Scotch is only the seventh largest category in the UK's best bars - Hamish Smith sees which brands are on bartenders' radars.
Some time ago, 15 years or more, Johnnie Walker seemed to be everywhere around the world but at home. Its owner, Diageo, has certainly gone up the domestic gears in recent years. To the point it’s a surprise to no one that Johnnie Walker tops our list of bestselling scotch whiskies in the UK’s best bars.
As Diageo’s flagship scotch, Johnnie Walker comes, of course, with fiscal incentives, but it would be reductive to pass off its success as pay-to-play. Let’s not forget that when the single malt wave enveloped domestic drinkers two or three decades ago, blends fell away. In the UK’s best bars, only Johnnie Walker and Dewar’s remain as blends among the top 10.
Johnnie Walker, mainly Black, successfully positioned itself as a cut above – it became the blend for mixing. Our poll of the UK’s best bars suggest about a fifth have it as their house, with a third saying it was among their top three scotches.
Then come the malts, led, of course, by The Macallan – so selfimportant, it requires the definite article. To its credit, it’s become a byword for single malt luxury and if you have high rollers, or drinkers who aspire to be, you have to stock it. Hotel bars don’t really have a say.
So what does all this add up to? The Edrington brand was found to be the top-selling scotch in a fifth of our sample and one of the three-bestsellers in a third. No doubt, most bars have a bottle somewhere on the back bar.
In third is Ardbeg. If Islay is known for its smoke, this LVMH scotch has a 40-a-day habit, with its range coming in at 50ppm, more than most on the westerly island. Ardbeg is the top scotch in 8% of our sample and, more tellingly, a top-three fixture in a quarter. But it’s also the Bartenders’ Favourite – that’s right, respondents said this was the brand that excited them more than any other. While we’re here, Suntory’s first-aid-box-on-fire, Laphroaig (19% make it a top three) and Diageo’s subtler Talisker (10%) are the other two peated drams bars gravitate towards.
But back up the ladder to fourth and we have William Grant’s mixed-malt Monkey Shoulder (8% said it was their house), which comes with a package of benefits – it’s a solid profile, it’s made for mixing, it’s affordable and it’s not a blend. Well, not a blend blend, anyway.
Glenmorangie, in fifth (15% said it was among their top three), and Glenfiddich (13%) are two more of the big single malts that manage to speak to whisky enthusiasts of all persuasions – from the supermarket dweller to the high-end bar drinker to the whisky auction bidder. Along with The Macallan – and perhaps The Glenlivet and Singleton – they are the two most recognisable single malts around. Bacardi’s Aberfeldy (8%), 10th this year, also has growing familiarity in the on-trade.
Talking of Bacardi, the blend not yet mentioned is Dewar’s, which continues to build on its rebrand and bolster its reputation as a valuable mixing whisky. Its performance in our poll suggest if it’s not the house (which it was in 5% of cases) it’s not in the house at all.
With scotch languishing in seventh in our list of spirits, there is much work for brands to do – individually and collectively – in the UK bar industry.