Norwegian News: March 2009

Not to much to brag about in the ways of new whiskies available in Norway in the month of March (sale start Saturday 7th). Only three new whiskies arrives this month, all on the “Blue list” – or the order assortement as it were, and all from the same distillery – Auchentoshan. The main reason is that Morrison-Bowmore has changed importers in Norway. Previously it was V&S Norway who imported Morrison-Bowmore’s product, but with Pernod Ricard’s purchase of the Swedish mother company this changed, so now the company Strom (InterBev/Altia) is the importer and putting some muscle behind the brand. This bring the total of Auchentoshans available in Norway up to 5 (the Three Wood is available at Vinmonopolet at the Select through most Duty Free stores). The going rate of exchange is 10,06 NOK to the £.

The new whiskies are:

Auchentoshan 12 Years (449,90 NOK/£44.54) is the first whisky out this month. This replaced the previous 10yo when the new packaging was introduced. A richer and more sherried expression this, with hints of spices following the light fruity notes. A clear improvement in my book, though it would probably have been even better with a bit higher abv (it’s 40% abv). Not exactly cheap, but then again it’s Norway – priced on the same level as JW Green, Balvenie 12yo DW, Glenfiddich 15yo Solera and The Glenlivet 15 French Oak.

Auchentoshan 18 Years (699,90 NOK/£69.61) is a grand example of a aged lowlander. Rich and spicy on the palate with a sherried tone coming through after a while – even though it’s a 100% ex-bourbon maturation. Some very old casks have gone into this mix. Carries the extra 3% abv. compared to the 12yo very well (it’s 43% abv.). Quite good value for Norway.

Auchentoshan 21 Years (900 NOK/£89.51) is a classic avec-whisky, to enjoy after a good (but not to spicy) meal. Pour a glass, sit down in a recliner, light a cigar og pipe and comtemplate over things that were, are and might be – or simply just drink the stuff. A great example of that Auchentoshan needs to age for quite a bit before reching it’s potential, a world away from the Three Wood and the Classic. It’s bottled at 43% abv. Pricewise it’s about the same here in Norway as in Britain, even with the weak pound.

Getting there…

…but dragging their feet. After the infamous, for us here in the far north, Rosengren-case, Sweden was forced to accept private import of alcoholic beverages for personal use. A short time thereafter the ESA (no, not the space agency – the EFTA/EEA Surveilance Agency) said that Norwegian rules also had to comply with this.

After dragging their feet for a while and trying their best to postpone the inevitable Norway finally said thei would “look into” changing the rules. They then spent almost a year looking into what needed to be done and just before Christmas they sent out the new rules for comments.

In short they will:

1. make it legal to receive alcohol from abroad without applying for permission first
2. make it legal to purchase alcohol from abroad and have it shipped to Norway
3. allow travellers to bring as much alcohol as they want into Norway

as long as

1. proper taxes are paid (as of 2009 it’s 6,07 NOK per percent and litre, plus VAT of course (25%))
2. see point 1
3. you pay if you have more than 1 litre with you. This litre is the duty free allowance, the next 4 litres can be declared and paid for with the simplified rate (260 NOK/litre) while anything above has to be paid for using the normal taxes (point 1)

Some regulations are proposed:

1. Times for delivering the beverages are, usually, to follow the times set for the state run Vinmonopolet
2. Delivery companies must register themselves as a “alcohol approved delivery company”, and employees must go through training for this.
3. Delivery employees must be above 18 (for delivering beer or wine) or 20 (spirits) years of age
4. Delivery employees must make sure the receiving party is above the apporved age (18/20) and not drunk at time of delivery

That’s the short version of what the government has used 46 pages to say. All comments must be received by the proper authorioties by March 5th, and after the proposal with be refined a bit and go before Parliament – hopefully before the summer break. Most likely the new rules will be in effect from January 1st 2010 – after that: On-line whisky retailers, here I come!

Whisky sales in Norway, 2008

Whisky has never really been “in” in Norway, that honour has been reserved for the French brandy, Cognac. But slowly it’s been building a following that drinks no matter what. This has been proven the last year, and specially after the infamous “Credit Crunch” started. According to the 2008-figures, sales of whisky increased by 1.5% while Cognac was down 5.5%. The sales of malts are up 2.8% to 91,722 liters in total, giving a malt share of 6.7% (up from 6.6% in 2007).

Of the top 250-brands of spirits sold in Norway in 2008, whereof 28 are whiskies and a mere 7 are malts. These 7 malts account for 47.5% of the total sales of malts in Norway. Not surprisingly the winner is Glenfiddich 12yo, with Glen Moray 8yo and The Glenlivet 12yo trailing.

Norwegian News: January

A new year has dawned and the state run monopoly gives everybody a week’s respite before releasing the new products for sale. The official start date is Saturday 10th January. Not much to brag about in whisky terms this time, but then again January tends to be quiet time as everybody has spent all their money shopping for the Christmas hollidays. A total of seven items are marked as NEW, but one is an upgrade and one is a “down-grade”. I’ve used £1=10,4NOK as a rate of exchange for the price conversions.

Norwegian News: November 2008, Part 1

Two months have passed since the last news release at the Norwegian Vinmonopolet, and it’s time for a new one. The last couple of years many of the importers have marked November as THE month for new releases, something that very much has to do with the Oslo Whiskyfestival – the main Norwegian whisky festival.

A whooping 30 malts (whereof one is Japanese), one Irish whiskey, one Scottish blend and three bourbons gives a total of 35 new whisk(e)ys for the Norwegian market in one go. Six of the malts are available through the normal assortement (available in all the larger stores, can be ordered to the smaller ones at no extra cost), the rest of the malts and the other bottlings might pop up in some stores but normally they have to be ordered in (still at no extra cost).

Due to the amont I’ll split the news into a couple of post, this first one will cover the six malts released into the larger stores. As usual I’ll also be giving the price in pound sterling (£). Last time the exchange rate was £1=9,84NOK, this has changed due to recent event on the world markets, and the rate as i write this is £1=11,62NOK.

Price gouging extraordinaire

Diageo Norway sent a bombshell into whisky circles when the newest price list for Vinmonopolet was released. Two malts in particular stood out like a sore thumb: Talisker 18 Years Old and Caol Ila 18 Years Old.

Previousy they had a price tag of just under 500 NOK (T18=499,99 NOK/£50.62 and CI18=484 NOK/£49), both quite reasonably priced, even when comparing to other markets. But when September came a shock was to come…

Norwegian News: September

The Norwegian state monopoly, Vinmonopolet, releases new items every second month. The month of September brings with it a total 16 different whiskies, 15 single malts and one bourbon. All items are released in the Order-assortment (can be ordered in any store or on the web). Prices of the news range from 399 NOK (£40.37) to 10.000 NOK (£1011.74). Start of sale is on Saturday 6th. September, consumers can not order any of the following items before this date. Note that prices given in Pound Sterling (£) are calculated using the today’s (28th Aug) rates of exchange (£1=9,84 NOK).

Bruichladdich 2001 Vintage for Jon Bertelsen

Jon Bertelsen is the name of the importer of Bruichladdich whiskies in Norway, and due to some rigid use of rules (and no brains) Norway ended up with a very speical bottling of Bruichladdich that nobody else is getting.

Ardbeg Blasda and even Mór, part II

Just an update mainly for my Norwegian readers.

Ardbeg Blasda will be lauched in Norway on Saturday 6th September. The price will be 599,90 NOK (£59). The Norwegian importer (Moet Hennessy Norge) is very excited about this bottling, and says it’s absolutely fab.

Ardbeg TEN (new) will hit the shelves as soon as the old bottles start running out. With normal sales in the coming weeks this should be towards the end of September.

Ardbeg TEN (4.5l), or the Arbdeg Mór II, is actually just a 4.5 litre bottling of the normal Ardbeg TEN. The number of bottles will at start be limited to each market, bue the bottles will not be numbered. This is will be a part of the Ardbeg line-up, so no need for hoarder to line up for a quick profit. It will be bottled at the normal Ardbeg strength of 46% abv. The release in Norway will again be on Saturday 6th September, and the price will be 3999 NOK (£395 – compared to the 4999 NOK (£494) pricte-tag on the original Ardbeg Mór. This is a 120 NOK (£12) premium on top of the price compared to the normal TEN-bottle.

Ardbeg Renessaince has been available for the on-trade market in Norway for about a month now, but will be released, also, on Saturday 6th September for regular consumers. Approx. 660 NOK (£65) is the price one must be willing to pay to get ones hand on a bottle here in Norway.

Purchasing whisky in Norway, Part 3: Prices

As previously mentioned Norway isn’t the cheapest country for whisky in the world. It’s due to this the duty free prices in Norway are among the cheapest – but one or two deals are also available on the domestic marked, if you can afford them.

First a bit about taxes. A quick round up reveals the following taxes for spirits in five European countries for a 46%-bottle – (conversion rates are from october 2007):