Discovering More of the Central Coast

I was all over the place this past weekend.

I drove east into the mountains to visit Lake Arrowhead on Saturday. Then I drove west towards the coast to see a few vineyards on Sunday. The great thing about living in Los Angeles is that you’re only an hour or so away from a number of wildly different nature experiences: beaches, rolling hills, extreme deserts, alpine lakes at 6,000 feet!

And wine country, of course.

Most people think of Napa when they imagine California wine country, but I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: the most exciting wines in CA right now are coming out of the Central Coast, particularly around Santa Barbara and the Santa Rita Hills AVA.

I drank a lot of wine over the weekend as well, and the one bottle that has me coming back time and time again is The Hilt Estate Chardonnay, a wine that marries fruit from multiple vineyards, but from one in particular called Radian that has really captured my imagination. This sea breeze-battered site produces fruit with electricity, and of a wild, unbridled character. The Pinot Noir is brambly and savage. The Chardonnay almost like vibrant Chablis.

Check out The Hilt website for fantastic videos like the one above that go deep into the soil and topography, giving you a better insight into why the wines are so fantastic. Personally, I’ll be doing a deeper dive this week into the Jonata wines as well, as I’m really catching the bug once again.

-David Driscoll

Dead Weight

There’s always so much frustration, disillusion, and utter despair when it comes to the pricing and availability of rare whiskies, primarily Bourbon because wholesale costs have remained incredibly low relative to demand.

A Bourbon that may only cost the retailer $40 per bottle can end up selling for $400 or more, which makes bottle hunters furious.

The problem for retailers, however, is that the $40 cost of the bottle often comes with a $10,000 minimum purchase for other products from the distributor.

For those of you who hate bundles, and don’t want to purchase the regular Elijah Craig Bourbon and rye whiskey just to get a bottle of Barrel Proof, I have four words for you: welcome to the club.

As a retailer, that’s what we’re forced to do. Bundle. Every single day. Either buy the rest of the book, or kiss your allocations goodbye.

There is no allocated whiskey purchase without a minimum commitment to carrying other items from that supplier. Normally that’s not an issue, so long as customers keep buying those other core products. Yet, as of late, there’s been a tremendous slowdown in basic Bourbon consumption because more and more customers are narrowing their focus to the latest rare allocation.

As much as I try to explain the nature of this relationship to customers, there are always those guys who complain. “But mature, cask strength Bourbon is what I really like! I don’t want to have to buy a bunch of other stuff that I don’t want!!”

Wouldn’t that be nice? I’d like to drink DRC Burgundy all day long, but unfortunately that’s not an option anymore either. We’re in a new era. If you’re not pulling your weight across the portfolio (both as a retailer and a customer), then you’re dead weight.

I was speaking to a friend in the business earlier this week who’s in charge of wine allocations for a supplier. Every now and again, you find a small boutique wine shop that only carries fancy wine, and doesn’t bother with the everyday stuff.

He was telling me that one particular store was asking for an allocation of his rarest wines, but didn’t want to purchase anything else from that particular producer. My friend responded by saying: “I can’t give you an allocation unless you support these other brands.”

The store buyer laughed and said: “But we only sell high-end wine! We don’t sell $20 bottles in our shop.”

To which my friend replied: “Well then I guess you won’t be getting an allocation.”

When you’re a retailer used to getting your way without putting in the effort, I can imagine it’s a bit shocking to be told something like that by a vendor.

But, like I said, this is a new era. I can imagine customers feel the same way.

-David Driscoll

The Best RTD Cocktail Can On The Market — By Far

Since getting back into retail, I’ve not only tasted endless variations of cocktails in a can, I’ve been forced to market countless new brands that seem to be multiplying faster than rabbits on ecstasy.

The RTD (ready to drink) segment of the spirits market has been one of the fastest growing sectors of our business during the pandemic, but it’s also the most saturated and bloated, in my opinion. There are too many brands, taking too much marketshare, marking it impossible for customers to focus on any one thing.

Granted, I’m also not the ideal RTD customer. I make drinks at home, I’m not partying on a boat or in the park, and I’m not sneaking booze into the movie theater while the Delta variant is still around. That being said, I have finally found what I think is the perfect canned cocktail, and I’ve been drinking the shit out of it for the last two weeks: the Ranch Rider variety pack.

Out of Austin, Texas, this group has managed to create the perfect highball in a can. The Ranch Water is just Tequila, lime, soda water, and sea salt—nothing else. The Chilton is simply vodka, lemon, soda water, and sea salt—nothing else. The Paloma is just the Ranch Water with grapefruit and orange added. They only have 119 calories per can, so you can drink three of them and still watch your figure. And because I’m not ingesting much sugar, I can still hit the treadmill in the morning without a hitch.

Plus, they taste really, really good.

I don’t feel like I’m sacrificing one bit. I took an entire cooler full of Ranch Rider to Modesto this past weekend and had a family BBQ in my parents’ backyard by the pool. Everyone was getting in on the Ranch Rider action, and everyone was loving it.

More importantly, Ranch Rider is serving a purpose: it’s giving people like me an alternative to hard seltzer that’s actually exciting. I look forward to drinking Ranch Rider. I don’t see it as a boring alternative or diet drink, whatsoever.

Rock on!

-David Driscoll

New Aguas Del Sol

Berta Vasquez was born into a mezcal family, but she was not raised to be a mezcalera. Her grandparents made mezcal, as did her parents, as did her late husband and late son. But when Berta’s husband tragically passed away, and she was left alone with four kids, she had to take matters into her own hands. Working with her then-sixteen year old son, she was thrust into the world of distillation, forced to take everything she had observed over her life and put it into practice.

Berta’s story is legendary in the agave world, as is her mezcal. Now in her mid-sixties, she continues to distill in San Balthazar Chichicapam at the palenque she started with her son Torito. Having tasted more than a handful of her spirits, from a variety of different labels, I’m at the point where I specifically seek out her distillates and treasure every sip. Hence, when Bad Hombre Imports told me they had a new batch of tobalá from Berta under the Agua del Sol label, I took everything they had on hand.

The best part? They now have it in 750ml and 200ml bottles, so those of you who don’t yet want to spend $100+ on a bottle of mezcal can try Berta’s elixir for a less intimidating fee of entry. This one is sweetly-spiced, borderline Tequila-esque, with no rough edges and minimal to no smoke. It’s elegant and stunning from front to back.

Also in 200ml is the simply magical bicuishe from Mucario Rios Altamirano from Miahuatlán. The aromas that come off of this are absolutely unreal, gobs of tropical fruit and spicy pepper, with a unique balance of weight and punch across the palate.

It’s nice to have such unique spirits in a more snackable format.

-David Driscoll

The Michael Scott Paper Company

During the fifth season of The Office, (spoiler alert) Steve Carell’s character Michael Scott decides to quit as regional manager of Dunder-Mifflin’s Scranton branch, and starts his own rival paper company, called simply: the Michael Scott Paper Company.

To keep things short and simple for those of you who have never seen the show, all Michael really does is purchase paper from the same suppliers as Dunder-Mifflin, then sell directly to his old Dunder-Mifflin customers for a lower price. The problem is there’s no profit margin in his model. He’s able to steal the business, but not enough of it to sustain the costs of running his new company.

Over time, however, the dent Michael is able to make in Dunder-Mifflin’s business is substantial enough for them to offer a buyout. By absorbing the Michael Scott Paper Company into Dunder-Mifflin, they get their old customers back and eliminate the competition (plus, Michael gets his old job back). In summary, Michael created nothing new with the Michael Scott Paper Company, but he created enough chaos to be annoying to larger competitors.

This same business model has become ubiquitous in the booze business, where small spirits companies have little chance of a long-term play, but can do enough damage in the short term to throw up a Hail Mary and pray for a buyout. With so many micro-brands entering the market with such short bursts of energy, it’s like a sky full of supernovas—each exploding quickly, then fizzling out before the next one explodes minutes later.

It’s an interesting time. I’m just wondering: who’s actually going to be in business two years from now?

-David Driscoll

Instagram Live Repost: Clay Pot Mezcal Distillation With Tio Pesca

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Of all the people working in our industry right now, the mezcaleros are by far the most passionate about what they’re doing. They’re combining the intricacies of terroir—geeking out about specific varietals of agave, where they grow, what the weather is like, what the soils are composed of—with the endless variants of distillation: still type, fermentation times, cooking styles, etc.

I got into all that yesterday evening with Juan Carlos Gonzalez from Tio Pesca mezcal. We took a deep dive into clay pot distillation, given that all the Tio Pesca expressions are clay pot-distilled.

And there’s even a 10% off coupon code buried into the conversation if you listen through. It gives you 10% off any product imported by Bad Hombre that we carry, so don’t snooze on that either!

-David Driscoll

Instagram Live Tonight With Tio Pesca Mezcal

Today at 4 PM, I’ll be sitting down with Juan Carlos, proprietor of Tio Pesca, Agua del Sol, and Aprendiz mezcales—by far, the best price-to-quality performers we carry right now at Mission.

No agave book has excited our palates and stimulated our senses like this one, so I’m looking forward to digging deeper into the specifics of clay pot distillation this afternoon.

Join us at the @missionliquor site!

-David Driscoll

Instagram Live Repost: Talking Laundry and Alcohol With Patric Richardson

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Patric Richardson is my new favorite person in the world right now; hence, it was incredible to get thirty minutes with him on Instagram yesterday.

If you don’t have Patric’s book, you will in a matter of time. Unless you never wash your clothes, that is. No single course of education has ever transformed my life for the better in so short a period of time. There’s always a video out there that shows you an easier way to do something you’ve been doing wrong for years, but this book is like that video on steroids. Pretty much everyone is doing their laundry completely wrong, and Patric shows you why that is and how to do it better.

Patric’s book and everything in it are available at his Laundry Evangelist website, and I can promise you that you’ll never look at vodka the same way again once you get it.

If you go out all night drinking Bourbon and smoking cigars, it’s the vodka that will save you from smelling like a sailor. Read the book.

-David Driscoll