What is flavoured whisky?

Within the European Union, whisky may not be sweetened or flavoured, so a bottle with honey, cinnamon or apple flavour falls outside the legal category of whisky.

Regulation (EU) 2019/787 defines whisky in Annex I, category 2. The drink is made from malted cereals, distilled to less than 94.8 percent by volume, matures at least three years in wooden casks of at most 700 litres and is bottled at at least 40 percent by volume. The same category states that no alcohol may be added and that whisky may not be sweetened, not even to round off the flavour. As colouring only caramel E150a is permitted.

A producer who adds honey, cinnamon or fruit flavouring to whisky therefore makes something that falls outside that category. The product may still be sold, but it must carry a different legal name: usually liqueur, and otherwise spirit drink. That is not a judgement on the quality of the bottle, but a consequence of how the category is written down.

Only water, caramel colouring or a combination of the two may be added to Scotch whisky; no other substance whatsoever.

That rule appears in regulation 3 of the Scotch Whisky Regulations 2009 and has been taken over word for word in the technical file of the protected geographical indication Scotch Whisky, which the European Commission has published. The text speaks of a drink to which no substance has been added, or no substance other than water, caramel colouring, or water and caramel colouring. A minimum alcohol content of 40 percent by volume and maturation of at least three years in oak casks of at most 700 litres also apply.

For Scotch the room is therefore even smaller than in the general European category. A Scottish distillery that makes a honey drink based on its own whisky can never call it Scotch whisky. On such bottles you therefore read names such as whisky liqueur or honey liqueur, often with a separate brand name next to the name of the distillery.

A compound term such as whisky liqueur is allowed as soon as all the alcohol in the bottle comes from the whisky named and the end product meets the requirements for liqueur.

Regulation (EU) 2019/787 calls this a compound term: the legal name of a spirit drink, combined with the name of a foodstuff or with the word liqueur or cream. Article 10(5) allows the legal name to be replaced by such a compound term with the word liqueur, provided that the end product meets category 33 of Annex I. That category requires at least 15 percent alcohol by volume and at least 100 grams of sugar per litre, expressed as invert sugar; for some types of liqueur that sugar minimum is higher.

Article 11 sets the conditions: the alcohol must come exclusively from the drink named in the term, and that drink may not have been diluted with water below the minimum of its own category. The words alcohol, spirit, drink, spirit drink and water may not be part of the term. On the label the compound term must appear in a single typeface, a single letter size and a single colour, may not be interrupted by text or imagery, and may not be larger than the name of the drink itself. If a label refers only to whisky without the product being a whisky liqueur, the rule for allusions applies: then too all the alcohol must come from that whisky, and the share of each alcoholic ingredient appears in the same field of view as the reference.

’t Bockje heeft ongeveer 3.900 verschillende whisky’s op voorraad in de winkel aan de Brink in Bathmen, en daarnaast 31 whiskylikeuren in het likeurschap, uit zes landen. Wij verkopen geen alcohol onder de 18 jaar: NIX18.

Flavouring means that something is added to the drink; with cask maturation and cask finishing the flavour comes from the wood, without anything being added to the drink.

Category 2 of Annex I to Regulation (EU) 2019/787 actually prescribes maturation in wooden casks of a maximum of 700 litres, with a minimum of three years. A whisky that first matures in a bourbon cask and then spends a period in a sherry, port or wine cask is still maturing in wood. No aroma or sweetener is added to the liquid, so such a bottle stays within the category and may be called whisky. For Scotch whisky there is the additional requirement that the casks are made of oak.

Designations such as sherry cask, port cask or wine cask finish therefore say something about the cask the whisky has lain in, not about an addition afterwards. That is precisely the difference with a flavoured product, where the flavour ends up in the bottle after maturation.

The American rules are broader on this point: there is a class called flavored spirits, in which a flavored product may keep the word whisky in its type name.

The standards of identity of the American Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau are set out in 27 CFR part 5. Section 5,143 requires a bottling strength of at least 40 percent alcohol by volume for whisky. Section 5,151 governs flavored spirits: the base spirit must first meet its own standard before the flavouring is added, the type name states that base spirit plus the main flavour, and the end product is bottled at a minimum of 30 percent alcohol by volume (60 proof). If it contains more than 2.5 percent wine by volume, this must be stated on the label. Section 5,155 also allows non-essential colouring, flavouring and blending materials of up to 2.5 percent by volume to be added without the spirit changing class, but for straight whisky any addition does lead to a different designation.

As a result, an American label can state honey flavored whiskey, while the same product in the European Union ends up on the shelf as whisky liqueur or spirit drink. Anyone comparing a bottle from the United States with a European one is therefore looking at two different rule systems and not at two different products.