What are you drinking right now?

[kwilkinson]

Why not use Aviation as your well gin?

 

[b1os]

I guess Hunts would use Smirnoff Black if it was readily available. Since it's not, he wants to stay in the family.

 

[Bhowie]



Why not use Aviation as your well gin?

My samples are on the way and things don't officially change till Thursday. I've never even tried any of their products.

 

[Bhowie]



I guess Hunts would use Smirnoff Black if it was readily available. Since it's not, he wants to stay in the family.

I don't think it is.

 

[kwilkinson]



My samples are on the way and things don't officially change till Thursday. I've never even tried any of their products.

I've only tried Aviation.

I requested a sample bottle of whiskey, frontline price is like 490 a six pack. After getting the sample yesterday, found out today we stopped carrying that brand amd are liquidating inventory. In other words, free bottle for ksilk.

 

[Bhowie]



I've only tried Aviation.

I requested a sample bottle of whiskey, frontline price is like 490 a six pack. After getting the sample yesterday, found out today we stopped carrying that brand amd are liquidating inventory. In other words, free bottle for ksilk.

What whiskey? Not the stuff from House?

If you worked for Southern I could have hooked you up. My old company and the new are making jumps to that house.

What's the credit terms for your accounts?

 

[kwilkinson]

Really? The old one? Wow. Around here, at least, I'd have assumed they were happy with who they had.

It was High West Rocky Mountain 16 year.

All beer (and FMB) in Illinois is COD, wine terms for us are net 30.

 

[kwilkinson]

I don't get why all these companies go to Southern. With companies like mine, sure we have a smaller footprint, but I actually know everything in my book. SWS? That old brand is going to get lost in that book. House stuff kind of stands out, but those middling-quality brands like your old one? None of those sws reps are even going to know they have it until a retailer asks for it.

 

[Bhowie]

Southern has access to every account in the state. An account could almost due 100% of their business with Southern. You guys don't have access to every account in the state. This really is a BFD. Worst case scenario I can at least get pertinent info on a buyer from the guy at Southern, that won't happen with you. This is particularly true for craft cocktail bars, our bread and butter for on premise. We can't take on Hendricks fully until we have a good depletion base. Once you get that depletion base more money comes in and you can bang up against the big boys in whorish accounts.

Southern has the best national accounts team in the country. Small guys don't.

This is me speculating, bare with me. I think the goal is to sell off the Aviation side and focus primarily on whiskey production. If you think of it as a pump and dump we're going to hit our 2013 number. The 2014 and 2015 numbers are different stories. If you can get a huge cash infusion from the sale of Aviation, it really doesn't matter about the brands future for those years. Caveat emptor and all that jazz. This is particularly true for my old brand. They've worked the brand hard for 3 out of 5 years we've been on the market. The owners are tired and want to move on. There are some other internal things I won't go into in public that makes me think this.

Back to my first point. If Southern, and you know they do, has guys with pull in our target accounts we just buy those guys off. Simple as that.


Edit: the more I think about the sale of Aviation the less likely I think that is true. It wouldn't make that much sense economically. Getting whiskey production high enough to replace the gin is really ******* tough. So why not keep the quick turnaround product so you have yearly revenue.

 

[kwilkinson]

Yeah it's actually surprising that more whisky suppliers DON'T make gin or white rum or something to make revenue quick. I imagine it's pretty tough to just sit and watch and wait while your whisky melts away in oak barrels.

And meh. Never have liked southern. Even as a buyer. I get that some people view them as a one stop shop and producers view them as the holy grail to signify that "finally we've arrived," but still, meh.

 

[Bhowie]

You're slowly selling your soul. We'll revisit this topic in 2 years.

 

[kwilkinson]

One $400 Mike's display at a time.

 

[Bhowie]

Holy ****! Does Mike's pay you that much per display? How many cases have to be on the floor?

 

[erictheobscure]

I wish someone were paying me $400 for drinking this Blanton's.

 

[Huntsman]

H, have you tried Citadelle yet? Want to hear your take on it.

So, this is awkward. On your rec, I got a bottle of Citadelle (750ml) to replace the bottle of Plymouth at my gf's. However, as I don't have the stuff there to make my gin-forward drinks (Martinis with Vya Whisper Dry or Dolin, or my White Martini), I have never really had it in an environment where I could see what it was like unadulterated with lots of other stuff, or had other gins to compare it too. Rather, it got used in Negronis, Corpse Reviver #2s, and far too many Art Decos (my own orgeat cockail, the recipe for which I have sadly forgotten). So I don't know. The bottle is now empty. So I have to get another at some point.

Huntsman, why do you use Smirnoff red? You use far more expensive spirits as your well, why not upgrade the vodka. If you can get Tito's in your controlled state I'd check it out. Will not break the bank and it is a very pleasant potato vodka.

Quote:
Originally Posted by b1os

I guess Hunts would use Smirnoff Black if it was readily available. Since it's not, he wants to stay in the family.

Bhowie, I mean, yeah. I know. Woodford/Courvoisier/JW Black are not cheap. Sentiment, perhaps? Smirnoff Red was probably the first spirit I ever tasted, and its nearly isopropanol quality has impressed itself upon my mind. Furthermore, I don't make that many vodka drinks; they are all adulterated with many strong flavors, so I am not sure how much it matters, as the vodka is primarily adding alcohol to extract the alcohol-soluable flavor components from the other ingredients. When the vodka is a primary spirit in my drink (Vesper, or the vodka version of the White Martini) I use something I can buy and really enjoy -- Chopin or Boyd & Blair. I can buy Tito's here, but have never tried it. Will do....sometime. All the same, to b1os' point - I love Smirnoff Black, and once, many moons ago, made Screwdrivers side by side with Black, Red, and Blue, finding that I (blindly) preferred the Black. I don't really understand that, especially when I can tell if my Screwdriver has been made with Absolut (I really can't stand Absolut).

b1, this post inspired me to open the bottle of Black I picked up in Tokyo. Ok, it is good but not as good as I remember Black being over a decade ago, and not as good as Chopin or B&B, but still rendolent of that Smirnoff taste with which I have deep identity. As I believe we have discussed, Black is now a UK product, whereas I knew it as a Moscow product, so there is clearly a difference.



The question (and the problem) is do I ever open my last bottle of Moscow Black to compare? Maybe I will get some Tito's and have a big vodka tasting. I did a mini-tastting when I opened the Black, and found that although it was a little rough, I still enjoyed the flavor and the undeniable Smirnoff taste -- it is refined Red. But it will not unseat Chopin and B&B as my current favorites. Also, I remembered why I dislike Goose so much. Gah! Karlsson's Gold, too, is awful to me (sorry, Piob). I can't get past the nose, like old Epoisses or tennis shoes. Nasty, even though the taste is interesting and not bad.

Why not use Aviation as your well gin?

Never had it? Beefeater is straight-ahead enough for most cocktail purposes for me; it's the Plymouth I can buy by the handle. When gin is the dominant character of the drink, I usually go with the floral and gentle Hendrick's. My favorite gin is Martin Miller. I think it has the best balance. If I need a gin that will cut anything else, I use Junipero; it makes a superlative Last Word, where it is not drowned by Luxardo and Chartreuse.

An overriding theme that I have been finding of late is that there are so many excellent spirits being introduced in all classes these days that it is impossible to keep up. As long as I have something that suits me, I stay with that, but may rotate through my well +1 level to try new things, but this is a slow process (Knob Creek Rye -- yummy -- is the most recent to begin there, as a step up from my well Sazerac 6).

~ H