A Double Scotch by F. Paul Pacult

Author:F. Paul Pacult [Pacult, F. Paul]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Business & Economics, Dogs, Pets, Corporate & Business History
ISBN: 9781118045831
Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
Published: 2011-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Such a Character as the Late Mr. Smith 151

Andrew Usher & Company agreed to start labeling Old Vatted Glenlivet as “A Blend of Glenlivet and other whiskies,” therefore capitu-lating to the argument made by other merchants that O.V.G. was not composed of only Glenlivet malt whiskies.

On the downside of the indenture for John Gordon and Usher, they agreed to drop all legal actions in progress against other distillers and merchants for use of the name Glenlivet. They likewise paid the legal fees of £3,000 incurred by the other distilleries. John Gordon also consented not to obstruct the use of the name for 10 specified distilleries: Aberlour, Benrinnes, Cragganmore, Linkwood, Glenlossie, Macallan, Glenrothes, Glen Grant, Mortlach, and Glenfarclas. This provision made clear that the term Glenlivet had to be preceded by the actual name of the distillery and that the names were to be separated by a hyphen. Thus, Glenlossie-Glenlivet, Glenrothes-Glenlivet, Macallan-Glenlivet, and so on became legal names.

So in the eyes of long-time observers who won? The exhausted and much poorer John Gordon Smith who, in essence, paid tens of thousands of pounds to purchase the definite article “The”? The usurpers who sowed and reaped lots of bad publicity? Sir Robert Bruce Lockhart, author of Scotch: The Whisky of Scotland in Fact and Story (p. 25) believed, “Mr Smith won a partial victory.” Gavin D. Smith in his book A to Z of Whisky (p. 81) wrote tellingly, “At one time no fewer than twenty-eight distilleries used the Glenlivet suffix . . .” Writer Richard Grindal, author of The Spirit of Whisky: An Affectionate Account of the Water of Life (p. 33) took a much more realistic view of the agreement, saying, “In a judgment that now seems totally indefensible, although only his distillery was entitled to be called ‘The Glenlivet,’ others could still use the term if it were hyphenated with their own name. For almost a hundred years several distilleries did so, but recently most of them have discontinued the practice, preferring very rightly for their whiskies to stand on their own reputations.”

Surely every time after 1884 that John Gordon Smith encountered the name of yet another usurper with the “Glenlivet suffix,” either in the shop of a spirits merchant or in a print advertisement, he must have felt the pang of defeat. He may even have believed that he had failed to protect the memory of his father.

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