Sweetheart Deals Mean Less For Us

[Sweetmeats]

"All these brands are owned by the Sazerac Co. headquartered in New Orleans, La., which has been actively promoting the single-barrel program since 2005. Other American whiskey brands like Evan Williams, Bulleit, and Jack Daniel's offer full-barrel bottlings, and some other brands offer private bottlings for VIP customers, but whiskeys from the Sazerac Co. come with a bonus: Buy the barrel, and get more access to limited products like Sazerac 18-year-old rye.

The recent popularity of bourbon and rye whiskey have led to a scarcity of product, so spirits companies reserve their aged whiskeys for specific markets.

"We didn't get enough of the allocation for the California market. The people who wanted the allocated bourbons came to us and said, 'What do we have to do to get them?' " said Bill Hart, a regional sales manager for Sazerac Co. Sazerac sold 71 single barrels last year in Northern California alone, Hart said. (Another option was to buy cases of Rain vodka, which you may now find as the well vodka in more venues than usual.)"

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cg.../WIFCRUH6T.DTL

[mozilla]

Wow, I didn't know Bourbon barrels grew as they were shipped across the ocean. So, its 200 bottles here and 600 there. Must be the metric system???

[Rughi]

This competition for the allocation certainly does make things more difficult for small independents, stores that aren't savvy about American whiskey, and worst of all, for enthusiasts who are asking disinterested liquor stores to order in some BT product.

Is it less good for consumers? In the larger sense I would say probably yes. But in the personal sense I'd say, Mark, that Bevmo may be the most aggressive retailer in California in negotiating these deals. I would guess there's one close to you.

Roger

[Sweetmeats]

Bevmo was great two years ago for BTAC but not last year. I didn't see any on my own and ended up reserving them from Hitime which was more expensive but at least I got them. I don't hold up much hope for Bevmo anymore.

[cowdery]

I think Mark just intended his subject line to be provocative, so I won't jump down his throat for it, but the SF Gate article is full of holes and that conclusion is fallacious.

Some examples of the just plain wrong statements in the article.

"In the past few years, the master blender has had slightly less work to do, as single-barrel bottlings have become popular."

Hardly. It takes just as much work, if not more, to select a candidate for single barrel bottling.

"Restaurants that have participated in full-barrel programs for several years have access to a more elite selection of whiskey."

Nonsense. Just not true.

"...whiskeys from the Sazerac Co. come with a bonus: Buy the barrel, and get more access to limited products like Sazerac 18-year-old rye."

I guess one might object to it, but using something desirable that has limited availability to leverage additional sales of standard product is a common business practice, considered ethical by most business people. The reality is, what's really difficult to get? Stagg maybe, but not Sazerac Rye 18.

"...larger Scotch barrels can yield nearly 600 bottles as opposed to around 200 of bourbon."

Simple ignorance, but it undercuts the credibility of the whole article. The reporter as parrot, merely repeating what he thinks he heard. I'm anxious to see one of those 150 gallon scotch barrels, though.

"Jack Daniel's may be the only brand promoting full-barrel bottlings directly to the consumer, though for legal reasons the bottles must be shipped to a distributor first."

Just wrong. Consumers can buy a barrel of Jack, Evan Williams Single Barrel Vintage, Woodford Reserve and many others, including virtually any product Buffalo Trace sells.

"White also purchased whiskey futures from an American whiskey start-up, so he now owns two barrels of whisky he may or may not ever drink."

This, of course, is fantasy. What "American whiskey start-up"? In the United States, the only people who can legally buy whiskey futures from an American whiskey producer are other licensed producers or licensed distributors.

The truth is, these exclusive single-barrel bottlings are good for everyone. They are good for the producer, good for the retailer, and good for the consumer. It's win/win, not zero sum, as the subject line implies.

[Sweetmeats]

It was intended to be a little provocative...sorry.

It's nice to have you "fisk" an article to show us what's wrong in it.

Reading the article gave me the impression that it would be harder to get the already hard Antique Collection though. If I'm wrong on that, then I'm glad to be.

[cowdery]

No problem. You presented it in the right spirit, as something to talk about, and I'm glad you pointed me to the SF Gate article. I posted a comment there too.

I won't deny that producers and retailers play a lot of games, in terms of "if you want this you got to buy that," and maybe somebody in SF can speak to actual availability of stuff there, I can't. But in the markets with which I am familiar, about the only BTAC bottling that can be a challenge to acquire is Stagg and, otherwise, only things like the Jimmy Russell and Booker tributes, and some other very limited releases, have been nearly impossible to find, and those weren't even mentioned.

If San Francisco is as hot an American whiskey market as this article implies, that's wonderful. Good for everybody.

[Sweetmeats]

In Southern California, Stagg is much easier to come by then Sazerac 18. Hitimes Wine even charged about 10-15 dollars more a bottle for it than Stagg if I remember right.

[cowdery]

The industry needs to figure out some kind of intra-retailer exchange program, so bottles languishing on the shelf in Illinois (or wherever) can be transferred to California (or wherever) where there is unmet demand.

[kpendle]

For myself the sweetheart deals in my part of the Bay Area are a real benefit. To the tune of in the past 6 months I have gotten the following:

Weller Centennial for $24.99
ORVW 15/107 for $35.99
PVW 15/107 for $34-$37 depending on the store
Eagle Rare single barrels $23
ETL for $22.99

And all the barrel selections were very good to excellent.

I will say that it may be a negative impact on some of the smaller retailers. But of those retailers the selection is pretty poor to begin with for many and they are not realistically interested in anything good for the most part. Not saying this to be true for all but my experience it is the case many times.

For the places I frequent on a regular basis just the opposite. They usually already have a good selection and they have used barrel purchases as an opportunity to pass on some good deals. I still pick up an occasional ORVW 15/107 barrel purchase bottle for $36 because I know with the screw cap squat bottle the cork will not be a problem years from now because there isn't one. Without that barrel purchase they would not have it and if they did it almost certainly would cost more. And that particular bottle is still easy to get most likely because for the same price the more impressive looking PVW 15 barrel purchase is right next to it on the shelf.

I rarely if ever buy anything from BevMo either preferring to frequent non-chain liquor stores. Currently the only deal at BevMo that has been enticing is the recent Ca. intro of Buffalo Trace for $21.99. But even then I still chose to pay $24.99 at another place because they maintain an overall better selection and actually have helpful staff.

I did see the article found it interesting on the restaraunts in the Bay Area which were buying barrels. As Chuck pointed out overall the article was just not real accurate but if you did not know any better it did sound believable.

Ken