Irish outsells Scottish single malt

[JohnM]

Still well behind blended Scotch, of course.

http://www.irishcentral.com/news/Irish- ... 35464.html

[DavidH]

I've seen that picked up and spread around the net but you might as well say that Irish whiskey outsells Scotch beginning with 'C'.

[JohnM]

If it outsold whiskies begining with "g" it would be an achievement.

[IrishWhiskeyChaser]

Still, it's a positive we should not ignore either ...

all on the back of Jameson too ...

[DavidH]

'J' would be a hell of an achievement too. Hmm, this comparison might have some legs. Every year we can see how many letters of the Scotch alphabet we outsell.

[Good Whiskey Hunting]

I noticed that one too,
this was the link; http://www.just-drinks.com/analysis/iri ... 06210.aspx

There was one thing that I was curious about. Had the sales of blended Scotch which accounted for 6million cases risen or had it fallen. If it had fallen was it in proportion to the increase in Irish sales? This would be a very interesting development if it were so.

[IainB]

Even on the all in figures 1.7m to 9m isn't bad considering where Irish whiskey would have been 20 years ago. Also, regardless of brand ownership, how much of the Irish 1.7m is coming from a single distillery?? How much of the Scottish 9m comes form a single distillery?

So I wonder could it be true that out of Irish and Scottish distilleries Midleton has the biggest sales in the US.

(I deliberately said Irl / Scot as I'm guessing a certain Tennessee distillery might be the biggest selling whiskey distillery in the US. I should probably research this rather than just guess.)

[JohnM]

Even on the all in figures 1.7m to 9m isn't bad considering where Irish whiskey would have been 20 years ago. Also, regardless of brand ownership, how much of the Irish 1.7m is coming from a single distillery?? How much of the Scottish 9m comes form a single distillery?

So I wonder could it be true that out of Irish and Scottish distilleries Midleton has the biggest sales in the US.

(I deliberately said Irl / Scot as I'm guessing a certain Tennessee distillery might be the biggest selling whiskey distillery in the US. I should probably research this rather than just guess.)

I asked them how they compare to Scottish distilleries at Midleton, in terms of capacity etc. They are massive compared to the likes of Springbank, but there are a few in Scotland with much larger output. Mostly grain whisky for blends.

[IainB]

Yeah I'd imagine you're talking about the big grain operations like Cameron Brig. If you think that 90% of Scotch sold is blends and say the average blend is 60% Grain (Mostly more I'd say) then you could say that at least 55% of whiskey produced in Scotland is grain, which comes from 5 distilleries. I've no idea how that output is divided among those 5 but you'd have to guess Cameron Brig is the biggest. Also you have to think about the 2 new "super" distilleries, Roseisle and Ailsa Bay.

Also remember these statistics are just the US market where it makes sense Irish would have a much larger share than, say, the far east.

I wonder is there as list anywhere of world distilleries by output? I guess Midleton and 5 to 7 Scottish distilleries would be in the top echelons along with some in the US / Canada / Japan. Doesn't Hakushu have something like 20 stills?

[IainB]

Apparently Cameronbridge has capacity for produce 100 million litres per year...

http://www.maltmadness.com/whisky/grain-whisky.html

Interesting overview of grain distilleries.