I live in Korea (I’m an American expat English teacher). When I buy whiskey, there are two classes of it: The stuff I’ve seen for sale in America, and the bizarre, inexpensive off-brands with reassuringly English names that I’ve never seen outside Korea. I avoid the latter after an unpleasant incident or two last year.
Anyway, of the name brand stuff, the least expensive (or rather, AMONG the least expensive–it costs the same as Johnnie Walker Red, J&B and Jack Daniel’s) is Chivas Regal. Now back in my college days, Chivas was the top dog on the liquor store shelves. It was a reliable Father’s Day present. In the 60s, John Lennon pioneered hip irony with a drink called the Groupie Special, the usually-unthinkable mix of Chivas and Coca Cola. Now it’s priced so there’s no reason not to mix it with soda pop.
Have Chivas’s fortunes faltered in the last decade or so? Is there a story here? How is it priced in the States and the UK? There are a lot more really good whiskeys out now than there used to be; did Chivas just stop keeping pace?
I think your old perception is probably the mistaken one. Chivas, at least as far back as I can recall, 20 years or so, has never been considered in a league of it’s own. Chivas was one of the earlier Scotches to be known and popular. In the last decade or so Scotch has had a renaissance, and as a result the shelves have been flooded with other brands, new and old, and the smaller rarer boutique brands tend to carry most of the cachet.
20 years ago Scotch was somewhat unpopular to the masses and as a result was priced as a high-end niche product. Johnny Walker Black, Glenlivet and Chivas were the big national brands that were on the top shelf. J&B and Dewars and Johnny Walker Red were on the bottom shelf. My perception at the time was that Chivas was the least favorable of the top shelves and bridged the gap between the two tiers somewhat. However, all Scotches were considered to be significantly higher end than standard Canadian, Bourbon or American whiskeys.
Now that Scotch has gained a wider appeal and the market has flourished and filled in with a wide variety of brands and styles the old staples have settled into the lower middle tier. Think of it this way, Chivas used to be Heineken while other big name whiskeys were Bud and Miller. 20 years ago Heineken was a niche product and considered luxurious as a result. Now that everyone is familiar with imports and craft beers and the market has exploded Heineken has settled into the lower-middle tier of products where it always probably belonged. Common, national blended scotches like Chivas and Dewars did the same.
Additionally, Bourbons and American whiskeys have recently gained a substantial amount of cachet in their own right. What happened with Scotch 10 years ago is happening now with whiskey, small distilleries in the American south are springing up all over and designer varieties are building in availability and appeal. This effect has closed the gap between the perceived up-market nature of Scotch over Bourbon and served to elevate whiskey on the whole to comparable levels. While there used to be a tier between Scotch/Irish whiskey and Canadian/American whiskey there is no longer.
I have always gotten the impression that in Asia, and especially Korea and Japan, that American brands have a boosted appeal in general too. American whiskeys like Jack Daniels and Makers Mark will be considered much more desirable in Asia which might boost them over what your preconceived notion of their value is.
The regular Chivas 12-year whiskey has always been an introductory-level scotch to me, around the level of, say, Johnny Walker Black. (Actually, I’d put it between the Red and the Black in terms of quality.) Now, the Chivas 18 (and 25) are quite a big step up, but the regular Chivas Regal 12 is a run-of-the-mill whiskey.
At the stores where I can find whiskey (admittedly not a broad sampling), Maker’s Mark is unavailable. Knob Creek as well. This is at HomePlus and Dong-A, the Target and Macy’s of Korea respectively. Wish I could find an actual liquor store in this province.
It feels like every store has a set list of about eight whiskeys it will carry, and none of them are Jameson’s or Glenlivet.
Chivas is all over China, marketed as higher-end… however, an expat I knew who ran a bar in Shanghai told me that most of the Chivas sold in bars outside the 5-star hotels is fake, purchased for 30RMB/bottle and sold to heights of 600RMB or more. ($5/$100).
Chivas Regal’s pricing has always been due to marketing and not quality. The name and the fancy looking box are what have led it to become known as a high end whisky.
It’s a decent blended whisky, in my opinion of the same quality as Grouse or Walker, half a step above generic MacBagpiperOnTheBottleScotch, but not in the same league as a decent single malt in taste. For making rusty nails or giving to guests who don’t appreciate the contents of my more expensive whiskys*, I personally prefer Famous Grouse, both for taste and price.
** Disclaimer: I know, I sound either cheap or like a total snob. I’m not; if you’d just like something strong, I’d rather pour you a blend =)*
I agree. That’s my go-to utilitarian Scotch whiskey. I just noticed the other day they had something called Black Grouse at the store–never noticed this before. I assume it’s from the Famous Grouse people. Have you (or anyone else) ever had it?
I used to work in a deli/convenience/liquor store, and we stocked all sorts of liquor. The people who bought Chivas Regal were buying it because of the name recognition/marketing, not because of the taste.
The apparent scarcity of American whiskeys in your neck of the woods goes a long ways towards explaining why Jack Daniels is priced on par with those scotches. It’s bizarre that they seem to be overstocked with scotch varieties relative to the other styles. Presumably there’s a Korean bias at work there.