Great whisky bars of the world
A world of whisky
A round up of some of the best whisky bars on the planet WORDS CHARLES MACLEAN
S
cotland is the home of whisky, but sales of our national drink have been in gentle de- cline for twenty years. We drink more vodka
than Scotch and have done for decades. Maybe the Scottish Government should reduce the tax on whisky and increase it on vodka? Elsewhere in the world the picture is very differ- ent. The most recent figures from the Scotch Whis- ky Association (October 2012) bear the headline ‘Scotch Whisky Exports Remain at Record Levels’, increasing in value by 12% over the twelve months to end June. During the first half on 2012, sales to the US (the largest market by value) increased by 13%, those to India by 28%, to Venezuela (the ninth largest market) by 31%, Germany by 4%. Who is drinking all this whisky, sustaining ex- ports at £3.8 billion during the past six months?
42 Scottish Field Whisky Challenge
Well, I can assure you the consumer profile is very different from that in the UK – younger, stylish, afflu- ent, fashionable, and many more female drinkers. I travel a lot to conduct tastings and talk about
Scotch whisky all over the world – 23 trips abroad last year, to 17 countries, and it will be about the same this year. When I am away I often visit whisky bars, strictly in the course of market research, you understand. Let me tell you about some of the places I have visited. Since 1996 the holder of the Guinness Book of
Records entry for the largest stock of whiskies is the Waldhaus am See, St Moritz, Switzerland. Clau- dio Bernasconi stocks in excess of 2,500 different expressions, some dating from the 1890s; mainly Scotch single malts. He began to collect whiskies over 25 years ago, although the idea of offering them for sale by the glass – his carte des whiskies
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