The Scotch whisky industry is currently in the middle of an era. Quite what that era will be defined or described as won’t become clear for another decade or so. For it is usually with the experience and benefit of hindsight that we can apply such labels. For example, the period that followed the industry’s catastrophic downturn and distillery closures of the mid 1980’s came to be synonymous with and defined 10 to 15 years later as the era of the so-called “whisky loch”, due to the huge amount of excess, aged stock sitting around unloved. Similarly, the application of the term “whisky boom” to any era (e.g. the late 1800’s was a boom time for whisky sales and distillery construction) usually has relative context because it was followed by a corresponding “bust” a few years later. (Such as the Pattison-triggered crash in 1898 that followed the boom).
Continue reading “The Scotch whisky industry goes from boom to…more boom?”