Chivas Regal never set out to be icon of luxury

Chivas Regal is internationally recognised as a benchmark premium blended whisky, yet it never set out to be a world-straddling icon of luxury.  As everything in life, Chivas Regal’s rise is due to a combination of accident and design, fortune and skill, and an excellent sense of timing. There is no doubt that even though its ownership may have changed over the past 100 years, quality has always remained paramount to the guardians of Chivas Regal.  Yet this lustrous, smooth and rich Scotch whisky has also been fortunate enough to be in the right place at precisely the right time, throughout its history.  The whisky comes from the year 600 when the Monks from Scotland used it as a medicine for the people who required it and meant “Water of Life.” 

“Chivas was the first ever luxury whisky,” says Martin Riley, marketing director of Chivas Brothers.  “It reshaped the whisky market by operating at a different level.  It invented the concept of luxury and exceptional taste within whisky. Chivas is created by means of a patient and careful process of triple blending.  Initially, grain whiskies and malt whiskies are combined separately.  Then , malt (barley, water and yeast) and grain (corn or wheat) whisky are mixed together. There are four different areas that malt whisky is derived; Ireland, Lowland, Highland and Speyside which is the soul of Chivas Regal.  Among the eight distilleries owned  Strathisla in Speyside is the heart of Chivas Brothers.  It is the oldest distillery that is still working.
The Chivas Brothers, James and John, set their sights very high as a luxury store, renowned for its exceptional quality.  James and John’s clientele demanded the very finest foodstuffs, ordering wine, port, madeira and sherry, and tea and coffee. 

By1843 the brothers had been granted a Royal Warrant (granted to products or services deemed of a high enough standard to be served or used in Royal households) as purveyor of groceries to the royal household when Queen Victoria and Prince Albert stayed at Balmoral.  By now they were buying and ageing whiskies from distilleries that produced an increasingly high quality product to support a new demand for blended whisky.  Hence a trend driven by Chivas Brothers’ royal customers, set blended scotch on the road to success, first in England and then globally.  James Chivas established a template for his whiskies which was founded on two fundamental principles: the use of old, mature stocks  and a distinct Speyside accent. James Chivas and his successors have all recognised the essential truth about whisky-making, namely that it is a long-term family-run business.  It is an ethos which has been handed down by master blenders, from James himself to Charles Howard and nowadays Colin Scott who has trained Habib Rabbat, the present Brand Ambassador, who may one day take up the mantle .

Today, Chivas Brothers has a new owner, Pernod Ricard Group, who purchased Chivas Brothers in 2001.  While ownership may have changed through the years, one constant which has endured is the style, flavour and quality of Chivas Regal. Chivas Brothers, the Scotch whisky business of Pernod Ricard was named the IWSC Distiller of the Year 2003 title at the International Wine & Spirit Competition. Douglas Cruick-shank, Chivas Brothers Production Director, commented: “The painstaking investment of time and expertise is key to nurturing a consistently great dram and it is a fantastic accolade to achieve the IWSC Distiller of the Year in our second year as a company.” The occasion also had marked a personal landmark for Douglas, who is one of the industry’s true ‘whisky men,’ having begun his distilling career in 1967, aged 15.  He also collected the trophy for ‘Best Single Malt Scotch Whisky Under 12 Years Old’ awarded to Aberlour Distillery, for the first batch of whisky produced entirely under his direction since he took up his role in 1992. “After you distill spirit intended for Scotch, you often have to wait many years to taste the results.  In this case, I’ve waited ten years for my first batch of Aberlour spirit to mature, but it was worth it,” Douglas said.