2016: 3 year old Single malts made in the US now share the podium with Single malts from Scotland in whisky competitions…they’re also made of 100% malted barley and distilled in pot stills…10 years ago, Japanese single malts were promising to be the next challenger. What if the US were next? Indeed, the Great USA, the land of Bourbon and Rye, is also showing the promise of a future rivalry with Scotland. You’ll have to taste a lot of whiskies during this class…but that’s only because we all try to figure out whether this a category that will last, or if it’s just a passing trend, only there to help Craft distillers understand what the old world is all about. There is a lot at stake here: the US are the #1 consuming country of Single Malt Scotch Whisky, before Taiwan and France. With such a large market thirsty for this type of whisky, can it become a threat to the Scotch industry? To the Bourbon industry?
