Shorts circuit
Underpinning all the faddish new phrases such as "style bar" and "mixology", one word keeps appearing: premium. In the past year, a quiet shift has started to take place in the nation's bars - consumers are not just returning to spirits, but are drinking top-end stuff. People now go to bars, not pubs, and when they enter this sleek new world they are being served by bartenders (sorry, "mixologists") who know, and more importantly care, about the quality of the drink.
The appearance of new super-premium spirits isn't just down to firms launching esoteric, rarefied spirits for a tiny elite, but evidence that people are willing to pay for quality.
"There's no doubt that the premium bars, not just in London but across the country, are able to generate increased business on premium spirits," observes Campbell Distillers' Ian Totman. "There's an increase in popularity of mixed drinks and the new affluence of cities is seen in the willingness of people to pay £5 for a drink."
Is any one spirit winning out in this new market? Not according to Dave Steward of specialist distributor Marblehead. "I don't think that there are any trends of people moving from one spirit to another," he says. "If there is a trend, it's that they are trading up."
It's especially good news for vodka, which remains the spirit to beat in the nation's bars. But while it is not on the slide, vodka now has to cope with drinkers broadening their repertoires.
Take gin, which was thought dead and buried a few years ago. In the past 12 months a gin war has broken out, stimulated by the revival of fortunes at the top end of the market - specifically the success of Bombay Sapphire and Plymouth. This top-end growth is coming from increased sales in bars, which has prompted UDV to create its bartender training scheme, the Tanqueray Martini Academy. Whether people are beginning to drink gin cocktails, though, is open to debate - they are probably drinking higher-quality G&Ts.
The growth in premium gins has triggered a slightly schizoid response from UDV. On the one hand it launched the magnificent Tanqueray No Ten, described by London cocktail guru Dick Bradsell as the most exciting spirit launched this year, yet at the same time it cut the strength of standard Tanqueray to slug it out with Bombay and Plymouth. It's sad to see products being manipulated for such ends and it may well backfire on UDV as bartenders reject the new, weaker brand.
Strangely enough, the same thing is going on in the rum sector, where Bacardi has decided to take on the upstart challenge of Havana Club by wielding a very big stick. The war over the rights to the Havana Club name has been well documented, but Bacardi's reaction to the arrival of the first-ever challenge to its monopoly has irritated bartenders and a number have started refusing to stock Bacardi because they resent the attitude the firm has taken to Havana Club.
The situation is less fractious in the Tequila sector, though problems are looming. Groups such as Café Pacifico and Maxwell's and London bars such as Che, Match and Fabric have all given the thumbs-up to the new wave of 100% blue agave Tequilas that took the USA by storm - Covent Garden's Navajo Joe stocks more than 300 brands, including Cuervo's ludicrously expensive Coleccion which, at £75 a shot, is selling well.
Tequila, however, remains a minority spirit and one that needs to be hand-sold by bartenders (unlike gin or rum) and while interest continues to grow, the crisis over the agave shortage in Mexico will inevitably impact on price - and perhaps even affect the availability of some of the smaller brands.
No such problems for Bourbon. The past year has seen a number of brands trying to crack the Jack Daniel's hegemony in the US whiskey sector.
Maker's Mark continues to make friends, though the feeling is that other brands will soon be pushing it hard. In recent months there has been a concerted push by Brown-Forman's Woodford Reserve and Wild Turkey 101s, while Knob Creek, Bulleit, Old Fitzgerald, Buffalo Trace and Blanton's are all limbering up on the touchline. While it is extremely unlikely that any of them could ever overtake Jack Daniel's, they offer a point of difference for bars and, importantly, a range of flavours.
The rise and rise of malts
Malt whiskies - particularly Islay malts - continue to attract a new young following, but consumers and bartenders badly need to be educated about whisky if it is to grow significantly further.
The outlook continues to be bleak for blended Scotch. If one brand is likely to break down public resistance it's likely to be J&B, but it will be a long haul, though Marblehead's Steward feels that blends may be due for a revival. "If puffball skirts can reappear on the catwalks then there's no reason why blends can't come back," he argues.
If anything, consumers are turning away from Scotch and moving to imported whiskies - both Bourbon and Irish. There has been strong growth from Campbell's de luxe Irish whiskey, Black Bush, as well as Jameson, at the expense of standard Scotch.
It's difficult to put your finger on one specific trend. Bartenders are widening the range of spirits they are using, while at the same time going back to basics and making new interpretations of old classics. Purity of flavour is the key, which means the Martini (in all its guises), Manhattan and, according to Bradsell, Champagne-based cocktails and Old Fashioneds.
Whether the public is catching on immediately is open to question. "Outside the microcosm of London you won't get many people drinking Old Fashioneds," says Steward. "People are still drinking their vodka and tonic and vodka and cranberry. Each village in London now has its specialist bar, but we ain't in Manhattan yet."
Steward's aim, like most specialist suppliers, is to get brands not just into the rarefied atmosphere of the "style bars", but break them in the middle market, to drinkers who still find a Bacardi Breezer exotic.
"The big wholesalers are beginning to come to us rather than the other way round," says Steward. "That's an indication that something is happening, they want premium spirits." Exciting times.
