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For peat's sake: there's a lot of excitement among producers of premium and superpremium scotch.

Article Excerpt
While dwarfed by the relative size of several other distilled spirits categories, Scotch remains one of the identifiable standard bearers of the urbane consumerism. Its cachet of uncompromised quality, breadth of expression and dynamic range of flavor has made Scotch a global heavyweight.

A look at the numbers reveals some interesting trends. According to the Adams Handbook Advance 2005, while the overall Scotch category dipped 0.8% in 2004 to just under 9 million 9-liter cases nationally, for the most part premium and superpremium brands continued to grow. In general, value-priced brands--whether domestic or imported--continued to decline. In the control states, Scotch fell a scarce 0.3%, to more than 1.3 million mixed cases.

"Even though Scotch is not the largest of the whiskey markets, the category still carries more gravitas than other whiskeys," contends Larry Kass, director of corporate communications for Heaven Hill. "Scotch offers more expressions, superb marketing and packaging and a strong academic/educational bent. Collectively they're positioned in a sophisticated, upscale way, lending an importance and weight that's disproportionate to case sales."

Indeed, the leading brands of single malt Scotch had sales gains of a collective 4.8% nationally (8.7% in the control states), while the four leading blends, including premium and superpremium brands, all showed sales increases nationally. Dewar's hit 1.4 million 9-liter cases nationally (up 0.4% in the control states), and has been promoting its base brand along with the successful superpremium Dewar's 12. The brand also features another high-end expression, Dewar's Signature, which debuted last year. The Johnnie Walker family is showing renewed strength: while Black has been one of the top-selling superpremium spirits for several years now (up an impressive 5.9% nationally in 2004; up an even more impressive 6.4% in the control states), Red gained another 3.0% nationally last year (off 0.9% in the control states) on top of a comeback year in 2003. And the Chivas Regal ship has righted itself, with the world-renowned superpremium gaining 3.0% nationally in 2004 (though off 2.0% in the control states).

Consensus is that Scotch enthusiasts are different than your average spirits drinker. They're more prone to try new releases and sample unconventional bottlings. They are driven by the sense of discovery and the need to experience something new and exciting. It's all like an urban adventure. Distillers appreciate these compelling desires because it's the same forces that drive them.

"Our experience has shown us that what impels consumers to purchase a blended or single malt Scotch is taste, recommendation and self-discovery," observed Jack Shea of Allied Domecq. "As a consumer's palate becomes more discerning, he or she may be willing to move on--and up in price if necessary--to experience a more complex malt, maybe something more adventurous. More often than not, they purchase based on a recommendation or through their own discovery and research."

Diageo's Richard Nichols, vp, marketing, for Scotch, agreed. "Discovery is absolutely what drives consumers...

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