Booze Business | A blog dedicated to the business of spirits and wine

Who Stole the Vodka? Better Question – Why Bother?

July 8, 2013 1 Comment

Buffalo Trace Newsletter had an article last week about the theft of $1.1 million worth of vodka (752 cases) from a customs warehouse in Miami.

According to a number of news reports including CNN:

“The men were caught by the cameras loading… several boxes containing Spirits of the Tsars Golden Vodka, a Ukrainian-made vodka that features 24-carat gold on its label that retails for between US$250 in the off-trade and $1,200 in the on-trade.”

The product is “golden,” not just because of the label. It is an amber color aged in Cognac barrels for three years.

A number of observations come to mind.

According to the label, this is not vodka but a vodka specialty – “vodka infused with grape wine brandy and natural flavors with caramel color.” At $250 a bottle, the closest you get to Cognac is the barrel? “Golden” vodka, thanks to caramel coloring? Where are you when we need you, PT Barnum?

Most thefts of liquor generally involve product placement under the raincoat or “slippage” out the back door. That’s why you see expensive products in lock boxes, behind the counter or with a “chastity belt” around the cap. But these thieves punched a hole in the wall of the warehouse directly to the area where the vodka was stored. They win the award for brazenness as well as stupidity. Who is going to buy the vodka? Their sales are small, so an appearance of these goods will be noticed.

Somewhere in the basement of a garish McMansion, sits a retired oligarch who ushers his guests into a special wood paneled room where they sip this golden elixir while admiring a stolen Picasso. Really?

The response from the company was to offer a reward worth $5,000. At $1.1 million, 752 cases, means it’s worth $1,462 per case. As CNN put it, “if you use that reward to buy the stuff at some South Beach nightclubs, you could buy about four bottles of it.”

The chincy reward makes me wonder. But then again, the name of the game in the booze business is depletions of stock – through the front door preferably but any other way might also work.

Anyone with information about this theft is urged to stop laughing.

Would you drink a beer that tastes like liquor? How about a liquor that tastes like beer?

June 20, 2013 4 Comments

BrewDog, an independent brewery based in Scotland has launched a beer-based spirit called WattDickie. It’s named for the two owners whose keyboard seems to be missing the space bar. (Their website is here.)

But their creativity seems to be working okay. Although, the idea has been done before, but the other way around. Therein lies the tale.

Messrs Watt and Dickie developed the new product using a “radical brewing and ice distillation process.” It’s 35% AbV and is created using an IPA style beer. At 70 proof it must pack a wallop.

I’ve been following these gents for some time (see May 16, 2012 posting) and admire their independence and cheekiness (for those of you in the States, that’s called chutzpah). Martin Dickie, had this to say about their new creation:

“What we have here is not a beer, but its alter-ego. This is Mr. Hyde. This is the shiver down the spine of the grease slick adman relying on people lapping up the ‘same old-same old’ from their sticky bottle of snake oil. This is a drink by the misfits, for the misfits. It’s a beautiful, absurd experiment.”

It will sell for £2.99 for a 6cl bottle and will be available in BrewDog bars and their online store at the end of June. Get this – according to Just Drinks, it is expected to be available in 700ml bottles later this year.

I wonder what it tastes like.

Back in the day, Seagram, spurred on by the vagaries of the owner, produced a beer-flavored whiskey called Old Breed. (See the May 24, 2010 posting for the full story.)

Failure does not begin to describe the reaction to this neither fish nor fowl new product. The comments were universally negative (with “awful taste” at the forefront) and the product was pulled faster than a New York minute. That is, of course, when management mustered enough guts to tell the owner his baby was ugly.

Now, I’m not saying that WattDickie is in the same class as Old Breed. But, calling their brew or concoction a “new style of spirit,” makes me wonder. Is it indeed a new worthwhile alcohol product or a bad idea whose time has come again?

As they say, “the proof of a pudding is in the eating.” So, to my readers in the UK – try it and let me know what you think.

(My thanks to Drew DeSarno who brought this to my attention and supplied the Old Breed photo.)

Southern Comfort’s Next Chapter — Does the new ad work?

June 11, 2013 1 Comment

Southern Comfort has launched the next chapter in the “Whatever’s Comfortable” campaign that I have been following for about a year (Aug14 and Dec19, 2012 as well as Jan 17, 2013). So far, according to Brown Forman, sales trends have turned around by 6% and the brand grew for the first time since 2008.

This latest effort marks a change in character from the original award winning effort, “Beaches,” which featured an interesting, everyday guy comfortable in his own skin as he casually walks down the beach. Here is the original.

The new ad execution has a different character but the same attitude. “We want to champion consumers to ‘be their awesome selves’ and that attitude comes out through this work,” said Mark Bacon, SVP, Managing Director, Southern Comfort. “We’re comfortable being Southern Comfort and we want our consumers to embody that same attitude about themselves.”

Here’s the ad by Wieden + Kennedy. I enjoyed the original ad a great deal but this one works for me as well.

What do you think? (You can also find it here.)