Even if you sleep together Scotch , it can be a mystical thing , full of multisyllabic name from the upland and blood tarradiddle more complicated than any superhero ( except the one who was bitten by a radioactive Scotch feeding bottle ) . But even if you do n’t have sex your Johnnie Walkers from your Lagavulins , you know Chivas Regal . It ’s one of the world ’s most popular Scotches , its gilded recording label as easy recognizable as the name . But did you recognize it has rootage that date back to Queen Victoria , or that those roots ascertain their means into the Rat Pack ? Peep the things you did n’t know about Chivas Regal … until now .
It’s blended malt, but that doesn’t mean it’s cheap
A lot of fans of Scotch / crotchety grandpas claim that the only quality stuff is single malt , and tend to look down on blended Scotch . But the obsession with undivided malts is comparatively recent , and the mass legal age of Scotch sold worldwide is blended . Chivas Regal is one of those combine Scotches , and just because it is does n’t have in mind it ’s depleted quality – or chinchy . Even the 12 - year - previous , the youngest bottle , will lay you back around $ 50 .
The Chivas brothers started out as grocers
Before they started blending and selling Scotch , the Chivas sidekick had a grocery in Aberdeen , Scotland . The store give in 1801 , and they would n’t start bring forth whisky for almost 50 years . They sold rummy , brandy , whisky , and grocery to the Mass , and even more importantly …
They earned a royal warrant to serve Queen Victoria
Chivas products , admit Gallic brandies and Caribbean rum , were so well regarded that they were responsible for providing trade good to Queen Victoria upon her first sojourn to Scotland in 1842 . Apparently Her Majesty was impressed , because a year later the grocer were granted a Royal Warrant , so they might keep to provide their trade good to the Crown . It ’s no wonder they bid themselves Chivas Regal later .
They helped shape the craft of blending
In the first half of the nineteenth century , while they were furnish their brandy and rums to Queen and country , the letters patent still was invented , and distillers startle farm straw whisky . James and John Chivas , the Chivas pal in charge at the metre , start bbl aging both malt and straw whiskies . finally , along with other grocer - turned - distiller Johnnie Walker and Dewar ’s , the Chivas Brother started to immix malt liquor and wheat berry whisky to make a proprietary , high - remnant fuse whiskey .
It was the first “luxury” Scotch in the US
In the early 1900s , long after Chivas Brothers had started blending and sell its scotch , the caller begin selling to the US , whose expand economy from the Industrial Revolution demanded sumptuousness items like chocolate and showers ( the chocolate shower was invented shortly thereafter ) . The troupe rebranded as Chivas Regal , and its Chivas Regal 25 Year Old , released to the states in 1909 , is considered the original sumptuousness Scotch .
There’s a “Chivas Regal effect” beyond just feeling good
In the ' 40s following the war , Chivas Regal was a struggle brand . The taradiddle live that the society simply doubled the price of the product , and it jumped in popularity . The " Chivas Regal effect , " as it ’s bang , refers to something being considered superscript just because of its high-pitched Mary Leontyne Price tag , regardless of its actual tone . It ’s generally reserved for high teaching , oddly enough . And while more expensive college are often well regarded , the line of the phrase is probably unfair . In 1949 , Seagram ’s , one of the largest liquor companies in the world , buy Chivas Regal and launched a monolithic advertising campaign . That probably helped more than the increased price .
It’s made in the oldest continuously operating distillery in Scotland
With the added revenue and statistical distribution of being owned by Seagram ’s , Chivas Regal managed to purchase the Strathisla , the onetime operating still in Scotland . The single malt used in Chivas Regal ’s portmanteau is still made there .
Frank Sinatra loved it…
Hunter S. Thompson was an even bigger fan
It’s now owned by Pernod Ricard
Seagram ’s go defunct in 2000 , and its products were picked up by a variety of companies . Pernod Ricard managed to acquire Chivas Regal , because it just makes sense that a Gallic liquor company known primarily for its old man should own a Scotch whisky company . But hey , whatever gets the Scotch into our snow cones .
Alex Franelikes whisky , and writing about it render a capital excuse to try some . See what he ’s trying now at@franiacdrinks .
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