King William Fortified Wine embraces negative 'sectarian and offensive' publicity as sales soar

In two promotional posts the brand has described itself as ‘officially sectarian’ and ‘officially offensive’ while urging consumers to “get yours before it’s changed”.

It comes after an independent panel from the Portman Group upheld a complaint about the label on the bottle, produced by Belcondie, which included a image of King William and an ABV of 16.90%.

The panel deemed that referencing the King William’s victory at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690 could cause serious offence as it is “a specific conflict associated with sectarianism”.

At the time of the ruling a spokesperson said: “We are astonished some consider a number could cause serious offence however we are delighted that the Portman Group agreed with our arguments against the other points raised by the complainant as to the use of King William’s name and images of him on his famous white charger as being considered seriously offensive.“Unfortunately our loyal customers will be unable to enjoy our original flavour of fortified wine at 16.90 per cent ABV once existing stock clear the shelves.“We hope they will continue to enjoy the new strength that will be launched as soon as current original flavour stock has been sold.“A limited number of bottles available at 16.90 per cent ABV will no doubt cause a peak in demand."

Since that prediction, demand has indeed increased, particularly in the Province where the company said it was seeing a lot of Northern Ireland postcodes when it comes to online orders, which account for around 90% of sales.

"The surge in sales is probably driven by a lot of people wanting to get a bottle before they change,” said the spokesperson.

In presenting its case to the panel of the Portman Group the company stated that when considered in its full historical context, it did not understand how the use of a British monarch on its packaging, or the alcoholic strength by volume (ABV), could cause serious or widespread offence, particularly a monarch who had fought for the religious freedom of all.

The company said that sectarianism implied strong negative feelings against a particular religion or sect of a religion. However, the company reiterated that it did not believe using the name or imagery of King William was tantamount to sectarianism, and as such did not believe that the drinks packaging could cause serious or widespread offence.

The company noted that while the packaging may appeal to some consumers more than others, it did not consider that this constituted a breach of the code.

DUP MP Sammy Wilson was critical of the panel’s ruling: “This is another example of spineless, middle class busy bodies, anticipating the bigoted outrage of republicans and bowing to the pressure which they expect they would be subjected to, if they were to permit this product to be available in this way."

House of Lords peer Baroness Hoey said: "It really is outrageous. Who are these people to judge that important figures from British history and key dates are offensive? Would they have ruled out an Irish Republican historical figure?”