{"id":1233,"date":"2012-07-12T22:46:30","date_gmt":"2012-07-12T22:46:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/davstott.me.uk\/?p=1233"},"modified":"2012-07-12T22:47:26","modified_gmt":"2012-07-12T22:47:26","slug":"bruichladdich_for_sale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/davstott.me.uk\/index.php\/2012\/07\/12\/bruichladdich_for_sale\/","title":{"rendered":"Bruichladdich for sale?!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\" Monday’s shock news from the world of whisky was the press release, carried on Reuters’ newswire<\/a>, that Remy Cointreau is in advanced talks to buy Bruichladdich. Yes, you heard me, the youthful, energetic, fiercely independent progressive distillers are talking about being bought by a multinational group.<\/p>\n

A number of questions might spring to mind, such as why is this news and why is Dav publishing opinions on the subject when he doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t normally chatter about current affairs on the internet and why\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s he taken four days to get around to hitting the publish button. Mostly, this is published purely for sake of my own vanity and I get to be an over excited fanboi on the internet if I want to. Provided I don’t make a habit of it, of course. If by some faint chance of fate that somebody from Bruichladdich winds up reading this: Hello!<\/p>\n

In the interests of full disclosure, I have exactly no knowledge of the situation apart from what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s in the public domain on the internet. I found out when Mark Gillespie broke the news on the Whisky Cast\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s<\/a> Facebook page, and have found out what’s going on mostly from reading twitter, the press releases and Remy Cointreau’s annual report and accounts. <\/p>\n

I’m going to start with a tangent. Humans like stories and narrative. That’s why reporters tend to include people’s ages in news articles, to add human interest and engage with the reader. It gives the reader a greater sense of being involved and generally keeps marketing departments and packaging designers in business. People also like triumph against adversity, cheering on others who are putting in heroic efforts, to succeed despite the odds, for the sheer passion of doing what they want to do.<\/p>\n

Single Malt Whisky trades heavily on the back story of how that drink came into being, the distillery’s unique history and buildings, the region and countryside, and maybe some of the people who made it, conjuring up poetic images that spark imagination which ultimately leads to more sales.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Jim McEwan in action<\/p><\/div>Stories from books and told by other people are good, but they pale in comparison to stories experienced first hand. Hence why I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m writing this. My personal story was stunningly lucky to intersect with Bruichladdich\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s for a magical week<\/a> in September 2009. One day whilst I was there, trying hard to remember everything Jim McEwan was saying, I mentioned that I liked reading the Bruichladdich Blog<\/a>, I found it to be an interesting insider\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s view into the murky world of international Whisky industry and wondered who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s insights they were.<\/p>\n

About 30 seconds later, I found myself in a total flap, trying desperately to think of intelligent questions to ask Mark Reynier<\/a>, the charismatic and energetic CEO himself. I know I can go off on one, but oh boy can Mark talk when you get him started on a topic he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s passionate about and knows inside and out. This is the man who most credit with having this crazy idea of resurrecting a dormant distillery, who upon being told it was impossible by people in the business, went away, found some equally farsighted and courageous backers and went ahead and made it happen anyway. I won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t retell that story here, but if you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know it, then I encourage you to go buy Whisky Dream: Waking a Giant<\/a>, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s well worth reading in its own right.<\/p>\n

\"\" Anyway, one of the many characteristics that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s endeared many people to Bruichladdich is that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been fiercely independent, often poking a metaphorical stick at the multinational companies that dominate the whisky industry. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m guessing that this is why reactions to this news have been somewhat polarised, with more than one negative opinion being voiced. But to flip that around, it seems harsh indeed to have to take flak<\/a> for something you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re proud of achieving, but how successful should you feel if people get this excited if they perceive a risk to something you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve helped build? After all people fail to get up in arms when other great distilleries and breweries change hands.<\/p>\n

Lets not forget for a moment that we’re talking about a business, with shareholders, a board of directors and employees (who I think are also shareholders). Admittedly, these people were more in it for the passion rather than a calculated risk on a financial return, but business is still business. In the world of business, things change. People are generally allowed a reward for years of hard work. To me, it seems a positive step if somebody makes an offer the shareholders cannot refuse, and can contribute an international distribution and logistics system that would let the distillery focus on the creative business of turning out a fantastic dram and not have to waste energy on the paperwork required to get the product to market.<\/p>\n

\"\"

The Bruichladdich Still Room<\/p><\/div>I can only begin to imagine what the recent weeks must have been like for Bruichladdich\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s CEO. I would struggle to imagine putting my life into something for 10 years, building it up into this really unique thing that gets people excited the world over and then the best thing to be done for it is to walk away? It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s almost certainly great news for Bruichladdich, but a bitter pill indeed to be \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcsurplus to requirements<\/a>\u00e2\u20ac\u2122, although that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s pretty standard when any company is bought out.<\/p>\n

In my opinion, many people\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s reactions remind me of the Change Curve: Shock, Denial, Fear, Anger, Understanding, Acceptance. Give it a few weeks after the deal\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s finalised and the world fails to end, and I think things will quieten down again.<\/p>\n

I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a terrible time for Bruichladdich to change gear. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve spent 11 years re-establishing the brand, building a unique product range and they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been working for long enough that their mainstream product is now of an age for some real volumes to come online. I suspect there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still a bit of innovation<\/a> still to come out of Jim\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s tasting lab, but backed up with the confidence of being able to supply a higher volume than before. I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t believe that Remy Cointreau would be daft enough to break something they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve just invested £undisclosed in and even if they did ruin the distilling process overnight, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll take another 10 years for the product being marketed to change and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s more than enough time to buy several lifetime\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s supply.<\/p>\n

\"\"

2003 Octomore at 180 litres per minute<\/p><\/div>It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s certainly cause to sit up, take note and maybe buy a rare bottle or two or even a whole cask whilst they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re still available (if you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re the sort of person that would actually know what to do with 300 bottles of their own whisky), but what changes could the future will bring? What, ultimately is the worst that could happen to a single malt distillery in a group that has no other whisky holdings? It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not going to be thrown into a bulk blend and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not going to be ruined for a profit because despite Bruichladdich\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s impressive \u00e2\u201a\u00ac15m turnover, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a drop compared to the parent company\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s throughput. I could believe that maybe prices could go up a bit, maybe demand for the 10 year old increasing markedly as it enters new markets and maybe some measures taken to maximise supply, such as no more independent casks (when was the last time you saw an independent Lagavulin? exactly).<\/p>\n

But further into the future? Who knows. Myself, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m quietly confident and to Mark Reynier, I will raise a small dram of the precious Octomore I was lucky enough to put into its Chateau Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Chem barrels for its last 6 months maturation and fail to remember the toast I was taught one Thursday night on Islay..<\/p>\n

Slainte!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Monday’s shock news from the world of whisky was the press release, carried on Reuters’ newswire, that Remy Cointreau is in advanced talks to buy Bruichladdich. Yes, you heard me, the youthful, energetic, fiercely independent progressive distillers are talking about being bought by a multinational group. A number of questions might spring to mind, such […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/davstott.me.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/davstott.me.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/davstott.me.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davstott.me.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davstott.me.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1233"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/davstott.me.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1233\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1254,"href":"https:\/\/davstott.me.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1233\/revisions\/1254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/davstott.me.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davstott.me.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davstott.me.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}