Meinung

Whisky Transparency: Bruichladdich

Auch Bruichladdich versucht uns Verbrauchern – trotz geltender Gesetzeslage – mehr Transparenz über die Zusammensetzung ihrer Produkte zu gewähren. Aktuell ist dies für den „The Classic Laddie“ angekündigt worden. Wie funktioniert das?

Vor einigen Tagen habe ich über die Scotch Whisky Transparency Campaign von John Glaser (Ist Transparenz bei Scotch Whisky verboten?) berichtet. Unabhängig von John Glaser hat auch Bruichladdich daran gearbeitet und einen etwas anderen Lösungsweg erarbeitet. Bruichladdich möchte nicht gegen die aktuelle Gesetzeslage verstoßen, aber trotzdem aufdecken, wie der The Classic Laddie zusammengesetzt ist. Ich hoffe weitere Hersteller und Destillerien folgen dem Beispiel und sorgen für mehr Transparenz.

Transparenz pro Batch

Dazu will Simon Coughlin, CEO von Bruichladdich, pro Batchnummer (Code auf der Flasche) über die Webseite Auskunft geben, wie der Whisky zusammengesetzt ist. Dies hat Bruichladdich bereits Mitte Februar angekündigt – kurz nachdem John Glaser seine Kampagne öffentlich gemacht hat. Hier ein Auszug aus dem Artikel Transparency. We Support Compass Box:

bruichladdich_scottisch_barleyWe will also support their campaign in a practical sense. We believe that our customers should be able to find out the age, provenance and proportions by volume of all the casks that make up the different vattings of The Classic Laddie, bottles of which do not carry an age statement.

The age and origin of all the various casks used in every vatting to date and every future vatting, will be published as a menu on www.bruichladdich.com.

During April 2016 we will provide a new field on The Classic Laddie product page of our website. Every bottle we have ever produced carries a simple batch code. If you enter this code into the field it will list the component casks.

Every vatting of The Classic Laddie has been created using a different suite of casks and therefore every batch code will give different results. We celebrate natural whisky and variety.

Die SWA (Scotch Whisky Association) sieht dies wohl nach wie vor kritisch, wie auf der Webseite von Scotchwhisky.com nachzulesen ist. Hier ein Auszug der Stellungnahme:

David Frost, chief executive of the SWA, said: ‘The rules on age statements apply to the „presentation“ of a spirit drink. This is widely defined in the law, as, for example, terms used in labelling and advertising, or on the container and imagery.

‘On the face of it, this appears to cover information relating to a batch number printed on labels, but we suggest that Bruichladdich seeks HMRC’s view on this point, since it is ultimately for the company themselves to ensure they are marketing Scotch whisky in a way that is compliant with the law.

Auszug aus dem Brief an Scotchwhisky.com

…..We had not spoken to Compass Box prior to the launch of their campaign, however you have probably been able to infer that our support was not offered entirely spontaneously. We had been planning to release more information about the vatting of The Classic Laddie for some time – and the timing of the launch of the Compass Box campaign was simply serendipitous.  We were therefore able to act immediately on recognition of our common cause.

One thing we must make very clear however, is that Bruichladdich has no intention of breaking any laws. Recognising the restrictions imposed on us by current legislation, the information provided on The Classic Laddie bottle, packaging and advertising is not going to change. There is no intention to purchase advertising or to commission a marketing campaign to promote the fact that we are making this information available.

We are not even going to publish this information in a form that can be accessed by a casual visitor to our website. The information will only be available in response to a request from a third party who has access to the batch codes, i.e. typically someone who owns a bottle of The Classic Laddie.

When a batch code is entered into the proffered field on the product page of our website, the enquirer will be provided with the recipe pertinent to that vatting.  The information will comprise the bottling date, the number of casks of each type used, the vintage, the spirit type and the cask type. We have no intention of publishing the batch numbers anywhere other than on the bottles.

We hope this provides clarity on our position as we move towards the release of this information during April 2016.

Best Regards
Simon Coughlin
Chief Executive Officer
Bruichladdich Distillery Company Ltd

Nachzulesen auf der Webseite von Bruichladdich.