Read about the Chivas Brothers, the Scotch whisky business of Pernod Ricard

Welcome to the page on Planet Whiskies all about Chivas Brothers, the Scotch whisky business of Pernod Ricard. This company has developed over the years to become one of the major whiskies companies in the world and has a large selection of distillery and production centres within the UK. At the time of writing this company has a total of 12 operating malt distilleries (named below), one grain distillery and also owns two gin distilleries in the London and Plymouth area of England with the famous brand names of Beefeater London and Plymouth English Gin. They also have several bottling, blending and warehouse facilities in the following areas around the UK: Kilmalid, Paisley, Newbridge, Dalmuir, Keith, Mulben, Airdrie, Balgray, Dumbuck and Willowyard. These warehouse facilities have a total collection of more than six million casks. Chivas Brothers is a leading employer within certain area of the UK with around 1,600 employees covering the 32 sites. The company’s headquarters is based in Paisley.

There are a few key areas of note regarding the success of Chivas Brothers which I would like to note. Firstly Pernod Ricard is world’s co-leader in wine and spirits and is the global leader in luxury Scotch whisky with 85% of the market share aged over 21 years and older. In 2001 Pernod Ricard acquisition Seagram was the major factor in Chivas Brother going from strength to strength and then in 2006 the company acquisition of Allied Domecq.

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How Chivas Regal Started

The name of Chivas Regal comes from the two Chivas Brothers namely James and John Chivas who by all accounts started producing blends around the early 1800’s in Aberdeen. The brothers believed from the start that a high standard of whisky producing was a key strategy for success within the whisky business. In their time the problem with whisky was it was very harsh and poorly matured so they set their sights on very high standards of whisky production and one that they would be delighted to share around with their family and friends with the knowledge that it was the best whisky they could produce.

So when they started creating whisky they made sure the whisky was consistently smooth and a very high quality blended whisky. The two brothers were really the first to master the art of blending and over the years they passed on their blending skills to others and the creation of Chivas Regal in 1909 rewrote the whisky history books when the creation of the first 25 Year Old blend was blessed to the whisky industry. This blended was shipped from Aberdeen to New York in the same year and was warmly received by the American high society. This blend was soon the talk of the town and developed in a global icon. It was only produced in limited quantities, so as soon as it was produced it was shipped out and demand was so high that stock levels where always limited and the success of this Chivas Regal 25 Year Old blend was here to stay. Tasting notes for this blend is stated below with other Chivas Regal products.

The ‘home’ of the Chivas Brother from the 1950’s was the distillery of Strathisla within the Speyside area of Scotland. They has been using the malts whiskies from this distillery for a number of years to produced the Chivas blends and decided they wanted to secure the future of the malts of the oldest working distillery in the highlands for their blends.  Around the Strathisla distillery and the Speyside region it is the perfect location for producing malt whisky with its micro-climate, water, air and landscape to produced high quality single malt whiskies. The Chivas Brothers took Speyside as there spiritual home as it was universally recognised for several hundred years as home of the best produced Scotch whiskies.

Over the years there has been a number of the Chivas Regal blends produced. Chivas Regal blends total sales annually are around the 4.2 million nine litre cases and this is spread throughout all the continents in the world and is therefore a truly international brand name. The key market places where the Chivas Regal blends are sold are the following countries: USA, China, Venezuela, Mexico, France, Russia, Spain, Greece, Italy, Japan and Taiwan. They also have large sales within the duty free market around the world. With the Chivas Regal blends there just keep outselling the competition is so many way and you can read all about them below with a detail description of each of the blends and also if you would like to buy these please click on the buy now link provided.

Chivas Regal 12 Year Old – This is an excellent blend with a warm amber colour with the taste of honey and ripe apples with vanilla, hazelnut and butterscotch.

There is an aromatic infusion of wild herbs, heather, honey and orchard fruits. This size of the bottle is 70cl and strength is 40%.

You can buy this for £21.49 for this 70cl bottle – Buy Now

If you would like to buy the gallon (450cl) bottle you can buy this for only £165 – Buy Now

Chivas Regal 18 Gold Signature – This is a highly rated blend which did receive a 9 out of 10 from Dave Broom from the Whisky magazine in January 2005. The colour of this blend is an intense dark amber colour and is an exceptional rich and smooth blend with a velvety, dark chocolate palate, elegant floral notes and a wisp of sweet mellow smokiness. It has an amazing finish which is long, warm and very memorable.

This blend has received numerous awards which include a gold medal at the International Wine & Spirit Competition in 1998. This was the first year it was entered and then 7 years later it won the same award again. In the same year it was also selected as Editor’s Choice by the Whisky magazine for its premium blends tasting. Another award this blend received was in 2007 when it was awarded the prize of Best Blended Scotch by the Malt Advocate Magazine in the US. It was also awarded a Double Gold at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition in 2008. Only last year (2009) Chivas Regal 18 Year Old was again awarded a Gold Medal at the International Spirits Challenge.

As you can see this blend is so highly rated with all the awards it has received over the years and if you are interested in buying this blend you can for only £45.49. It comes in a 70cl bottle and has a strength of 40% – Buy Now