Jeff Garneau Returns To Instagram Live This Friday

My old colleague Jeff Garneau will be back this Friday at 3 PM PST to talk about the biggest secret in all of Bordeaux: second wines! Almost every major château makes more than one wine, and if you know where to look you can find some pretty great deals. After finishing the top cuvée each vintage, the leftover fruit often goes into a second label for a much more reasonable price. In great vintages, a good second wine can be pretty outstanding and affordable!. Think Weller 12 next to Van Winkle 12, or whatever other Bourbon analogy you want to use where similar juice is sold for a cheaper price.

We’ll see you live this Friday!

-David Driscoll

High Demand

My friend Brian forwarded me this photo from the Four Roses Distillery this morning, where hundreds of customers queued up early for the latest limited edition: a 16 year old single barrel release (most of which will likely be sold online for 10x the price throughout the week) with proceeds going to help the flooding in Eastern Kentucky (albeit not the proceeds from the secondary market gains).

In response, I sent him this photo from DTLA’s Smorgasburg yesterday, where hundreds of people waited hours to try Oakland’s Horn BBQ samplings. Luckily, I wasn’t in the mood for brisket or pulled pork, having had my fill in Louisville a few weeks ago, so all the foods I wanted were readily available with little to no wait (Sad Girl Creamery’s Choco Taco, taquitos from Los Dorados, smashburger from Love Hour, burritos from La Palma, etc). Yet, I couldn’t help but wonder about all those folks blistering themselves under the hot sun for a few bites of meat. Was it worth it? I’ll probably never know.

What was interesting to me was the complaining I heard while eavesdropping on the people who were taking selfies and making Instagram Live videos about their experience. All I could think about was asking them: What do you think is going to happen when you tell everyone about how awesome a certain restaurant or food truck is? Do you think it’s going to make people not want to try it?

I’ll happily wait in line for something I’m excited about. I’ll also happily tell others who I think might be interested. What I won’t do, however, is complain about it; especially when I’m part of the problem. If you’re someone who posts about whiskey all day long on social media, then laments the fact that it’s hard to find, you need to take a long, hard look in the mirror.

-David Driscoll

Instagram Live with Balvenie

What a fun time yesterday with Neil from Balvenie, going back through all the wood-finished marks and tasting the new 16 year French Oak! Not to mention the 40 year old we got to taste at the end. Like I said during the conversation, if you’re going to splurge for a 25, 30, or even 40 year old whisky, there’s no malt in Scotland that will deliver like Balvenie.

-David Driscoll

Instagram Live With Balvenie Today

I was emailing with a friend (and customer) last night about his recent trip to Balvenie, excited for his thoughts and feedback. It was his first time up to the Highlands, so I had called ahead to make sure the folks from William Grant rolled out the red carpet for him. What were his thoughts?

“It’s my new favorite distillery,” he wrote back; “Nothing on Islay is remotely comparable. I had an equal experience at Springbank—the hospitality was immense—but the site at Balvenie is just so much better.”

I’m in 100% agreement. Balvenie is so impressive right now, I feel like no other distillery nails the luxury experience quite like they do.

Then there’s the whisky to talk about. My buddy was lucky enough to try the new French Oak 16 year old at the distillery and has been craving it since returning, so we put an order in for him. I, myself, haven’t had the opportunity yet to put liquid to lips, but that will be rectified today when I sit down with the Balvenie team at 3:30 PM PST for a live sampling.

Join us at the @missionliquor account if you’re free!

-David Driscoll

What's New Is New

It’s not just social media influencers who understand the importance of new content these days; just about everyone who’s on Instagram and TikTok is looking for new material, hoping to generate another round of dopamine in the form of likes and comments from their friends and followers. In a sense, everyone who participates on social media is a marketing company of one, studying patterns as to what garners the most amount of attention, and finding the best way to promote their personal brand.

And the answer? New and exciting media. New, new, new. More, more, more.

We all have those friends who post photos from vacations past and write something completely lame like: “Missing Paris this morning,” or “Remembering New York right now.”

Wanna know why they do that? Because they’re out of new material. They’re digging into the past for something interesting that will give them the attention they crave today. It’s their way of saying: “I don’t have anything new worth posting about, but don’t forget about me!! I’m still here!” It’s like borrowing credit to feed the social media monkey.

Now apply everything from above to the wine and whiskey market and you’ll understand why competing in today’s industry is incredibly difficult, both for suppliers and retailers. Much like your friends’ social media posts, the products that continue to generate the most attention from customers are new releases. Sending out an ad or an email about an older product is much less effective (unless you’re offering that product for a substantial discount) because we’ve all become hardwired to search out the next shiny new object. Once a product has been out for a few months it loses about 90% of its desirability.

And why do consumers covet the shiny new object? Because they’re also looking for something new to post about on their social media! If they can be the first to track down and open an exciting new bottle, they’ll harvest most of the hype and attention around that release, which will spike their interactions with others online. Never mind the fact that 80% of the whisky influencers today are purchasing their followers from bot farms and turning off their likes counter so you can’t see the giant disparity between the number of people supposedly following them versus the ten or twenty people actually liking their posts! If they can find something new to post about, they might get some real people who actually care about what they’re posting this time around.

In the meantime, we’ve completely forgotten about that amazing Bourbon we opened last month, or that bottle of Scotch that we drank a few ounces of before making space for it among the other 200+ mostly-full bottles in our closet. If it isn’t new, it isn’t valuable. That’s the lesson that social media teaches us every single day and reinforces with a system of validation that we’ve come to mistake for self worth. If you’re not constantly creating new and exciting experiences, you’re worthless.

-David Driscoll

White Burgundy Insanity

Now that we’re cranking through the Granndach 12 year after this morning’s big email blast (300+ bottles gone so far), I’m going to tell you about another reneged deal that just led to another stupid, ridiculous opportunity for Mission—one that I’m taking advantage of myself right at this moment.

If you’re following the pattern this week, or the news about supply chain logistics and the lack of warehouse space, then you probably know what’s happening. Retailers and suppliers have been ordering large quantities of booze 6-8 months in advance, only to find that the demand has dropped in the meantime. Not only does it mean they’re turning inventory at a slower pace, which means less liquidity, it also means they don’t have the warehouse space they were planning on at this point in the year.

We all know what it’s like to land at the airport, but have to sit in the plane for a half hour while the jet waits for a boarding gate to dock at. Imagine the same situation for wine and spirits coming in from abroad, but instead of waiting 30 minutes you have to wait 2-3 months. 

No bueno. 

Because the intended customers for these deals are big box retailers—powerful entities who can afford to push major distributors around without consequences—we’re starting to see deals that were put together earlier in the year fall apart on delivery. 

As in: “I changed my mind. I no longer want it. You deal with it.”

And that brings me to today’s offering that I am OVER THE MOON about!! As some of you know, I drink a great deal of white wine just about every night and, if I can afford it, I prefer a large percentage of that wine to be white Burgundy. 

If I can drink crisp and clean Burgundian Chardonnay for $15-$20, I’m pretty happy. If I can get a deal around $12-$14, even better. $10 is incredible. But $7.99? That’s unheard of in today’s market. If I could find a white Burgundy for $7.99 that I liked, I might buy 5 cases of it and shove it into my closet!

Louis Jadot isn’t the most romantic negociant (as in a producer that buys wine/grapes from small farmers and creates a larger blend), but it’s a staple of the bulk Burgundy market. You’re not going to excite a room full of sommeliers by bringing Jadot to the party, but no one’s going to kick it out of bed either. The wines can range from serviceable to fantastic, but that pretty much applies to all of Burgundy. Any serious wino knows that Burgundy is the ultimate crapshoot. Hence, when you get a sure-fire hit, you ride that horse until it bucks you.

Do a Wine Searcher query for the standard Jadot Macon Villages and you’ll find it clocks in between $16 - $20, depending on where you look. While I wouldn’t be excited to buy the 2019 Jadot Macon Villages for $20, I certainly wouldn’t be disappointed with it. But gimme that same bottle for $7.99? That’s a completely different proposition. Suddenly, it’s about the best dollar-for-dollar deal in the store on just about anything.

Crisp and clean on the palate with notes of melon and stone fruit, this is the house wine I’ve been searching for all month. Having exhausted my last bargain bottle (the Erste Neue White Peak), I’ve been ready for a change and this deal plopped right down in my lap at just the right moment. 

If you even remotely like white wine, I’m not sure you can afford not to buy this deal. This is Burgundy—the most prestigious wine region in the world—that’s been picked, fermented, bottled, and shipped across the Atlantic, then trucked across the country, delivered and marked up by a retailer…..and it’s still just $7.99. I’ve got about 50 cases on hand at the moment, but I’m buying 5 today for myself, so that leaves 45. If 45 guys each buy a case, this thing won’t last until the end of the day. 

Nothing makes me happier than deals like these. So long as the logistics situation remains in its current state, we may be seeing more deals like this in the near future. But don’t look a gift horse in the mouth right now.

BUY THIS WINE.

-David Driscoll

Scotch Whisky Insanity

Earlier this year we went to Scotland to work with local bottlers and put together a few contact projects. One of our main goals was to create a shockingly good 12 year old blended Scotch that we could sell between $25-$30 as a house brand. While exploring our options, one bottler came to us with a very interesting proposal: Rather than create a blend for us, would we be willing to take the remainder of an older private label they had already created for a different customer?

We were intrigued!

As it turned out, a giant American retailer (who will remain unnamed) commissioned this well-established blending house to create a Johnnie Walker substitute called Granndach: a super smooth 12 year old blend with a solid backbone of Tullibardine single malt (amongst other Highland malts), coupled with a 12 year old grain component. Packaged in a square-ish, JW-style bottle complete with gift box, these were slated to sell at the $35 mark MSRP.

Then the unthinkable happened: COVID began driving away in-store retail traffic and that large American retailer reneged on the deal, leaving the bottler high and dry with the bespoke inventory and a huge warehousing issue. They offered us a deal to take the rest of it, and—after tasting how good it was—we couldn't refuse. Now we're passing that deal along to Mission customers, offering a quality 12 year old Scotch for an absurd price.

Bottled at 80 proof, the flavors of the Granndach are traditional and to-the-point, and the style is old school in its nature. That being said, for what it is….it’s really, really good. It’s a classic Highland style blended Scotch that absolutely delivers for the dollar. You can tell the malt content is higher, the texture is supple and creamy, and the finish is sweet with vanilla and toasted grains. I could drink this on the rocks all day, or with soda in a Highball on a warm summer evening. 

As I’m tasting it now, I’m looking for flaws and I can’t find any. In fact, I’m marveling in the richness and surprisingly decadent flavors that continue to build with each sip. If I had to compare it to a Bourbon, I would use Eagle Rare 10 as a qualitative comparison. Solid, dependable, always a great option for the price. But what if it were half the price? How many would you buy? More importantly, how many would be enough?

That’s what we’re about to find out. This is the kind of deal you buy cases of rather than bottles. Give them out as holiday gifts, buy some for your friends and family, use them around the office, etc. It's not a whisky that will change your life with its depth and complexity, but for 12 year age-stated Scotch of this quality at this pricepoint, you're never going to run out of uses.

Granndach 12 Year Old Blended Scotch Whisky $14.99 (Elsewhere $35.99)

-David Driscoll, Mission Sales Director

Kentucky: Day 6 - Tying Up Loose Ends

After four straight days of tasting appointments and barrel selections, Friday was our day to see some new faces, shake hands, work on the logistics of our purchase proposals, and tie up any loose ends before leaving Saturday morning. Many of those tasks aren’t worth mentioning for the moment, but given how many new distilleries are operating in Kentucky these days, I figured we should at least pop in and see a few of them. Lux Row, for example—the company behind Rebel Yell, David Nicholson, Ezra Brooks, and Blood Oath—has a new facility in Bardstown that I had never seen in person. Now that they’re distilling their own juice, I thought it might be worth checking out.

Whenever I see a column that’s multiple stories high and at least 34 inches in diameter, I know things are headed in the right direction. Most of the American whiskies that have failed to capture the public’s imagination over the last decade were made on pot/column hybrids, rather than industrial-size beer stills. While I can’t tell you scientifically exactly why that is, there’s someone I know who can.

If I’m rolling through rural Kentucky and I’ve got time for breakfast, there’s one man I always call to be my date: Bourbon legend Jim Rutledge, the man who made Four Roses into the brand it is today. Even though Jim retired back in 2015, we still keep up via phone and text. We met at Mammie’s in Bardstown to eat a hearty meal and shoot the breeze, as well as talk distillation. Jim’s take about my column still issue from above: in a nutshell, smaller columns are harder to control. It’s not as easy to keep a handle on the temperatures, and it leaves room for variation or mistakes. He had about twenty minutes worth of scientific detail to back that up, but I’ll keep it short for now. Jim always has interesting news about the industry, so it was great to catch up with my old friend.

Some of you may remember that our friend Dean Berger passed recently, and Vic wanted to honor Dean’s memory by eating one of his favorite meals at one of his favorite restaurants. Apparently, Vic and Dean had traveled to Bardstown together back in 2019 and Dean was obsessed with the Cinnabon pancake at Mammie’s. We shared one in tribute to our friend, and even Jim couldn’t put his fork down. It was that good.

Before our departure, two people told me that we absolutely must eat at Jack Fry’s on this trip to Louisville; one of them being Mission customer and Louisville native Christopher Guetig, and the other being WWE Hall of Famer Kevin Nash. Established in 1933 by a “rambling, gambling kind of guy” of the eponymous epithet, Jack Fry’s was a legendary hangout for fans of horse racing and boxing, known for its bookmaking and bootlegging affairs. “Mohammed Ali would eat there,” Nash told me via text; “It’s one of my favorite restaurants on the road.”

We sat down for an early dinner. Vic ordered a Manhattan; I ordered an Old Fashioned. We had escargot and fried zucchini blossoms to start and I opted for the scallops, while Vic went with the bone-in rib eye. Both were outstanding and capped a perfect end to a long, but successful week of Bourbon buying. Our 6:30 AM flight looming over our heads, we called it early and did our best to get some shuteye ahead of the 4 AM start.

-David Driscoll