Madrí Excepcional is a beer produced in the United Kingdom by Coors with some input from their Spanish brewery subsidiary in Toledo La Sagra.[1] It is also brewed in Canada by Molson Coors for the Canadian market.[2]
Style
The beer is a European-style lager[3] with 4.6% ABV.[4] The beer was originally developed and brewed for the British and Irish markets.
Presence
It was introduced to pubs in 2020[5] and by 2022, due to intensive marketing,[6] it became one of the 10 best selling lagers in the United Kingdom.[7]Off-trade sales began in 2022.[8]
Marketing
The packaging uses a red design featuring a chulapo man in a cap and houndstooth waistcoat, echoing the Moretti branding. It trades heavily on its Spanish associations, using the slogan "El Alma de Madrid" ("the soul of Madrid"), although it is brewed in Tadcaster,[9][10] which has long been a centre for British brewing. The beer is aimed at the premium end of the British and Irish lager market.[11]
However, the overt Spanish branding of Madri has drawn criticism with Molson Coors accused of lacking authenticity and transparency with The Sunday Times describing Madri as "the biggest illusion in British brewing history."[12] Although Marston Coors claim that Madrí has been created in partnership with its Toledo La Sagra subsidiary and promote the beer under the slogan the 'Soul of Madrid', the brewery is not known in the city with Mahou and El Águila more popular amongst Spanish drinkers.[13]
^Brown, Pete (19 February 2023). "Beer drinkers are mad for Madrí — but how Spanish is it?". The Times. Retrieved 2024-11-30. Welcome to the biggest illusion in British brewing history. Like storytelling or lovemaking or brewing itself, marketing can be performed skilfully or clumsily, and Madrí is a marketing masterclass. "We never actually claimed to be brewed in Madrid," says a brand spokesperson when I make my first inquiries. "We've never hidden the fact that we're brewed in Tadcaster."
^McPhail, Sam (15 June 2024). "Madrí wouldn't fool a true Spaniard". The Spectator. Retrieved 2024-11-30. 'People think they are drinking a Spanish beer but it's not,' says Aitor de Artaza, international head of Estrella Galicia. He accuses Madrí of 'lacking transparency'. It's not an unfair criticism. Madrí's owners, the Canadian-American brewing giant Molson Coors, claim Spanish heritage from the tiny Toledo-based brewery they own which gave Madrí its 'inspiration'. That's it. No recipe, malt or hops.
