We are used to thinking about quality in the products we choose to buy, whether its clothing, food, or alcohol. But is there any truth to this when it comes to alcohol, or is it simply a marketing ploy by the alcohol industry?

Quality marketing
For time immemorial, the alcohol industry has used the idea of ‘quality’ to promote its products. Beer and lager producers focus on natural ingredients and the craftmanship that has gone into production. Similarly, whisky distillers talk of the simplicity of ingredients, the time spent crafting each product, and evoke idyllic imagery of rolling highlands, pure spring water, and how the natural world is imbued in every wee dram. Wine producers understandably avoid discussing what is actually in their products – although perhaps you’re happy to drink dried fish bladder (isinglass), pig or cow collagen, and whatever polyvinylpyrrolidone is – so instead they focus on provenance and price as markers of ‘quality’. (As an aside, this is why the wine industry has been so resistant to improved labelling, unlike the beer industry which often lists ingredients on-label.) Wine producers also focus on craftsmanship, variety, and time spent ageing....