SCOTS have “whisky”, the Irish and Americans have “whiskey” and now Ukrainians have “whiskye”.
Supermarkets across the former Soviet republic are stocking thousands of bottles of brown spirits which look – if not taste – just like Scotch or bourbon.
The boom in whiskye has major Scottish manufacturers worried, as some of the brands on sale are clearly designed to mimic Scotch.
Diageo, which owns a number of major Scotch brands, has complained that one brand of Ukrainian whiskye – red, black and blue “level” Jack Talker – is sold in bottles and packaging similar to its red, black and blue “label” Johnnie Walker.
Jack Talker "whiskye"
Jack Talker, on its makers' website, is described having "a deep amber-golden colour and a soft and silky texture".
A blurb adds: "It goes down easily and pleasantly in jolly company. Sucb a beverage can be drunk neat, to appreciate its taste, or sometimes ice and coke can be added. It is also ideal for adding to apple or lemon juice."
The Ukrainian Anti-Monopoly Committee fined a distillery in Dnipro, central Ukraine, some £20,000 last December for a series of breaches of the Johnnie Walker brand. It hit the same distillery with an even bigger fine of £400,000 a year earlier.
The crackdown on this one distillery, the Simferopol Wine and Cognac Factory, has sparked huge speculation about the future of what the Ukrainian press calls “pseudo-whiskies”.
Ukrainian sources believe this firm, which relocated from Crimea after the peninsula was annexed by Russia in 2014, may go under to avoid paying the fines.
In January, a civil court in the Ukrainian capital Kiev struck down a patent for another of the factory’s products, Captain Jack, yet another brown spirit that was said to be an imitation of a Diageo product, Captain Morgan rum.
Captain Jack, like Captain Morgan, came with a label featuring a pirate.
Diageo, which did not comment on the case in time for The Herald going to press, is understood to have been pursuing similar civil action to protect other brands in Ukraine.
Real Johnnie Walker
The Simferopol distillery also makes a product called Black Jack, said to imitate US whiskey Jack Daniels, and last year it reportedly registered another trade mark, White Hopes, allegedly designed to compete with Diageo’s cheap export blended whisky White Horse.
The Simferopol Wine and Cognac Factory did not respond to a Herald request for comment.
Its website, which still shows imitation brands like Jack Talker, Black Jack and Captain Jack, carried a statement from February 2016 dismissing local press reports as “placed”, suggesting its enemies had provoked criticism.
The statement read: “Our activity is licensed and strictly observes a wide range of requirements under current Ukrainian legislation in this field.”
Scotch and bourbon have enjoyed booming popularity in the former Soviet Union but many top brands remain too expensive for local drinkers.
Liga suggested recent economic problems had sparked demand for “budget” copies of imported alcohol, such as “whiskye” and rum, for those who prefer brown spirits to their clear vodkas.
The Scotch Whisky Association and individual manufacturers try to pursue anyone mimicking their brands around the world.
This comes amid job losses in the Scotch industry, with 700 staff hit by the closure of Johnnie Walker’s bottling plant in Kilmarnock in 2012.
Last month, The Herald revealed a mysterious entrepreneur based in Ukraine had registered scores of companies with names cloned from major international brands, including Diageo’s Johnnie Walkier.
The self-styled "Baron of Spirits" Tofikuddin Ovaysi last year was wrongly reported to be the son of Indian beer and spirits billionaire Vijay Mallya. Mr Ovaysi, who has never responded to Herald requests for comment, claimed he was setting up a chain of distilleries in Ukraine. However, the factory producing Jack Talker does not appear to have anything to do with him.
Mr Ovaysi, courtesty of Ternopillive.com
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel