Traveling - Part II

We’re living in an era where having “experiences” has become more important than owning material things. Making a destination “Instagramable” is practically the most important thing you can do in the tourism industry because everyone wants to share their “experiences” with the world as they’re happening!

I have the word “experiences” in quotes to be sarcastic because of the irony in what constitutes an experience today; it’s literally the opposite of the actual definition.

I put this analogy to a friend yesterday: imagine someone you know is traveling to Paris and he’s got a list of important sights he wants to see. He spends the entire trip rushing around to check off each box so that when he gets home he can tell all his friends that he’s experienced the great sights of Paris. Look at his Instagram account! Can’t you see he was there? The Eiffel Tower, the Mona Lisa, Versailles, etc. He’s got the receipts.

But to experience something extraordinary doesn’t mean standing in front of it for thirty seconds, or taking a picture with it in the background. For me, experiencing the majesty or the beauty of something truly inspirational means having communion. You have to connect with it, spend time with it, and try to understand what it means in the right context. It might even require some additional research on the side before you get there.

I brought up this analogy to my friend because, more and more, I see people treating wine and spirits in the same manner. Everyone is tasting as much as possible, checking off the boxes, and moving on to the next adventure—but without really having the experience they’re paying for. It makes me incredibly sad.

I watched a video this week with Edward Sahakian from the world famous Davidoff Cigar Shop in London. Someone asked him what his five favorite cigars of all time were. He responded by saying he couldn’t pick his five favorite cigars, but he could pick his five favorite cigar moments. I can’t tell you how happy I was to hear him say that.

It’s because Mr. Sahakian understands that the moment of communion defines the experience, not the cigar. You could have the best cigar in the world in your mouth, but if you’re not in the right frame of mind, at the right moment, it’s worthless.

Yet, it’s amazing how easy it is to lie to ourselves and make believe that we really had the experience we’re longing for when we clearly did not. We like to protect our egos and convince ourselves that we’re part of some special experience club, but it’s not always true.

I’ll give you an example.

For most of my adult life, my favorite rock band has been Pavement. Unfortunately for me, Pavement disbanded in 1999 and I didn’t really hit my Pavement stride until 2001. Fortunately for me, I was lucky enough to see Pavement in 1995 as part of a festival. So when people asked me if I ever got to see Pavement perform before they broke up, I said: “Yes, lucky me!”

But I don’t remember a goddamn thing from that 1995 performance. I wasn’t into it, I didn’t know any of the songs, and I had zero context.

So, yes, I got to “see Pavement live.” I checked that experience box. But in the back of my mind, I knew that I never really had the experience I was longing for.

Flash forward to 2010, and I’m sitting in the front row of the Bob Hope Theatre in Stockton (Pavement’s hometown) as part of the big reunion show, belting out every single lyric, completely in tune with every single song, and practically weeping.

THAT is a fucking experience. THAT was a moment.

If I had never had the chance to see Pavement with the right mindset, I would have been sad, but I probably would have consoled myself with the literal truth that I had actually seen them perform back in 1995. Yet, despite my desire to believe that should suffice, it’s not really the same, is it?

If you’ve tasted a 30 year Port Ellen single malt, that’s nice. Good for you. But it’s not the same as drinking a glass of 30 year Port Ellen after a meal and talking about it with friends. It’s not even close.

The point is: don’t short change an actual experience for the opportunity to check off a box. Proving that you did something isn’t the same as experiencing it.

To paraphrase Kevin Costner from Tin Cup: When a defining whiskey moment comes along, you define the moment or the moment defines you.

-David Driscoll

Fun New Italian Liqueurs

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I will fully admit that the amount of new spirits hitting the market each month terrifies me.

If you thought we had overloaded our shelves past what consumers could actually drink in 2020, nothing is changing in 2021—even with bars still not back in operation.

While I try to be as nice as possible when telling the 567th new gin producer this week that I don’t think his or her product has a place in our store, there is one category where I’m almost always willing to make room: Italian liqueurs.

We need another craft spirit at Mission like we need another hole in the head, but Italian spirits are bottles that actually get consumed. Modern Bourbon and Scotch collectors enjoy taking photos of their unopened bottles, but those who are into Italian food, wine, and spirits generally take photos of their recycling bins.

Anyone who scarfs down pizza, pasta, and prosciutto with any regularity is usually cranking through Prosecco with equal gusto. Hence, I’ve just brought in a number of small-sized Sardinian delights that can easily be dolloped into a spritz. Plus, a few other oddities that I think have a place on your picnic table this Spring.

Oliver McCrum is an old friend in the wine business and, like many small wine importers, he caught the spirits bug a few years back. Given his extensive contacts throughout Italy, Oliver teamed up with small distillers—often in remote locations—to create one of the coolest and most diverse collections in our business.

The newest arrival is a label called Bresca Dorada, located in the wild inland countryside of Sardinia, near Muravera. Founded by two beekeepers who started by making honey with Mirto, they soon expanded into Mirto berry liqueur, myrtle leaf liqueur, and other citrus-based elixirs and amari. We’ve got the following in stock in manageable 200ml flask sizes (NOTE: all the bottles look like the flasks in the photo above despite our web pics):

  • Bresca Dorada Mirtamaro - Made mostly of Sardinian botanicals infused in pure grain alcohol, then blended with both green and red Mirto. You’ve got some anise notes, pine, and classic bittersweet flavor with good weight. Fun stuff.

  • Bresca Dorada Mirto Verde - McCrum’s notes: Mirto Verde is a rarer liqueur than classic Mirto. It is made of freshly hand-harvested myrtle leaves and flowers from the inland part of Sardinia known as Sette Fratelli, around the estate. (The leaves must come from close to the estate because they must be infused immediately after picking.) The leaves are infused in pure grain alcohol for at least two months for a slow and complete extraction of aromatic substances. The only additions are sugar, honey (up to 5% of the sweetener, more would give too much of a honey flavor) and water (to reach the right proof for drinking). Myrtle leaves are used in Sardinian cooking, for example to flavor suckling pig, and they are spicy and said to be reminiscent of orange.

  • Bresca Dorada Arangiu - The Sardinian substitute for Triple Sec or any orange liqueur. Super flavorful, bright, and loaded with pure citrus flavor.

The Il Gusto di Amalfi liqueurs have been in the U.S. for years now, as it was one of Oliver’s original imports, but rather than the basic Limon and Mandarin-cinos, we’ve now got something that I’m somewhat obsessed with: Fennel-cino!!

If I were to drink this with a Fennel biscotto I think my head would explode.

  • Il Gusto di Amalfi Finocchietto - McCrum notes: Wild fennel grows profusely on the Amalfi coast, as it does in California. The seeds from the tall plants are harvested by hand in October when the seed-heads are dry, dried, sifted, macerated in pure alcohol for about 40 days, then blended with sugar and bottled.

Who wants to hang out in my backyard this weekend, eat pizza, crack some Prosecco, and sip on some of these?

-David Driscoll

A Typical Week Of Consumption

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Did you know that Michael Jordan smokes six cigars a day?

Better yet, did you know that MJ also smoked copious amounts of cigars while he played in the NBA? You wouldn’t think that cigars and the highest possible level of athletics would go hand-in-hand, but it worked for His Airness.

When looking to gauge my newfound cigar consumption against other habitual smokers, I wanted to know what was typical, so I asked around. I definitely don’t want to be like Mike in this case, smoking six cigars a day, but at the same time I wanted a baseline to make sure I wasn’t going over the edge. Turns out that three cigars a week is where most of my cigar-loving colleagues are at, so that’s my threshold for now.

When it comes to drinking, I’m more like MJ during his multi-championship heyday. I drink every single day and every single night, never to the point of stupidity (except for this past Saturday), but definitely more than the recommended two drink maximum. I’ve long found my equilibrium when it comes to booze.

Much like I’ve been asking my cigar smoking friends about their consumption levels, I’ve get asked repeatedly by passionate new whiskey drinkers about my daily volume; most of which revolves around what I eat. To give you some insight about my health habits, I’m 5’ 11”, about 180 pounds, I run three miles every morning on the treadmill, and I intermix that with rowing on my Concept2. I usually do four-to-five mile hikes on the weekend with my wife, so cardio and fitness are also engrained into our daily life.

Every three weeks I make two gigantic pots of meat: one is a recipe from my Italian friend Marco for Tuscan ragù sauce, and the other is from my mother-in-law for Sonoran (Mexico) pork. I freeze multiple bags of each when I’m done, and I pull them out about once a week for quick dinner. I intermix those meals with take-out and other recipes that determine what I drink. To give you an idea of my weekly consumption, here’s last week. When I say “1 bottle” of wine, my wife and I usually split 60/40.

Monday:

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

  • A bottle of original Coors Banquet Beer when I got home (followed by a second while I did the Instagram Live event with Jasmine Hirsch)

  • Frozen pizza with roasted Romanesco broccoli on the side with the new Bele Casel Asolo Extra Brut Prosecco (I just bought two cases of this for my personal consumption—best dry Prosecco value I’ve had in YEARS).

  • A glass of Chartreuse VEP after dinner (watch out when you hit the VEP because it usually hits back).

Friday

Saturday

  • Did a four mile loop in the morning around Burbank

  • Opened a bottle of Cruse Tradition Sparkling Wine at noon.

  • Moved to bottle of 2019 Mylones Dry Rosé afterward and ordered Round Table Pizza at that point (I’m from NorCal, so for me Round Table is like the moment in Ratatouille when the critic actually eats the ratatouille).

  • Opened a third bottle of a wine sample I had been given around 4 PM, then fell asleep halfway through.

Sunday

  • Started with a Davidoff Petit Robusto Churchill cigar.

  • Two bottles of original Coors Banquet Beer between 12:30 PM - 2 PM.

  • Took the evening off to recover from Saturday.

-David Driscoll

Traveling

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There are different schools of thought on traveling and when it makes sense to see the world (if ever).

For a number of folks, traveling is something they’ll do when they retire. It’s a reward they can look forward to down the road after saving enough money to travel comfortably.

For others, traveling is something you do when you’re young. Sure, you might be broke, but sleeping in hostels and living out of a backpack is part of the fun, and God knows you can’t see Rome on foot when you’re seventy-five.

Traveling for vacation often derives from different motivations as well.

I know people who spend ten days in Hawaii every year—in the exact same town, on the exact same beach, in the exact same guesthouse that they’re able to reserve a year in advance, without fail. For those folks, traveling for vacation means comfort, familiarity, predictability, and relaxation.

I also know people who will never travel to the same destination twice. For them, the world is too big and life is too short. They want to see and experience as much as they can while they’re willing and able.

Of course, it’s possible to straddle both categories. For years, my wife and I had a vacation house in Las Vegas we would visit multiple times a year, in between jaunts to Paris, New York, and other destinations. Sometimes we simply wanted a stress-free environment and other times we wanted all-out adventure.

That all changed during COVID, however. With aviation off the table, we’re settling for simple day trips or a hike in the hills, if we even leave the house over the weekend (let alone the couch). The problem when we do go out is that everyone is limited to the same outside activities. You can only visit Descanso Gardens or the Huntington Library with an advance appointment, and a simple walk down a local trail is likely to be super crowded on a Sunday morning.

I’ve found that consumer spending strategies when it comes to wine and spirits are a lot like travel and vacation philosophies. There are adventurous drinkers who never drink the same bottle twice and want to experience as much as possible, and there are comfort drinkers who only drink the same three or four things.

But after a year under quarantine, it seems like everyone has decided on the exact same domestic destination for their next bottle: Kentucky. The young and the old, the well-to-do and the scrappy, the adventurous and the conservative, the guys who buy ten bottles a week and the guys who buy ten bottles a year, they’ve all decided that right now is the right time to experience the same handful of Bourbons. Hence, the competition is downright fierce.

What’s interesting is to me is how one’s expectations for their shopping needs can vary depending on their travel mindset.

For example, if you’re someone who travels frequently, you’re probably used to adversity and the potential for mishaps. You realize that dinner reservations at the world’s most popular restaurants might be unattainable, or that the hotel you were planning to stay at might be booked for a conference that week. The more you put yourself out into the world, the more you realize that life is full of curveballs—even during vacation.

But if you’re someone new to traveling, or someone who’s used to staying at the same place every year without issue, then a little adversity can be very frustrating. Vacation shouldn’t be a struggle, right?. You’re paying for this coveted free time to be enjoyable, not arduous, and the idea of traveling somewhere else is out of the question. You’ve been looking forward to this specific experience for the entire year!

For the people who’ve been successful financially, it’s difficult to settle for less now that they’ve got the cash to spend. At this point in their lives, they’re only willing to travel if they can have one of the suites at the Four Seasons.

But now all of a sudden the younger folks, those who normally look for budget accommodations, are also willing to splurge on the same Four Seasons suites because this is their first big vacation in a year. They’re thinking to themselves: if I’m going to spend big on something, I want it to be Bourbon.

But there are only so many suites at the Four Seasons in Kentucky.

And since no one wants to stay in the hostel or go on a different adventure, everybody’s gunning for the same handful of rooms.

Do you know what typically happens to hotel rates in Las Vegas during the annual Consumer Electronics Show? They skyrocket.

Why? Because there’s a fuck ton of people in town and only so many spaces. In 2020, a $99 room at the Wynn cost $1032 per night during the CES. A rundown room at the Sahara cost $752 a night.

There are many, many destinations in this world to visit. And there are many, many bottles out there to drink. But if you’re hellbent on a singular experience, one that happens to be the exact same singular experience that everyone else in the world happens to want at the exact same moment in time, then you need to be prepared for what follows.

-David Driscoll

Instagram Live Repost: Talking Terroir With Jasmine Hirsch

As we continue to expand and improve the wine department at Mission, it’s important to provide our customers with a baseline for understanding and appreciating not just the great wines of California, but also the great producers.

I told Jasmine yesterday during our conversation that, in my opinion, the Pinot Noirs of Hirsch Vineyards are like deep dive into everything that makes wine appreciation so interesting, all within one varietal from a single producer. From one vineyard alone, there are separate parcels of Pinot Noir planted to different types of terrain that result in completely different wines when vinified individually (which is the case at Hirsch).

Hence, when you do a side-by-side of the Hirsch Pinot Noirs, it’s not just an incredibly pleasurable drinking experience, running the entire spectrum of what the varietal is capable of, it’s a first class lesson in terroir. There’s a clear distinction between the wines being made from the same grape, the same vineyard, and the same vintage, in the exact same manner, simply from different locations within the site.

There are few producers in the world, let alone the state, that one can say that about. There are even fewer who produce wines of distinction in that manner across the board. Hirsch is one of the few.

-David Driscoll

Instagram Live Tonight With Jasmine Hirsch

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Tonight! At 5 PM PST! We are going live with Jasmine Hirsch, winemaker for Hirsch Vineyards and daughter of California winemaking pioneer David Hirsch at the @missionliquor account!

If you’re even remotely interested in wine, I would plan on carving twenty minutes out of your schedule this evening to see Jasmine talk. She’s far from boring.

And the story behind the wines of Hirsch Vineyards, with its multitude of terrains along the San Andreas Fault, is one of the coolest and most interesting in the business.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: there are few wines from California that match intellectual romanticism with pure hedonistic enjoyment the way the Hirsch Pinot Noirs do, drawing a direct line from the vineyard practices to the flavors in your glass.

I’m very excited about tonight. See you there!

-David Driscoll

Tiz Rye Time

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As we were putting together a blend of Castle & Key Bourbon barrels last week, I asked Pinhook co-founder and blender Sean Josephs about the newest release of the Vertical Series: the 5 year old “Tiz Rye Time” rye whiskey—number two in the nine part series that seeks to track a whiskey’s evolution over time.

“It’s not only my favorite Pinhook release we’ve done thus far, I think it’s the best whiskey we’ve yet released,” he said to me.

Having sipped on my bottle over the last few hours, letting the whiskey and my taste buds get to know each other, I can safely say the same thing. It’s not just the best Pinhook rye whiskey I’ve ever tasted, it’s one of the best MGP-produced rye whiskies I’ve had, pound for pound.

Why exactly?

With its 95% rye/5% barley mash bill, the MGP rye whiskies usually fall into one of two camps:

  • Super herbaceous, dill scented, spicy, peppery, and powerful

  • Super soft, slightly herbaceous, baking spice-laden, and easy drinking

For an example of the former, look at some of the old Willett rye bottlings (before they started releasing their own distillate), or some of the cask strength Smooth Ambler single barrels from the past. They were big and punchy, sometimes brimming with dill, and like a firecracker on the palate.

For an example of the latter, take something like Bulleit rye whiskey: bottled at 90 proof, creamy on the palate with some gentle herbaceous notes up front, and some clove and cinnamon notes on the finish.

The new Pinhook “Tiz Rye Time” 5 year old whiskey falls into the first of the two groups, but combines it with a third profile that I’m not used to experiencing with my MGP rye whiskey:

  • Rich vanilla, big sweet oak, and a full-bodied finish

It’s so delicious, I’ve not just gone back for seconds and thirds; I’ve gone back for tenths and elevenths.

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If you’re unfamiliar with Pinhook as a label, the brand is applying the horse term “pinhooking”—referring to identifying and evaluating which horses could mature into racing champions—to the identification and evaluation of which whiskey casks could mature into honey barrels. While future releases of the standard Pinhook expressions will soon transfer over to Castle & Key-distilled stocks, the Pinhook Vertical Series follows the evolution of one lot of whiskey barrels, purchased from a single run at MGP a number of years back.

Each year, Sean blends fifty rye whiskey barrels into a limited edition small batch release, with plans to continue the process until the barrels hit nine years of age. To be clear, the Vertical Series isn’t a solera, nor is it a blend that has been re-racked to continue maturation. It’s a new small batch every year, crafted from different barrels, but married from the same single lot of distillate. Let me say once again, the new 2021 batch of the Vertical Series rye whiskey is utterly divine.

I’m a firm believer that the best small batch blends or marriages will always outshine the best single barrels. Having tasted thousands of single barrels in my career, I will choose the blended option over the single cask option 100% of the time if I’m in control of the vetting process, or someone I trust is doing the blending. Why settle for what a single cask has to offer unless that’s the only possible option? If you can add more whiskey from another barrel that can balance, enhance, or even improve the flavors of the whiskey, why in God’s name wouldn’t you do it??!!!!!!

I get that there are guys out there who like the purity of a single cask, and who think finding a perfect barrel is like discovering a diamond in the rough. To those guys, I would say: diamonds aren’t perfect when they’re discovered in the rough. They’re cut to perfection later on by trained jewelers, just like whiskies can be blended to perfection by trained blenders. With that idea in mind, it’s clear from the first sip that Pinhook’s Sean Josephs found the sweet spot with this new 5 year old marriage of rye whiskey.

Right off the bat you get a big mouthful of graham cracker, sweet oak, and a richness of weight that is felt on the palate more than tasted. The dill comes in soon after, but unlike some of the other young, high proof MGP rye whiskies on the market, it doesn’t thin out into a hot, herbaceous finish. Instead, the richness continues forward and the peppery character of the rye is bolstered by vanilla from the oak all the way to the end.

At 51.5% ABV, the whiskey is bold enough for those who like it bold, but the choice of proof is anchored by the character of the whiskey; nothing about it tastes hot or out of balance. Everything pops in the right places. At $49.99 retail, and with a beautiful horse-inspired label, this bottle will find a nurturing home in my dining room bar; reserved for only the most drinkable bottles in my personal collection as it provides the easiest access.

I went deep on inventory as I believe in putting your money where your mouth is. If you really like something, take a stance on it and make it accessible to your customers at a great price. I think you’ll all be going back for tenths and elevenths just like I did.

-David Driscoll

Drinking to Drink

One of the most famous cigar lines in history was uttered in 1920 by Woodrow Wilson’s snarky vice president: Thomas Riley Marshall.

Tired of listening to the politicians in the Senate drag on about the needs of the American people, an exasperated Marshall jumped in and said: “What this country needs is a really good five cent cigar.”

For the last decade-plus, I’ve operated under a similar mindset when it comes to marketing. When presented with offers to “make our Instagram go viral” or specialists who promise to maximize our Google Ad bids, I’ve always said: “I don’t need to spend $5000 on marketing. All I need is a really good $50 bottle of Scotch. The rest will take care of itself.”

When you’ve got a really great product to sell, the public will find out. In the age of social media, people are practically begging to tell all their friends about the next great deal, posting pictures every five seconds about what Bourbons they found today next to a receipt of how much they paid.

Unfortunately for me, however, my school of thought (and Marshall’s view on cigars) is only validated when people choose to partake. A really good $50 bottle of Scotch is only a great value to those who actually plan on drinking it.

But David…..why would someone who doesn’t drink be interested in purchasing Scotch whisky?

A number of reasons, most of them based on secondary market profiteering, fanatical collecting, and the fact that a bottle of whisky keeps for years after you open it. People today are willing to spend a lot more than $50 on Bourbon and Scotch because they only plan on drinking a half ounce a week over the next ten years.

When people don’t drink, it completely destroys the distribution model that most of your favorite distillers have going for them. What I mean is: retailers get their allocations of Pappy, BTAC, and other rare whiskies based on how much of the standard whiskies from those portfolios they can sell. So when customers stop drinking Ancient Age, Buffalo Trace, and Wheatley vodka, the formula no longer works.

And we’re already at the precipice.

Most of the customers I deal with these days have long graduated beyond Ancient Age, Buffalo Trace, and Wheatley vodka. They want Stagg. But I can only get more Stagg if they buy more Buffalo Trace. It’s a gigantic Catch 22 that’s been dragging on for years now, and it’s about to catch up with our industry in a hurry.

It’s at the point where even if I found the next great five cent cigar (or for the purposes of this article, the next great $20 bottle of Bourbon), I don’t think 80% of our customers would bat an eyelid. Drinking is a very different exercise today than it was ten years ago because of how coveted some of these liquids have become.

If a bottle that you bought in 2010 for $50 could fetch you $2000 in today’s market, would you still drink it? If it were me, I probably wouldn’t. I’d probably sell it for $2000, take the $1950 profit, and buy more booze that I can drink without guilt or anxiety—especially if I’d already had it before.

But this is not fictional role playing. The above scenario already happens many times a day, around the world, from guys who have been buying whiskey for decades and are now ready to cash out. So now I want you to imagine another scenario.

Imagine that you’re a retailer and you’ve got a number of rare Bourbons to sell. You know that you can probably sell them for five times what they’re worth, but you also know that customers will be furious with you should you decide to do so—despite the fact that you had to buy tens of thousands of dollars of products that don’t sell just to get those bottles in the first place.

So you decide to do the right thing and sell the bottles for a fair price to some nice customers. Then, while browsing around the internet, you see the same customers you hooked up with a fair price selling the bottles you sold them for a huge mark-up.

I’ve met plenty of consumers over the years who will go around bullying retailers into fair SRPs (suggested retail price), only to turn around the next minute and sell their bottles for a boat load of cash.

That’s when retailers get pissed and say to themselves: “No more. If I have to buy tens of thousands of dollars of booze that no one wants in order to get these bottles, then I’m going to make the profit, not some cherry picker who only comes around when I have something valuable.”

That’s the mindset that I have to fight on a daily basis in retail because—and I especially saw this when I was working in distribution—most retailers are at their wit’s end with all of this. I still wholeheartedly believe that there’s a fine balance between customer service, pricing, and availability, but I can tell you that fewer and fewer retailers are going to continue putting in the effort.

When I was repping Chichibu in 2020, we would only sell the higher-end bottles to the retail accounts who sold the most Iwai and Akashi. That’s the way distribution works. But what happens when 80% of their retail customers have already tried Iwai and Akashi, and now they want Chichibu?

More importantly, what happens when they’re not even interested in trying Iwai or Akashi because they only drink “the good stuff?”

I can tell you what happens: the entire model collapses upon itself, and retailers start jacking up prices to recoup expenses on all the bulk brands they had to buy to get the bottles in the first place.

-David Driscoll