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Irish whiskey transparency ‘backlash’ not as bad as it seems

The Irish whiskey “smoke and mirrors backlash” is “not as bad as some of the sound bites make out”, but the category must ensure total honesty and transparency to keep consumer trust, Stephen Teeling has said.

Teeling Distillery has welcomed more than 500,000 visitors through its doors since it opened

Speaking to The Spirits Business today (27 September), Stephen Teeling, sales and marketing director of Teeling Whiskey Company, said some of the “backlash” against the Irish whiskey industry regarding confusion over certain brands and where they’re made, was not all it had been made out to be.

Teeling said that since the Teeling Distillery was established, the company has sought to be “upfront and honest” with consumers.

“Probably over the last three to four years, there’s been a little bit of smoke and mirrors,” Teeling said. “You saw a similar thing with American whiskey, with MGP supplying spirits to brands.

“One thing we have always found is whiskey drinkers are knowledge-heavy. They want to come and see your distillery, kick the tyres a bit. Our approach was always to be upfront.

“We were always open, when you came to the distillery you see ‘since 2015’ above the door. If consumers feel the wool is being pulled over their eyes, it’s going to reflect negatively.”

Earlier this year, the Food Safety Authority of Ireland published a new set of guidelines for Irish whiskey labelling and marketing. The guidelines aim to set out “an approach to ensure the correct use of marketing materials and terms, which do not mislead the consumer when it comes to labelling Irish whiskey”.

Teeling said any potentially misleading marketing from new Irish whiskey producers were not intentional, and came down to a lack of experience of spirits industry.

“Certain things were happening with new people coming to the category and I genuinely think they didn’t understand they came from outside of the spirits industry, they didn’t think they were doing anything wrong,” he said.

“The issue is if someone says we have a distillery, or we’re doing this and that, but then it’s only marketing, that’s totally wrong and flawed.

“If you go into the market and you say you have a distillery, or imply you have a distillery, when you don’t, that’s a massive issue. I think it’s got better. I think the IWA is trying to tidy that up as well. The other 90% of the industry are doing phenomenal things.

“William Lavelle, head of the Irish Whiskey Association, I think he’s doing a great job with the association, and they’re really tightening things up to make sure everyone is being honest and transparent.”

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