#Transparency

I had an interesting chat with the great folk at Bruichladdich today after their latest go at transparency. As you may know a number of companies, notably Compass Box and Bruichladdich, are trying hard to get the law changed on what distillers and bottlers can tell us about the drams we drink.

Laddie CEO Simon Coughlin wrote to @Scotchwhiskycom outlining the next step in their #transparency programme, you can read the article here, but basically what they want to be able to do is be allowed to give us consumers more information about the whisky they are selling us. A fair thing to do you would think but unfortunately it's against EU regulations

How was this dram made?

So whilst we wait for the EU to change the law, if you want to find out what's in your whisky and where it came from ask the distiller or bottler. Bruichladdich will tell you #TerroirMatters, they have even started putting a link on their website to allow you to get the information yourself, all you need is the code from the bottle. Currently this works for some of their range e.g. The Classic Laddie and PC Scottish Barley but hopefully will expand across the whole range in time.

I asked them for some more details about my current favourite whisky, the PC Islay Barley Heavily Peated (review coming soon), whilst there is some information on the box/bottle regarding the farms where the barley was grown, they were also able to tell me which varieties of barley were used: Optic & Oxbridge; when it was harvested: September 2008; when it was distilled: December 2008 and that my wonderful dram was matured in American & European oak casks.


Why wouldn't we want to know this information?