Scotch Whisky Association dispute with Canadian whisky distiller Macaloney’s Caledonian over 'Scottish sounding names' should end in amicable solution – Scotsman comment

At The Scotsman, we like to think we know a little bit about Scotland.

This is Scotch whisky, not Canadian (Picture: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

So we were somewhat taken aback to read that Forfar is known for its cheese curds, which are apparently delivered five days a week and come in garlic and salsa flavour.

And we were equally confused when we discovered that Paisley lies at the confluence of the Saugeen and Teeswater rivers, Aberdeen has a population of just 622 people, and St Andrews is not far from Cornwall.

But then we realised, this is not Scotland at all – it’s Canada! Suddenly, it all made sense. There are, it’s fair to say, a lot of Scottish sounding names in many former colonies, particularly Canada.

However, names can be a most serious business when there’s money involved, such as when they are ‘brand names’. So it is that the Scotch Whisky Association is currently embroiled in a legal dispute with a Canadian distiller – the award-winning Macaloney’s Caledonian, founded by a Scots émigré called Graeme Macaloney – over the use of “Scottish sounding names”.

And, given the importance of Scotch whisky to our economy, who can blame them? Is Canadian whisky trading on the good name of our national drink? On the one hand, we sort of feel we should shudder at the thought.

But, on the other, given the historic connections between the two countries and the many descendants of the Scottish diaspora who have maintained a distinctively Scottish culture in North America, we really hope that an amicable solution can be reached and glasses raised to one another in the spirit of friendship.

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