Dave Broom prolific whisky author and editor for scotchwhisky.com discussed his point that we should do away with the term “Craft Distillery” in an interview with Mark Gillespie on WhiskyCast. He points out that “Craft distilleries” is only used when reffering to small independent distilleries. Here is an excerpt from his original article
Smaller-sized distillers need to cut through, but though Scotch is a noisy and cluttered category, there is room if they concentrate on making the best quality they can manage. The allegedly faceless big companies have whisky-makers every bit as dedicated as they are. Insulting them insults the whole category.
Oh and by the way, they are as ‘craft’ as anyone in their dedication to their work, so let’s drop that term as shorthand for small-scale. Enough. Please.
Dave Broom’s 2017 Whisky resolutions
I agree with him. The term “Craft Distilleries” is adapted from the term “Craft Breweries” in the beer world. It is used to differentiate the small breweries that are innovating with beer from the large companies which are pumping out generic mass market beers like Budweiser or Coors light. In the single malt Scotch Whisky world, even the biggest producers like Diageo and the Chivas Brothers are producing both long-standing traditional recipes as well as innovating by testing newer recipes through their brands like The Glenlivet or Lagavulin.
Here is a link to the episode of WhiskyCast. The interview with Dave Broom starts around 42:30 into the podcast.
https://whiskycast.com/episode-625-january-22-2017/
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