedestrian U.S. corn “likker” (aka bourbon) in a mint julep? Charles MacLean's imprimatur?
It turns out Massey College, a Hogwarts-meets-1960s-modernism residence for University of Toronto graduate students, was – perhaps for the first time – on trend.
Scotch, in case you haven't noticed, has doffed its kilt.
“There's a trend in using whiskies, even malt whiskies, in cocktails,” said Mr. MacLean, who had just returned from China, where he said the craze is to drink Scotch with chilled, sweetened green tea.
There is a resurgence in Scotch mixology and it's not limited to faded classics such as the Rob Roy and Scotch and soda.
Bill Sweete, a veteran Toronto sommelier who, with a partner, recently opened Sidecar Bar and Grill on the College Street strip of Little Italy, unveiled this week what he calls “Scotch marmalade,” a homemade infusion of cardamom, star anise, cinnamon and orange peel in a base of Johnnie Walker Red Label.
“It infused beautifully into the Scotch and the Scotch flavour comes through,” said Mr. Sweete, who recommends it on the rocks or, for a more diluted drink, as a highball with club soda.
And whisky makers have predictably jumped on the Scotch-tail bandwagon – or race car, as the case may be. During last weekend's Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal, Diageo, the multinational whose bestselling Johnnie Walker brand sponsors the McLaren-Mercedes Formula One racing team, borrowed a page from the vodka marketing playbook.
Its featured drink at numerous venues around the city and at Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve was the Johnnie Walker Black Mojito, a variant of the Cuban highball traditionally made with lowly white Caribbean rum, only in this case using its, gulp, premium Black Label whisky.
“That's what consumers are saying, ‘Surprise me,'” said Michele D'Angelo, director of brown spirits for Diageo Canada. “In order to stay current, in order to be relevant, in order to fit in people's lives, you have to surprise consumers, and definitely part of that is cocktailing.”
The makeover appears to be working. The Edinburgh-based Scotch Whisky Association recently reported that Scotch exports reached a second consecutive record high in 2007, at £2.8-billion ($5.6-billion), up 14 per cent from the previous year. And not all of that growth is coming from emerging-thirst markets in Asia and Eastern Europe, nor from rarefied single malts, which still make up a small fraction of demand.
The brightest spot is in deluxe-blended whiskies, superpremium extensions of bestselling, smooth-drinking big label brands such as Johnnie Walker. They include a foursome of Johnnie Walker whiskies – Black, Gold, Green and Blue Label – as well as several high-end bottlings of Chivas Regal, itself a status blended Scotch at $40-plus for the regular 12-year-old. Many of the deluxe brands cost as much as, or more than, the average single malt. Johnnie Walker Blue, for example, costs $239.95 in Ontario and $229.95 in British Columbia for a 750-millilitre bottle.
Chivas Regal 18 Year Old costs $84.45 in Ontario, $89.95 in British Columbia.
“There is definitely a resurgence in premium blended whisky,” said Stéphane Côté, director of sales for Corby Distilleries Ltd. for Ontario, whose brands include Chivas. “We have seen it especially over the last three years.”
Tapping the trend is a brand launched in the United States last year called Chivas Regal 25 Year Old, set to cost about $330 when it gets its Canadian launch in Ontario this fall. Officially, the inspiration was to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the first shipment of Chivas whisky to North America in 1909. That first whisky was a 25-year-old.
