SCOTCH whisky Johnnie Walker has been named the world's leading alcoholic drink in an annual league table.
The brand, which originated in Kilmarnock, has overtaken another Diageo brand, Smirnoff vodka, thanks to growing demand in China and Eastern Europe, industry experts said.
It becomes the first blended whisky to come out on top in the Power 100 survey of the most powerful world drinks brands.
And by country, Scotland beat the USA and France to come out on top again in the survey, with 16 "power brands" in the Power 100, mostly whisky. Chivas Regal lay ninth in the table of the most powerful brands, Ballantine's was 10th and Dewar's 12th.
Nearly 10,000 brands of spirits and wines are researched to draw up a list of the 100 most powerful.
Stuart Whitwell, of Intangible Business, which produces the Power 100, said: "The growth of Scotch whisky is mostly down to the rising middle classes in China"
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article