“Ancient Scotch mixture” returns: James Eadie’s Trade Mark “X” revived after 70 years
- First retailed 1854, trademarked 1877, praised by Harper’s writer 1889
- Elegant but peaty blend now revived by founder’s great great grandson
- Original ingredients in new bottling include ‘silent’ stills Cambus and Littlemill
- Blended Scotch showing signs of resurgence in UK and abroad, accounting for 9-in-10 bottles sold worldwide
LONDON, 18th October 2017 – An ancient whisky blend dating back to the 1850s which became one of the world’s first trademarks has been revived to serve blended Scotch’s growing export and resurgent domestic markets.
James Eadie’s Trade Mark “X” blends all 12 of the whiskies still in production listed in the founder’s Victorian ledgers, including Caol Ila, Aberlour, Craigellachie and Lagavulin. Plus there’s a grain and a malt from ‘silent’ stills Cambus and Littlemill – closed in the early 1990s – and now very hard to acquire.
“Some people in the trade think I’m mad using these premium singles and extremely rare whiskies in a blend, but the art of blending is what gave Scottish whisky the dominant position in global spirits which it enjoys today,” says Rupert Patrick, Eadie’s great great grandson, a former director at Ian Macleod, Beam and then Diageo, and now MD of James Eadie Ltd.
“Eadie’s blend was outstanding because he didn’t stint on quality. This first bottling of Trade Mark ‘X’ in 70 years is as enticing and complex as the original. It’s all about authenticity.”
Born in Blackford near Gleneagles in 1827, James Eadie moved south to Burton-on-Trent, founding his own brewery in 1854 and began retailing a Scotch recipe – apparently handed down to him by his father – that was subsequently blended by another four generations.
Eadie trademarked the blend’s cross logo in 1877, one year after the Trade Marks Registration Act became law – some 32 years before Chivas Regal came into existence, and 18 years before Jack Daniels even began to use his famous square bottle in Tennessee, USA.
In 1889 Alfred Barnard, the famed author of The Whisky Distilleries of the United Kingdom (1887), praised Eadie’s “ancient Scotch mixture” in his Noted Breweries of Great Britain and Ireland (Volume 2), saying it was “dispensed to a favoured few” at the brewer’s head office.
The blend in fact featured in the public houses owned and run by the Eadie family, numbering over 300 by the turn of the century. They sold the business to Bass in 1933, which then continued production of Trade Mark “X” until 1947.
Rupert relaunched James Eadie Ltd as an independent bottler in 2016. Whisky retailers and critics have praised its small-run bottlings of single malts. Its Caol Ila 8-year old Small Batch was voted the most popular Islay whisky of the 2017 Edinburgh Whisky Fringe.
Knowing a little of Trade Mark “X”s history – and having tasted a bottling from before WWII – Rupert dug into Eadie’s ledgers, now held at the National Brewery Archives in Burton, and set out to recreate this blend as a “sip back in time” for today’s global base of Scotch whisky fans.
Says Rupert:
“Trade Mark ‘X’ was crafted during the first golden age of Scotch, when Victorian entrepreneurs like James Eadie produced elegant, high quality drinks and built them into strong brands.”
“Reviving Trade Mark ‘X’ has been great fun. I’ve always been convinced that some of the old blends were incredibly good, deserving to stand shoulder to shoulder with any top quality single malt today. Blending is perhaps the biggest skill in the Scotch industry.”
Blended whisky accounts for 9 in every 10 bottles of Scotch sold overseas, according to data from HMRC. Over the 12 months to July exports of blend grew 1.5% by volume and 3.9% by value.
Blended Scotch is also undergoing a renaissance at home, having slowly declined since the 1980s as single malts grew in popularity. UK consumption of blended Scotch rose 1% by volume in 2015 and 2016. Blends now account for more than 8-in-10 bottles of Scotch sold in the UK.
Now crafted by master blender Norman Matheson, this new bottling of Trade Mark ‘X’ shows an elegant balance between sweet and floral Speyside flavours and more peaty, smoky notes typical of island malts.
Already shipped to 6 export markets including Japan, France, Denmark and Germany, Trade Mark ‘X’ is available today from a variety of independent UK retailers including Royal Mile Whiskies and Master of Malt. Recommended retail price is £45. UK distribution enquiries should be sent to sales@jameseadie.co.uk.
Notes:
About James Eadie Ltd
First established in 1854, James Eadie Ltd was revived in 2016 by the founder’s great great grandson, Rupert Patrick. Today, the company is an independent Scotch whisky blender and bottler. The James Eadie single malts are exported to eight international markets and are distributed in the UK by Royal Mile Whiskies. The company is building a reputation as a supplier of top quality specialist whiskies, with its bottling of Caol Ila voted the most popular Islay whisky of the 2017 Edinburgh Whisky Fringe.
As well as single malts, James Eadie also owns a blended Scotch whisky brand, Trade Mark “X”. This brand was revived in October 2017, having been dormant since its last bottling in the late 1940’s. Master Blender Norman Mathison used his fifty years’ blending experience to re-master this once famous Scotch brand. A key feature in the revival of the brand was the discovery of the company’s original whisky ledgers from the mid to late 19th Century, which revealed a blend made from some of Scotland’s finest whiskies, then and now. Only whiskies from distilleries listed in the founder’s ledgers have been used.
James Eadie Ltd is a member of the Scotch Whisky Association, whose role is to advance the global interests and profile of Scotch whisky.
About Rupert Patrick
Rupert Patrick has over 25 years’ experience in all aspects of the whisky business, building brands and managing duty-free and export-market sales at Ian Macleod Distillers, Beam Suntory and then Diageo. A liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Distillers, Rupert is a Keeper of the Quaich.
For further information, please visit www.jameseadie.co.uk/
