Diageo single malt dispute resolved

Diageo has resolved its dispute with the drinks industry in Britain over criticism that it was risking the reputation of single malt whiskey after it sold its Cardhu "pure malt" whisky in the same bottle and packaging it had previously used for Cardhu single malt.

Traditionally, a single malt whisky is viewed as superior and comes from one distillery, bearing the name of this distillery on the bottle.

Initially Cardhu was a single malt from Diageo's Cardhu distillery and was one of the best selling whiskies in Spain and Portugal.

As demand for it grew, stocks fell in the Speyside distillery in Scotland.

In response Diageo began mixing malt from Cardhu with malts from its other distilleries on Speyside.

Although Diageo had changed the whisky in the bottle, the label and packaging of Cardhu remained the same.

The only difference was the replacement of the phrase "single malt" with "pure malt" on the label.

The dilemma was resolved yesterday at a Scotch whiskey association in Edinburgh when Diageo agreed to repackage Cardhu and undertook not to renovate any of its single malts as pure malts.