Germany may get to call its whiskey ‘Glen’

SCOTTISH whisky makers have suffered a legal setback at the hands of a senior EU adviser, who yesterday said that a German distillery could continue to brand its whiskey “Glen Buchenbach”.

The Scottish Whisky Association claimed the label “misled” drinkers.

Lawyers said it broke EU rules, which protect products such as champagne, Scottish whisky and Parma ham, made in certain regions of Europe.

The association said that “Glen”, Gaelic for ‘small valley’, suggested the drink was Scottish. But a preliminary advocate-general’s opinion to the European Court of Justice said it did not evoke Scotland to the extent that the law had been broken.