Origins
Because I am the ever idiot, I took S's advice in that bloody Times' interview and had a cursory second look into the Wikileaks Sony Archive regarding OL (for the first look, kindly look here: https://www.tumblr.com/sgiandubh/762677716492468224/away-in-our-little-scottish-bubble?source=share - posted September 26, 2024). I did not find any clear reference to the Scottish referendum's impact on OL's distribution in the UK, spare a generic Sony in-house memo that does not tell much.
But I found this:
[Source: Wikikeaks' Sony Archive, posted 2015]
This short conversation essentially took place between Chris Van Amburg and Steve Mosko on August 7, 2014, which is to say two days before OL"s worldwide premiere, on August 9, 2014.
At the time, Steve Mosko was the CEO of Sony Pictures Television (SPT) and Chris Van Amburg was Head Marketing of the SPT Studios. A position he held, under various denominations and with various job descriptions for a whooping 14 years:
[Source: Chris Van Amburg's LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisvanamburg/]
As Head of Marketing, he was (as we can see above) responsible for defining and implementing the social media, merchandising and distribution marketing strategy, on behalf of the selected series in his portfolio. That particular day, he proposed to explore what was, at the time, a new avenue with allegedly great potential: wine, beer and alcohol.
It was also understood that for OL, the potential sales would have been directed towards wine and, of course, scotch (rings a bell? it should). Probably because JAMMF/A.Malcolm was, along with his ever serviceable cousin Jared, a wine and spirits' tradesman, then bootlegger, then whisky producer himself, while finally at The Ridge.
Permission was sought to take the matter further up the decision totem pole, with the bigger honchos at Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE). It is pretty clear that it died in infancy there, because Sony and especially ***'s financial policy always seems to have been something along the lines of maximizing profits at paltry costs, especially in the early stages of production.
What I did find interesting, however, was the benchmark reference chosen by Van Amburg to persuade the bosses: the Game of Thrones Iron Throne Blonde Ale, developed in collaboration with Brewery Ommegang, based in Cooperstown, NY.
[Source: https://www.foodandwine.com/drinks/game-of-thrones-beer-wine-whiskey - posted June 29, 2023]
While OL ditched the opportunity to branch out, the GoT marketing people went ahead and released no less than 13 beers, 4 wines and 9 different types of single malt and blended whisky, from 2013 to 2018, to suit each and every possible taste. For reference, here are the price quotations for their Scottish whiskies, a white label collab between HBO and Diageo, via Johnny Walker:
[Source: same as above]
With pricetags going from 25 to 399 USD, this was quite an ambitious project, which apparently worked fairly well. And I believe timelines are important, because GoT's whisky marketing extension, in October 2018, was followed by the announcement of a certain Sassenach Spirits, just before the Remarkable Week-end, in July 2019.
What I mean by this way too long post is something very simple, really: alcohol was always part of the OL brand's DNA (now errm... universe 🙄). Maybe the idea of a white label whisky was casually mentioned, during those carefree early days, to a certain Scottish actor, formerly a bartender, who perhaps remembered it and tried his very best to make it happen. Maybe the final kick was that GoT 2018 limited release, maybe it wasn't. But that's not really important: what is important, I think, is that this takes balls and that there is always an available market for such things. His neverending problem has been, for at least two years now, how to expand his client base a bit farther than the Mommies and a couple of high-profile urban bars, in the US/fine dining venues, in Scotland.
Time will tell. I am, however, not holding my breath. We now have a distillery, but also a cheap intrigue to boot. Not the best optics, if you ask me.
[Later edit]: Well, it turns out there are a couple of Sassenach wines (a Sauvignon Blanc and a rosé, both Californian), by Manos Wines, still for sale. Price tags go between 24.95 and 59.95 USD. Product definitely seems mid-range, for casual consumption and/or celebratory purposes (personalized bottles, etc). Many thanks to @cls2paris for the very prompt reaction 😘.
