'Genuine Scotch' Symington Buys Edra
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TM TM EDITION 18 AUTUMN 2002 REFLUX I’m still struggling with the prices for these expensive bottles. Inevitably we get asked if a hefty purchase will appre- ciate in value. Our not being a member of any financial regulatory authority doesn’t deter the question or our best attempts to answer, but it is difficult and dangerous, hindsight being what it is. This is an old rant but one that increas- ingly concerns me. I am convinced that the market for new bottlings costing over £ 200 is static while the availability con- tinues to grow. Our ‘deals’ page features heavily discounted Glenmorangie, Glen Moray and now Highland Park 1958 at £300 off the recommended price of £990. While it is a delight to offer these prices, those who paid the full price can justifi- ably feel a tad pissed-off. The Glen- morangie was initially an internet ex- clusive at £169 and at that time was H R H — A LOCH FYNE WHISKY MAN bought enthusiastically by collectors HRH The Prince of Wales joined our appreciative audience when he was presented loyal to the brand, yet for two years we with a special bottle of The Loch Fyne by Jimmy Wilson MM and Major Jake have been offering the unsold stock for Hogg, members of the Lothian Parachute Regimental Association who are great £74 less.So much for any future loyalty. advocates of our award-winning blend. Now I hear of Ladyburn ’73 being sold in the US at a third of its asking price— SYMINGTON BUYS FARMERS THREATEN THE 3,500 bottles retailing at £390. That was predicted. EDRADOUR DISTILLERY & END OF ‘GENUINE SCOTCH’ Fortunately I don’t have to comment on A mass protest of Scottish farmers took the 36 new Macallan bottlings (up to WHITE-WATER CENTRE place outside industry leader Diageo’s £4,000) as I have been excluded from At the end of July, Andrew Symington (UD) Edinburgh headquarters recently. selling them. Despite giving six days as of Signatory Vintage Scotch Whisky cel- The farmers’ union is staging protests part of the think tank that guided their ebrated the acquisition of Edradour Dis- against a variety of industries to high- creation—but that’s a personal gripe and tillery from Campbell Distillers, a sub- light their plight. They threatened that yes, they were part of the group that sidiary of Pernod Ricard. Two weeks unless barley prices improved they made me a Keeper of the Quaich. later he may have wished he had not. would be forced to grow other crops or Too many still calculate that if one chap Exceptional rainfall caused severe flood- to set aside land. This, they argued, un- pays a thousand quid at auction for an ing in the Pitlochry area and Edradour dermined the validity of Scotch being old bottle then they can sell 600 similar Distillery and Visitor attraction was truly Scottish. bottles at that price. Yet when these damaged by flood water. “This is very bizarre,” a Diageo spokes- ‘£grand’ bottlings come up for auction “It could have been worse,”said a re- man told SWR (well, Peter Smith actu- they rarely achieve even the retail price! lieved Symington. “Another six inches ally). “We buy almost all our barley and So what advice do I have for you, the and the distillery buildings would have wheat from Scotland, with contracts, but consumer? Well, if you’re a collector don’t been affected. The river rose and carried the price is determined by the world mar- worry—buy what appeals (but beware a huge tree down it, demolishing the ket and the harvest. Besides, we’re un- of ancient bottles, these days it’s very banks and damaging the bridges; and ion members too as we own nine farms!” easy to create authentic looking bottles the car park was washed away. Thank- The police attending put the numbers and flog them for £grand prices!), but if fully we were only closed for three days protesting at 110, the farmers claimed you’re an investor, hedge your bets and and I’m delighted to have survived my 250; presumably some confusion about keep each under £200 or so. baptism of water!” the number of legs involved. SCOTCH WHISKY REVIEW—Loch Fyne Whiskies, Inveraray, Argyll, PA32 8UD. www.LFW.co.uk PAGE 1 colour developed until the sixth case In some cases justifiably so. I bottle THE LAIRD OF when the hue that I was expecting fi- malts at a different age from those done nally appeared. I was horrified to dis- by the brand owner—but that is getting EDRADOUR cover some was being ‘lost’ in the pipes harder to do as they are extending their and filters and I realised that some of range to more and more expressions. I’ve what I was selling could have been stuck rigidly to that principle but some cheapo supermarket blend or worse! I of the ‘armchair bottlers’—those with no wasn’t happy that I couldn’t claim hand facilities beyond a telephone—have been on heart this was a great product. I mimicking the proprietors, sticking dis- wanted complete control myself. tillery names in big letters on labels with I reckoned that the only way for me to no respect for the trademark owners. get round that was for me to have my There are quality issues on some of these own bonded warehouse with bottling products too, giving the distillers some- facility and stock of casks which I could thing to be very concerned about. monitor myself. It’s getting harder for the independents; LFW: And the name, Signatory? anyone lucky enough to get any new With Signatory I thought that someone Lagavulin will have restraints on them. would endorse it as being something Glenmorangie has never sold a cask of worth bottling but I gave up because we single malt; they add a tiny measure of started selling long before we found any- Glen Moray and call it ‘Westport’ so Andrew Symington was in very one famous to sign a bottle! (I almost got ‘Glenmorangie’ cannot be found in the cheerful form when we met for our Sean Connery once). Vintage, well, some market. Glenfiddich do the same with interview feature. producers complained you can’t have a ‘Wardhead’ and more are going to do it; LFW: What is your job? vintage whisky, but now they all have Bowmore are just starting to do it now. I am founder and Managing Director of one. When I got my cask of Glenlivet 1968 It will take about five to ten years to use Signatory Vintage Scotch Whisky. My I realised that I wouldn’t always have a up stocks in circulation from the late ’80s business is that of an independent bot- ’68 but I would get some ’70 or whatever then it will get very hard for a bottler. tler buying and maturing casks of and also to find a point of difference. I’m also gathering casks from distiller- whisky and then selecting them for bot- Unlike port, with whisky each year is ies which are closed and so have no tling with our own label. I keep about just as good as the others but it does brand interest but that is getting harder 1,100 casks in stock with ages from three depend on the quality of cask it went too. In the last four years there has been or four years to as old as 1954. into. Vintage as a term helps explain an explosion of new bottlers or as I like Recently I acquired Scotland’s smallest differences in bottlings. to call them ‘armchair labellers’. Some distillery, Edradour in Perthshire. I am We’ve been here in Leith since 1992 with are already disappearing having real- now both a Scotch whisky bottler and offices, bottling plant and cased goods ised there is no quick buck to be made. distiller—an ambition fulfilled! warehouse, plus about 130 casks—pri- The big boys deal direct, leaving out the I started Signatory fourteen years ago marily things that are going to be bot- broker or merchant. It’s in a smaller with the ambition of having my own dis- tled in the next month and the more number of hands and if you don’t have tillery. Now the transfer is complete I venerable gems that I like to keep an the connections then it is going to get am a very happy chappie—despite my eye on and sample every three to six very difficult. immediate baptism of fire; after just two months, rare treasures from the Fifties With time, I began to get a reputation weeks of possession of Edradour a huge and Sixties. for bottling quality whiskies from good thunderstorm caused a flash flood which The other 1,000 casks are scattered casks and that’s what made me accepted, caused about £300,000 worth of damage! around Scotland in about 37 different that and the investment in a bottling LFW: How did you become a bottler? distilleries and warehouses. If I buy a line and the commitment to the indus- I became involved in this industry dur- cask that I don’t need immediately I’ll try. I showed I wasn’t after a quick buck, ing my time as a Manager at the posh leave it where it is, paying rent to have buying the odd cask here and there. Prestonfield House Hotel in Edinburgh it stored. The rental is small if you have Once people realised I wanted to buy my where many of the old whisky compa- 100 casks or so with a keeper but there own distillery, I was taken a lot more nies used to entertain VIPs and they are set-up charges to keep out the small seriously.