Differences in Alcohol Percentage

[edoetsch]

My wife got me a 1 litre bottle of Laphroaig from duty free in Germany and it is at 40%.

At stores here in Boston, Laphroaig is sold at 43%.

Is a special 40% made to satisfy some EU restriction or is a 40% special for duty free in general?

[Derek]

Hi. Scotch whisky by law must be at least 40% ABV, so that is what the general bottlings are. Other countries request the same spirit to be higher say 43% ABV so it will be bottled at that for the specific markets.

Cask strength and higher ABV bottlings would be sold at the same level across the board.

[bkblankenship]

The 40% ABV bottlings came about as a result of World War II. Since whisky production was halted during the war, the 40% ABV was a concept to increase the number of bottles per cask as opposed to the standard 43% ABV at that time. The 40% has stayed around and over time, through criticism, many distilleries are increasing their ABV to 43% and higher.