No more Multinationals: NON MULTINATIONAL DRINKS (Part One)

I went to the Co-op today to get mixed spice and brandy for my first ever Christmas cake and I came back with neither. I didn’t know which brandies were multi-national and I couldn’t find the spice.

I thought I could do some digging to see if there was any way round this. There must be some independent booze suppliers that I can buy my Christmas drinks from!

I found DemiJohn¹ on Victoria St! It has 4 shops over the UK, Edinburgh, Glagsow, York and Oxford therefore not a multinational. In their website they go into great detail about their ethical sourcing.

Villeneuve Wines² on Broughton Street only has one other shop in Peebles. They also offer services to the hospitality sector and have an online shop. They have over 2000 wines on offer and 150 malt whiskies, though some of these will be multinationals, for example Jacob’s Creek³ is owned by Premium Wine Brands which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Pernod Ricard.

The Fine Wine Company⁴ exists only in Portobello and Musselburgh. They specialise in wines from smaller vineyards and have a great online service too. Obviously they are not a multinational and a lot of their wines won’t be either.

Diagio⁵ of course is a multinational and is one of the world’s largest producers of spirits and a large producer of beer and lagers. It owns Smirnoff, Baileys, Jonnie Walker and owns 34% of Moet Hennessy, which itself owns Moet et Chandon, Veuve Clicquot and Hennessy.

I would be okay to drink Belhaven Beers⁶, but I don’t like beer. I have been on their brewery tour in Dunbar, it was quite interesting and some of their fruit stouts were quite nice. Belhaven is owned by Greene King^7&8 who is called Greedy King in real ale circles for their aggressive acquisition policy. Although they are not a multinational I think I will avoid them anyway.

I cannot drink Glenmorangie⁹, which is distilled in Tain, near where I was brought up, as it is owned by a partnership of Louis Vuitton and Hennessy both multinationals. Nor Macallan¹⁰, which is my favourite malt whisky, either as it is owned by the Edrington Group¹¹ who own The Macallan, Famous Grouse, Cutty Sark, Highland Park whiskies, Snow Leopard vodka and Brugal rum. They are an independent international company, so by my definition a multinational.

Traquair House Ale pours a dark chestnut color that is virtually ...

Allegedly Brewdog Beers¹² are good; I say allegedly as I have never tasted any of them, unfortunately it is such a big company now that it has bars all over Europe although it appears that all Brewdog beer is brewed in Ellon, outside Aberdeen. I think that makes it a multinational.

My brother drinks Jacobite Ale from Traquair Brewery¹³. This is a tiny brewery in one wing of Traquair House, Innerleithen in the Scottish borders. It was started in the 60’s by the 20^th Lord using the original 19^th Century brewing equipment that was used to brew for the house and estate. It is run by the 21^st Lady of Traquair, Catherine Maxwell Stuart and is definitely not a multinational.

The Inveralmond Brewery¹⁴ in Perth also seems to be a smaller brewery. At the moment it is doing a beer called Santa’s Swallie which is available in the Co-op and online amongst other places.

Gin is experiencing a comeback and we have our own Edinburgh Gin Distillery¹⁵ in Rutland Place. They do all sorts of flavoured gin, which I have tasted and some of it is very nice indeed. The company is owned by the Spencerfield Spirit Company¹⁶ which is a small producer of Whisky and Gin in Fife. I would be able to drink their products if I wished too and I may get some of their whisky in for my visitors at Christmas.

I didn’t know about Hendricks Gin but as it is owned by Whisky giant Wm Grant¹⁷ and sons I won’t be drinking it anyway. In addition to this gin, the company owns Glenfiddich, Grants, the Balvenie, Sailor Jerry (rum), Tullamore D.E.W. (Irish whiskey), Drambuie and O.V.D Rum.

I am actually more of a port and sherry drinker and am not averse to a wee cider occasionally and I notice that some independent ciders have become available but if I cover all these here the post is going to be huge so I am going to split it into two.

2 comments:

handclapping28 December 2015 at 10:13
I think you have a lot of difficulties with your definition of multi-national. You could have chocolate makers who sell through a company here and have a buying and growing company in Ghana; even though perfectly ethical and paying all their taxes here and in Ghana they would be one of your multi-nationals. A tax avoiding company here who buy the cheapest cocoa and have it made up to chocolate in China to sell here is "fine" by your definition, as would be an arms company if it only made arms in one country.
I think what you are/were trying to define are the products of companies you think unethical. But then you have to define what ethical means to you (and us) so we can follow your discoveries
Crafty Green Poet4 February 2016 at 05:04
There are lots of small breweries in the UK. I love real ales and at one point had a project (inspired partly by the Daily Beer Haiku website, yes such a thing exists) of writing a haiku inspired by every real ale I drank.

Monday, 30 November 2015

NON MULTINATIONAL DRINKS (Part One)

2 comments: