European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - July 12, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Daily Ivi Magazine new York times a barrel of Glen Riddich scotch being opened during the aging process and checked for color and flavor. Vium dior an unlikely Success in scotch by Steve Lohr new York times verdant Glen in the scottish Highlands hard by the River spey is where the world s top Selling single malt whisky Glen Riddich is produced. That gives tiny Duff town a starring role in one of the most unlikely marketing Success stories of the 1980s. The Success is a product of an against the Grain marketing approach at a time when Overall scotch sales have suffered As drinkers turn to wines and spirits lighter in color and alcoholic Content. The formula take your strongest tasting product Price it High and sell it to the people who Are the most health conscious the Well educated and the Well heeled. We be responded to the social and drinking trends by marketing Glen Riddich As a Premium pour explained John bridle marketing director of William Grant & sons ltd., the private Glasgow based company that makes Glen Riddich. We re telling people that if they Are going to drink less make it something  by one estimate spirits consumption in the United states the largest drinks Market is expected to fall 9-percent More by the year 2000. Yet single malt whiskies have bucked the decline with a vengeance. Since 1980, worldwide consumption of single malts has More than doubled to 2.25 million nine liter cases last year or about 27 million bottles. Further growth for single malts is predicted possibly a doubling in volume within several years said Alan Gray a whisky analyst for Campbell Neill & co., a Glasgow brokerage House. The optimism extends Well beyond scottish enthusiasts. The Outlook for single malt whisky is extremely promising said Marvin Shanken editor of Impact International a new York based drinks Industry newsletter. It represents one of the few frontiers that spirits marketers can look to for future growth and increased  single malt whiskies have been produced for centuries in Scotland using malted Barley water and yeast. The name derives from the fact that it is whisky produced at a single distillery. Each single malt has its own taste. Differences in the local water casks used for aging and the amount of peat used in drying the Barley Are among the factors that account for the differences in taste. Malt whisky undergoes two distillation in pot stills much like Cognac. Tuesday july 12, 1988 illicit stills flourished in Scotland both As a business and As an act of civil disobedience against the English after 1707, when London set up a Board of excise to try to control the practice and bring it within the government tax net. In 1823 the English government decided to License Legal distilleries Over the next half Century most of the illicit distilleries and bootleggers were put out of business. But it was the invention of Large continuous stills for distilling unsalted grains like Corn Rye and Oats in the 1830s that transformed the scotch whisky Industry by creating the raw material for blended scotch. Standard blends Are a mixture of 25 percent to 35 percent malt whisky with the essentially Neutral mass produced Grain spirits accounting for the rest. For More than 100 years afterwards the conventional Wisdom within the scotch Industry s dominant companies held that drinking single malts was a peculiarly scottish taste that would never Appeal to outsiders. The almost exclusive use for the single malts was As the flavor giving ingredient in popular blends. Even today branded single malts account for just 3 percent of the volume of scotch sold worldwide and perhaps twice that portion by value or roughly $180 million of the Industry s $3 billion in annual sales. Glen Riddich first distilled Here on Christmas Day 1887 by William Grant was not sold As a branded product on its own until 1963. Even then the move was considered heresy within the Industry and deemed sure to fail. Yet As the Pioneer among branded single malts Glen Riddich was the front runner when sales of pure malts took off. Today Glen Riddich which is gaelic for Valley of the Deer remains the most popular single malt accounting for 30 percent of the category. The other top Selling brands Are Glen Grant the Glenlivet Glen Orangie and Macallan. Although the production from Scotland s 103 malt distilleries is still used mainly in blending there Are now an estimated 70 single malt brands according to the scotch whisky association. Many of these Are owned by smaller private companies. And the companies promote that fact in their marketing programs. We believe that being a Small family company is the Best Way to safeguard our traditions and our craftsmanship said Alexander Grant Gordon chairman of William Grant & sons. In these Days of multinationals our goal is to remain scottish and family  yet the big companies have become increasingly aggressive in the single malt sector. The no. 2 and no. 3 single malts Glen Grant and the Glenlivet Are owned by the Seagram co. And As this High profit Niche of the spirits Industry expands the clout that big companies have with distributors can be important especially in major markets like the United states. In the United states for example Glen Riddich trails Seagram s Glenlivet. Bridle the marketing director has no doubts about the reason. We re no. 2 in the . Because we re not Seagram he said. We Don t have their marketing  joining forces with other Independent companies to invest in distribution networks bridle added is a possible Way of overcoming this disadvantage. A Seagram spokesman in new York said that sales of the Glenlivet in the United states have been growing at a double digit rate for several years faster than sales of other single malts. But Trie spokesman noted that single malts still account for less than 5 percent of sales of scotch in the United states. Single malts Are touted As not so much an alcoholic drink As an experience with a Pedigree As one marketer put it. In the advertising and promotion of single malts history tradition and craftsmanship Are stressed All in an Effort to make drinking a particular Brand an experience for the intellect As Well As the taste buds much like consuming French wines the intellectual cachet of malt whiskies is enhanced by the Rich history of the scottish Highlands which have a rugged landscape Best known to outsiders As the Home of bagpipes Kilts and Tongue muddling gaelic place names. To encourage the fascination whisky makers have made distillery Tours an important marketing tool in recent years in fact the Glen Riddich distillery has become a major tourist attraction in the Highlands attracting More than 127,000 visitors from 102 nations last year. The stars and stripes Page 13