On the earth of alcoholic drinks, there are numerous liquids that adhere to regional designations. Bourbon should come from the U.S., Cachaça needs to be made in Brazil, and glowing wine produced outdoors Champagne can’t be known as Champagne. Whereas these monikers aren’t essentially indicative of high quality, they operate as seals of authenticity to let clients know after they’re shopping for the true McCoy.
The identical rule applies to Scotch, the official spirit of Scotland. That mentioned, there are a selection of phrases which can be inextricably tied to the Scotch vernacular, corresponding to “Highland” and “Glen,” the latter of which is Gaelic for “valley.” The rivers inside lots of Scotland’s valleys are used as the first water sources for Scotch manufacturing, so many distilleries pay homage to their respective rivers by adopting the names of those Glens. As an example, The Glenlivet distillery’s title is an ode to “the valley of the Livet river” in Speyside the place the distillery will get its water. Equally, the Glenfiddich distillery is situated within the Glen of the River Fiddich.
Though it’s intrinsically linked to the manufacturing of some Scotches, it would seem to be a stretch that this phrase is legally protected — particularly when it doesn’t relate to a particularly demarcated space (like a DOC) or product (bourbon). However that has been the case since 2022, and one explicit German model acquired caught within the crossfire.
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A ‘Tal’ Order
In 2013, Germany’s Waldhorn Distillery, a.ok.a. Waldhornbrennerei, launched a single malt whisky dubbed Glen Buchenbach. The Scotch Whisky Affiliation (SWA) instantly took the distillery to court docket on the grounds that utilizing the phrase “Glen” would mislead clients into considering that the German whisky is definitely Scotch.
Based on Scottish publication “The Nationwide,” an advocate from the EU initially sided with the distillery, however when the case was offered to a Hamburg court docket in 2019, the court docket dominated that the distillery should change the product’s title. Waldhornbrennerei, nevertheless, nonetheless wasn’t having it. On the time, the distillery’s web site claimed that the whisky was named after Buchenbachtal, “tal” being the German phrase for “valley” and “Buchenbach” the phrases for “Black Forest.” Whereas it might have been geographically correct, it doesn’t clarify why a German distillery would use a Gaelic phrase in its branding.
Nonetheless, Waldhornbrennerei disputed the 2019 ruling, and the case was despatched to the Hanseatic greater regional court docket. However to no avail; in February 2022, the distillery formally dropped “Glen” from its whisky’s title.
“Our case towards Glen Buchenbach offered clear and compelling proof to the court docket that ‘Glen’ is strongly related to Scotland and Scotch Whisky, and the one purpose to make use of ‘Glen’ for a German whisky is due to its undoubted affiliation with Scotch Whisky,” SWA director of authorized affairs Alan Park mentioned in a 2022 assertion. “The SWA has constantly taken motion in our international markets to forestall the usage of Scottish indications of origin on whisky which isn’t Scotch Whisky.”
The SWA Doesn’t Play
True to Park’s phrase, this isn’t the one time lately that the SWA has cracked down on non-Scottish manufacturers for Scotch-associated phrases and imagery of their branding. In 2019, the commerce affiliation filed a lawsuit towards the Virginia Distillery Co. for placing “Virginia-Highland” on the labels of its blended whiskies made with home malt whisky and Scotch imported from abroad, claiming that “United States Federal rules particularly forbid the usage of phrases generally related to Scotland to designate any product not wholly produced in Scotland.” In contrast to Waldhornbrennerei, the Virginia Distillery Co. was fast to oblige and drop “Highland” from its labels.
Surprisingly, these circumstances characterize simply one other day within the lifetime of the SWA workers. Whereas the Waldhornbrennerei and Virginia Distillery Co. circumstances obtained a good quantity of press, a BBC article from Could 2015 reported that the affiliation had “60 to 70 energetic authorized circumstances in 30 completely different international locations, in addition to about 300 trademark oppositions in upwards of 20 nations” on the time of the article’s publication.
They are saying that imitation is the very best type of flattery, however when cash and a coveted spirit’s repute are on the road, the SWA — maybe understandably — doesn’t mess around. Let’s simply hope they don’t come after “the” anytime quickly.
*Picture retrieved from barmalini through inventory.adobe.com
