Macaloney’s Caledonian Distillery is considering a trade complaint regarding Scotch Whisky Association’s (SWA) attempts to block access to the German whisky market.
The SWA has threatened the Canadian whisky distillery's German distributor with a lawsuit unless it stops importing the Canadian Best single malt whiskies. As a result, importation has been suspended.
The dispute is over moves by the SWA to prevent Macaloney’s using its founders name, along with the words ‘Island’, ‘Glenloy’, ‘Invermallie’, ‘Caledonian’ and others in its whisky branding, because the SWA says they are ‘evocative of Scotland’.
The SWA lost a similar lawsuit in 2012, when Canadian courts decided in favour of Glen Breton whisky from Glenora distillery, Nova Scotia after nine years of litigation.
After the SWA started a Canadian action against Macaloney’s in April, the distillery claims that the SWA received around 1,000 letters of complaint. Macaloney’s has also set up a public petition against the action.
Graeme Macaloney, the founder of Macaloney’s - and an ex-pat Scot - says he is determined that attempts to prevent access to the growing European market will not stand and is set for a "David against Goliath battle" with the SWA.
He is the official historian or ‘seanchaidh’ for his clan in Canada and named his whiskies Glenloy and Invermallie after locations where the Macaloney's lived. No other whisky has ever used those names.
“I have every right to celebrate our heritage,” he stated. “This kind of punitive act by the SWA, whose governing council is controlled by the four largest Scotch multi-national corporations, cannot be allowed to stand.
“To suggest that glen, originally an Irish word in common usage internationally by Scots and Irish diaspora, is inappropriate, is resulting in international consumers being denied access to our whiskies.”
Macaloney added: “Since 2005, Scotland had only seen approximately 16 new distilleries, whereas in the same timeframe the USA has seen an explosion of 2,000 craft distillers, thanks in part to craft tax breaks.”
Dominic Roskrow, former editor of Whisky Magazine and director of the Craft Distillers’ Alliance, commented: “It seems that the SWA is still harassing and scaring people who are of no threat to it at all or its country’s whiskies.
“When I set up a Craft Distillers’ Alliance, you [the SWA] said that if we pursued tax breaks for smaller distillers, you would tie us up in litigation for years - since then, many international jurisdictions have implemented tax breaks.”
When he started in 2016, Macaloney reached out to the SWA to ensure compliance with its published labelling guidelines. He has never used the geographic indicator Scotch for his Canadian whiskies.
Recently, Macaloney proposed to the SWA to collaborate on updated guidelines to communicate to the growing craft sector a transparent and consistent labelling system.
Last month, the SWA celebrated winning a legal case against the use of glen in Germany, with a decision over Glen Buchenbach using 'glen' upheld by the appeal court.
A spokesperson for the Scotch Whisky Association said: “The SWA consistently takes action around the world to prevent the use of Scottish indications of origin on whisky which is not Scotch whisky - this is vital to protect the best interests of our members, including small distilleries trying to build their brands and business in global markets.
“In taking any legal action, we want to ensure that consumers across the world are clear about whether or not they are buying whisky that is produced in Scotland.
“In this instance, we have objected to the company’s use of certain words and terms that are strongly associated with Scotland on its whisky, when the company’s whisky is actually a Canadian product.
“We never take legal proceedings lightly and the SWA is always open to a resolution which protects Scotch whisky and consumers without the need for further action - we will continue with efforts to reach an agreement.”
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