Limited SPS in the US.

[Good Whiskey Hunting]

I've just came across this article they claim to have "Exclusive news and research on the wine, spirits and beer business" so I was amazed when i read this

"Irish Distillers has three other Single Pot Still brands in its stable—Green Spot, Power’s John Lane and Midleton Barry Crockett Legacy—but says there are no plans yet to bring them stateside"

Here's the link;
http://www.shankennewsdaily.com/index.p ... potential/

I wonder what the marketing logic is here? I would have though that the US market would have been the prefect launchpad for the SPS range.

[DublinGus]

Supply and demand could be a reason? Only 2500 Barry Crocketts are made each year.

[IainB]

Supply and demand could be a reason? Only 2500 Barry Crocketts are made each year.

That sounds like some mad cloning / robotics program by IDL!

[Good Whiskey Hunting]

Here's an article from Just-Drinks about Irish Whiskeys new resurgence.
http://www.just-drinks.com/analysis/iri ... 06210.aspx

It seems that there may be another marketing ploy at work here. Sending Jameson in as front line infantry and then sending the rest of the regiments in when the hard work has been done. I guess that would mean that Redbreast is an elite advance recon unit..I not sure where all these army tactics are coming from but lets just roll with it.

[IainB]

Here's an article from Just-Drinks about Irish Whiskeys new resurgence.
http://www.just-drinks.com/analysis/iri ... 06210.aspx

It seems that there may be another marketing ploy at work here. Sending Jameson in as front line infantry and then sending the rest of the regiments in when the hard work has been done. I guess that would mean that Redbreast is an elite advance recon unit..I not sure where all these army tactics are coming from but lets just roll with it.

Well I guess it's been a successful strategy so far. In the same way as the dominance of Scotch blends has kept many a malt distillery alive, I think the phenomenal growth of Jameson is what has ultimately allowed the much wider range we see now. Plus if you can produce 2500 Barry Crocketts to travel the world conducting tastings you're bound to sell a few whiskeys.

Messing aside I think that might be the thinking behind the contraction in the Bushmills range of late. Get behind one or two core products, ramp up production, and in time the rest can follow. The problem with whiskey is the lead in time is so long you get years of waiting by frustrated enthusiasts but there's really no way around this for a product thta has to be aged for years at a time.

[DavidH]

Messing aside I think that might be the thinking behind the contraction in the Bushmills range of late. Get behind one or two core products, ramp up production, and in time the rest can follow. The problem with whiskey is the lead in time is so long you get years of waiting by frustrated enthusiasts but there's really no way around this for a product thta has to be aged for years at a time.

Fair enough if they can't do a big marketing push yet. Diageo have had 6 full years so far in charge. I know they put in new equipment during that time but perhaps they had spare capacity at takeover and could move to 24/7 production right from the start. In which case, we might see something in a year or two.

For the enthusiasts, though, it's not so hard to push out a few single casks or limited releases. They could have had plenty of buzz going on the whiskey circuit just by doing that.

[Mr Booze]

DavidH and IainB,

I'm also wondering when we will see the big push from Bushmills. Mrs. Booze took a tour of the distillery many years ago when it was a sleepy operation that didn't fire up the stills every day. Now they are a 24/7 place like New Midleton, or so I hear. They also are cutting out the Angel's Share: http://www.irishwhiskeynotes.com/2008/0 ... llany.html
http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2 ... ing-angels

So with all that extra inventory I have yet to see much advertising for Bushmills here in the states. Maybe they are pushing big in China? All that inventory has to go somewhere. Diageo is pushing big in China: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... 65158.html

Sorry to drag this off the SPS topic. Relatedly I can report that the cask strength Redbreast is now alongside the 12 and 15 year here in America. So technically now there are 3 separate SPS bottlings in the states. All Redbreast variants. I wouldn't be surprised if the Powers SPS came Stateside if the Redbreast moves well enough.

[JohnM]

I wonder do they make much money at all out of the pure pot stills at all. Sure they're very small sales worldwide. They may be serving the purpose of enhancing the overall brand.

[DavidH]

They may be serving the purpose of enhancing the overall brand.

The "halo effect". But they are not really the same brand. Can a Redbreast SPS ever lend cachet to Jameson? That's quite a marketing job to get consumers to realise it's the same distillery and much the same spirit in both.

There is quite a large Jameson range at this point, all blends, the idea being to give drinkers a Jemmy at every price point and level of sophistication. But they must be wondering now if there is a place for an SPS in the Reserve range. That way a Jemmy drinker could trade up to a Jameson SPS, then across to a Redbreast / Powers / Greenspot SPS.

[JohnM]

I do not know, of course, but I mean the distillery brand and the Irish whiskey brand - particularly the non-malt Irish whiskey brand. I don't know how marketing works at all.

[Fionnán]

coincidently, I just forwarded the above newsetter to leo and zoltan from my old boss at Diageo, so it is getting read by the exec types in these companies. As for bushmills, diageo put a lot of money in advertising at various events in the states etc-- making sure the whole line up could be poured like there were infinite reserves at whiskyfest, whiskylive etc. I've also seen billboards for the bushmills blend in the states where i never had before (especially in boston). The line i always heard in regards to production was that they need to "build the brand"... hopefully that info's of some use

[JohnM]

I heard Bushmills took some coaxing to have them at Whisky Live last year. I don't know how true this is, but I thought their presence was quite low-key.

[Fionnán]

John-- i'd heard that on the forum and found it surprising and a little sad, because i've been at whiskylive events in the states and bushmills always have a strong presence, even sponsoring a pipeband to come in blasting wave after wave of eardrum cracking publicity. but they also fuel the thing with plenty of actual product and i was always encouraged strongly to stress the single malt line over the white label... What did they bring to/do at the dublin whiskyfest?

[JohnM]

They had a small stand and had their standard range. They were very nice at the stand bit very low key.

[Good Whiskey Hunting]

I would assume they'll have to up their ante this time around with Irish Distillers new range and Beam will surely be keen to show off their new brands.

[IrishWhiskeyChaser]

The line i always heard in regards to production was that they need to "build the brand"... hopefully that info's of some use

That is what I have heard too and it is obvious that they are concentrating on the States.

Really don't see why they would bother too much here due to the lack of growth and the total domination of Jameson Paddy and Powers of the Irish market. Even the second largest selling Irish Whiskey "Tullamore Dew" is a bit player in Ireland.

[Good Whiskey Hunting]

I got 4 bottles of White Bushmills from our Diageo rep in October just to have it in stock. I couldn't sell it at all. We ended up giving it away as spot prizes and in our Christmas charity draw.
There has always been a market for Black Bush here and they refuse to expand on that. The only thing I've seen since Diageo's takeover is a different bottling style.

Are they looking at their bastardisation of Guinness with the numerous special releases and thinking they'll fail the same with Whiskey? Stick with what we know attitude!

[JohnM]

I got 4 bottles of White Bushmills from our Diageo rep in October just to have it in stock. I couldn't sell it at all. We ended up giving it away as spot prizes and in our Christmas charity draw.
There has always been a market for Black Bush here and they refuse to expand on that. The only thing I've seen since Diageo's takeover is a different bottling style.

Are they looking at their bastardisation of Guinness with the numerous special releases and thinking they'll fail the same with Whiskey? Stick with what we know attitude!

I suppose they're doing very well with their Scotch whiskies. I wonder would they consider Bushmills as some kind of annual release like their Classic Range in Scotland.

The Celtic Whiskey Shop were involved in some kind of blind tasting and White Bush did very well. Think it came out ahead of Jameson NAS.

[DavidH]

Really don't see why they would bother too much here due to the lack of growth and the total domination of Jameson Paddy and Powers of the Irish market. Even the second largest selling Irish Whiskey "Tullamore Dew" is a bit player in Ireland.

They would take a big hit on authenticity if tourists come to Ireland and discover that Bushmills isn't popular here. Who wants to drink an Irish whiskey that the Irish don't drink? I know Tullamore Dew pulled off that trick but the more mobile the global consumer becomes, the less that is going to work. There needs to be a distillery to vsit and a brand presence in the home country, I feel.

[Fionnán]

I've always been amazed by the success of Tullamore Dew-- in my personal opinion the standard stuff tastes like juiced metal. Hopefully that'll change under grant and sons. Speaking of the role of marketing/big companies-- any word on that, by the way?