I thoroughly enjoyed an opportunity to combine my experiences of promoting the whisky industry with memories of working in Istanbul by writing a feature for the latest issue of the Keepers Of The Quaich magazine. Thanks to editor Neil Braidwood for the commission.
Featuring interviews with the charismatic whisky author and blogger Burkay Adalığ, and the astute Selçuk Tümay, Istanbul-based CEO for Pernod Ricard in Africa and
the Middle East, I explored the extraordinary surge in sales of Scotch Whisky in Türkiye in recent years – despite years of high taxes and a ban on alcohol advertising.
The discussions also took me down some fascinating rabbit holes such as the history of Ankara Viski, the state-developed whisky that, when launched in the 1960s, established Türkiye as only the sixth country in the world to have created its own whisky. Ankara (named after the Turkish capital) went on to establish itself as a popular brand for decades before Diageo shut it down when taking ownership of the privatised state distillers.
Whisky sales in Türkiye are now largely driven by the luxury end of the market with Diageo brands such as the ubiquitous Johnnie Walker slugging it out with American whiskies such as Jack Daniels. The top-selling brand, however, is Pernod-Ricard's Chivas Regal 12, a blend of Speyside whiskies.
You can read the full feature here on p13-16 – just after the cover story about Rod Stewart (a hard act to follow).
