February 2010

I want to start off by apologizing for the recent slowdown in Whisk(e)y Apostle activity. Matt’s on hiatus and I had all these reviews lined up to do. Unfortunately, my beautiful little angel of a daughter brought home a cold and I haven’t been able to smell anything for the last week and a half. That makes whiskey tasting difficult. Hopefully I will be back up and running this weekend. We’ll have to wait and see.

The time has given me the chance to go through emails from readers both old and new. As I was going through a few it reminded me of an article I’ve been meaning to write for Whisk(e)y Apostle for quite some time. I get asked about availability more than any other topic by a wide margin. That’s really the main reason why my monthly new release summary is exclusively those items coming to the U.S. It’s very frustrating to hear about all the great new releases that we can’t get here.

Why do so many new releases never come to the U.S.?

And if they do come stateside, why can’t I find them near me?

There are three main reasons why you may not see the new release of Glenmorangie or Hibiki in a liquor store near you:
1. Supply
2. Demand
3. Economics

Richard, we just want our whiskey, not an economics lesson. Fair enough. I’ll keep it relevant and in layman’s terms. I promise.

Supply
There are some bottlings that are even made in the U.S. but don’t come to a store near you. It’s driven me nuts for years that I can’t get Buffalo Trace in Atlanta. If I can reasonably drive to Kentucky in a day and buy it, then you would think that they would sell it here right? Well, as the Buffalo Trace label has grown they have to make enough for everyone who wants it. It’s pretty darn good, especially at its price point so the supply has been a little strained. If a producer can only make so much or only have so much on hand then they have to be selective on where they distribute it. Usually, this means the major markets like New York, San Francisco, Chicago, etc. will get it first. This leads right into the demand issue.

Demand
For whiskey that doesn’t see the distribution levels that Jack Daniels and Glenlivet do there has to be sufficient demand in your market for whiskey or the producer won’t bother allocating any to your area. This recently came up in regards to the new Hibiki 12 Year Old Japanese Blend. I’m dying to try the stuff and Matt’s seen it in New York but no hint of it in Georgia. One of our readers asked when we might see some. I spoke with several retailers and ultimately the distributor and importer before getting the disappointing news. Atlanta isn’t a “major whisky market” in the eyes of international whisk(e)y producers. We don’t have the festivals, sales, or interest in our area to warrant some new products bothering to make inroads into our market. If you live in Charleston, Oklahoma City, Wichita, or similar areas you may have the same issue. How do we combat this? As Apostles you have to be a driving force to see this kind of stuff in your area. If 10 local retailers each hear from 20 individuals and then let their distributor know that there’s a sizeable demand for a product in that area then the distributors may talk to the importers and say “Hey we really need to get some of this stuff to Wichita.”

Economics
However, some things will just never come to the U.S. The reason is that the cost for the producer to make it and send it here is more than they can make on the sales. Whiskey production is a business after all. The United States is one of the few countries that sell 750ml bottles instead of the 700ml international standard. (South Africa & Sweden are a couple of others) It’s also one of an even smaller list of countries that says that by law all full sized bottled spirits sold within its borders must be in bottles with a volume of at least 750ml. So if you’re making a very small amount of whiskey or it’s a vintage or single cask bottling and you know you can sell all 100 bottles that you’ll make at 700ml across the world then it doesn’t make sense to set up a whole new bottling line just send 10 750ml bottles to the U.S. The government justifies it as protecting the consumer. There are points on both sides of the argument but I still want more variety and I don’t care if I have to give up 50ml to get it.

I know this doesn’t take the sting out of missing out on the latest and greatest new thing but I hope it at least helped in understanding what’s going on. Keep pushing for more stuff in your area and you may be surprised by what you get.

Drink wisely my friends,

Richard