• 01Jul

  Are we drinking more in a recession… not really

  Hooch, Industry Stats, Wine No Comments

  If you believe in Polls then beer is still King… 40% of responding drinkers say they prefer beer, compared with 34% saying wine and 21% spirits. Beer has been the top-ranking alcoholic beverage every year since 1992 (the poll’s inception) except in 2005, when wine edged slightly ahead of it. Spirits have consistently ranked third, preferred by between 18% and 24% of drinkers.

   

  The majority of men say they most often drink beer, while half of women choose wine. There is also a significant generational difference in preferences, with younger men and women favoring beer and older adults favoring wine.

   

  Geographically, beer is most popular in the Midwest. On the basis of education, wine is far more popular among people with at least some college background than it is among those who have not attended college.

   

  So do we dink more during a recession?  Not really if you believe in Polls, this year’s Gallup Poll found “little change in Americans’ drinking habits” despite some “anecdotal reports of a surge in drinking” due to the economy.  The percentage of U.S. adults who consume alcohol is “essentially unchanged” from last year at 64%.

   

  “The theory, at least, is that the recession may give people more reasons to drink, but less money to do it with,” said the poll.

   

  About two-thirds of drinkers in this year’s survey (65%) say they have had at least one drink within the past week, which is identical to the 2008 findings.  Heavy drinkers, or those who consume 8 or more drinks in a week, is currently 14%, which Gallup says is “also quite typical for the decade.”  The biggest disparity was in the average number of drinks consumed per drinker in the past week, which was up slightly from 2008 to 4.8 drinks.

   

  Should we all drink one to the economy improving?  Will that help the economy improve?  Whichever is the case… I will do my part!

   

   

   

  Tags: drinking during a recession, Gallup Poll on alcohol, how many drink per week, responding drinkers, what is a heavy drinker, Who drinks beer, who drinks spirits, who drinks wine, women drink spirits, women drink wine

• 30May

  Would today’s investors fund… the concept of distilling Scotch Whiskey

  Hooch No Comments

  When I work at my computer every day I have the MSNBC Business Channel on.  It provides back-ground noise and also keeps my adrenalin flowing when I listen in amazement to all the financial geniuses. 

   

  I especially am entertained as well as angered by the Investment Bankers and Venture Capitalists that come on and bestow their wisdom on us all…hmm. Having been an entrepreneur in the Alcohol Beverage Industry all my life… I have raised millions of dollars for various projects… some were successful, many failed.  One thing was constant and that was the grueling presentations to potential investors.

   

  Many of my colleagues are going through that right now… pitching potential investors.  I have often thought if some successful Alcohol Brands would be able to get funded today.

  For instance…Absolut Vodka… misspelled and no neck on the bottle… hmm how would bartenders pour it?   Or Grey Goose… a French Vodka… Vodka from France…you “gotta be kiddin me”.

   

  I have discussed these “what if’s” with my journalist son Tom many times.  I was excited when he recently emailed me this excerpt by the late Michael Jackson of “Beer Hunter” fame and writer of many books and articles on whiskey.  He ponders a very interesting dilemma… would any Vulture Capitalist, Investment Banker or even Angel Investor fund the idea of creating Scotch Whiskey today?  Let’s be grateful that the scenario below does not have to play out today.

   

  Enjoy this excerpt by Michael Jackson from a foreword in “The Whiskey Companion”.

   

   

  Imagine that Scotch whisky did not exist and you hatched the idea of creating such a drink. You would have to explain the notion to a financial backer. Here’s how he reacts to your proposal:

   

  We like the idea of making this product in five or six large, efficient column stills near big cities. We think the notion of 75 to 100 distilleries in the highlands and islands is completely unnecessary, madness in fact. We are pleased you agree that the barley need not come from Scotland. All maturing should be centralized. Floor malting is absurdly expensive. The idea that tourists would like to see it is ridiculous. If Islay whiskies are going to taste of peat and seaweed, why on earth would you distill there? As for those Gaelic names, we know enough about marketing to recommend that you drop them right now. You will never in a million years sell products called Lagavulin, Laphroaig, Glenfiddich or Bruichladdich. You would do much better with a name like The Singleton. Even the proposed names of your “blends” are too difficult. People won’t know how to pronounce Chivas or Dewars, for example.

   

  In fact, this whole Scottish dimension does marginalize the drink. It would be less costly if you contracted production to someone nearer that market. Say Warrington for the North and Midlands of England; Harlow for the South and continental Europe; Peoria, Illinois, for the Americas; Taipei for Asia… Finally, we think the name whisky sounds a bit old-fashioned. Reminds us of whiskers and old men. It would seem less old-fashioned if you could drop the requirement that it be aged. Our ad agency came up with the name “Frisky.” Research shows that consumers’ awareness is hooked by hard consonants. We could call it vodka. Having considered all your un-economic, un-commercial, ideas, our last word on the subject is Sodov.

   

  The magic intervenes in Scotch whisky every time it outwits such wisdoms. It needs to be on guard at all times. Hence the skian dhu in its stocking.

   

  Michael Jackson, 2004

  From his Foreword to “The Whisky Companion”

  William Grant and Sons, Ltd.

   

   

   

  Tags: Absolut Vodka, Angel Investors, Beer Hunter, Bruichladdich, Business Channel, Chivas Regal, Dewars, distilleries, financial backer, French Vodka, Glenfiddich, Grey Goose Vodka, Investment Bankers, Lagavulin, Laphroaig, MsNBC, peat, Single Malt Scotch, The Whiskey Companion, Venture Capalists, Vulture Capalists, William Grant and Sons Ltd

• 18May

  Real Wine Drinkers don’t…trade down

  Industry Stats, Wine No Comments

  Based on my thirty plus years of marketing alcohol beverages, I can say this with absolute certainty: Real wine lovers don’t trade down.  They can’t… with their wine palates developed to enjoy good wine, they can no longer go backwards to lesser quality wines.  They’d rather go to other adult beverages…like beer.

   

  I am by no means a wine elitist nor even a wine snob… but over the years my palate has evolved to enjoy good quality wines. Now there is no going back.  I also drank beer regularly over the years… just as many beer drinkers I traded up and down with my beer choices many times.  I switched beers without any second thoughts and my taste buds did not complain.

   

  Yes there are many more beer drinkers that wine drinkers…always have been and always will be.  Most beer drinkers are “quaffers” and most wine drinkers as “sippers”.  With the beer drinker the liquid is never in the mouth long enough to let the beer palate develop… beer drinking is more of an exercise for the tonsils and the belly.

  Among American adults who drink alcohol “at least several times a year,” 67 percent consumed beer, according to a Harris Interactive Inc. poll of 2,401 adults published May 14. That’s up from 62 percent in a survey three years earlier. Forty-nine percent said they drank domestic wine and 29 percent foreign wine, said the Rochester, New York-based research company.

  The following is really a lot of wishful thinking on the part of the beer barons.  I can use the quotes below to support my point that wine drinkers don’t trade down… they might switch to drinking more beer but not lower quality wine. 

  Beer is winning customers from other types of alcoholic beverages in the U.S. because of recession, with domestic wine taking share from imports, according to two consumer surveys and the world’s biggest brewer.

  “We do see some consumers moving to the beer category, which is good for us, and within the beer category moving from import to crafts into mainstream,” said Carlos Brito, chief executive officer of Anheuser-Busch InBev NV, maker of Budweiser. “We also see some down trades from mainstream brands into more value discount brands.”

  The trend for lower priced wines’ growth can be attributed to: 

  ·        entry of new wine drinkers starting with lesser wines

  ·        novice wine drinkers trading up from wine cooler type wines

  ·        the lowering of prices on seriously overpriced California wines

  “While alcohol beverages are sometimes thought to be recession-proof, we’re seeing significant evidence of changes in consumers’ dining and buying habits,” said Danny Brager, vice president of Nielsen Co., which surveyed 5,000 U.S. alcohol consumers. People are buying larger package sizes, more domestic beverages and taking “less of an experimental approach,” he said in a press release last week.

  The Nielsen poll said that “when economic conditions improve,” 24 percent of respondents said they would increase spending on wine and 18 percent would boost their beer budgets.

   

  The developed wine palate thankfully is much like the developed food palate - it hates retreating to lesser quality.  I think people are drinking good wine less frequently but not trading down like the pollsters and the mass producers of adult beverages want you to think. 

   

  People who enjoy fine dining also are cutting back on dining-out frequency and are coping by learning to prepare gourmet dinners at home or renewing friendships with people who are great cooks.  I don’t see anyone asserting that fine dining consumers are now lining up at McDonalds… waiting until the economy comes back.

   

  The developed palate is a very demanding creature…especially the developed wine palate.

   

   

    

   

   

   

  Tags: Anheuser-Busch, Budweiser, cheap wine, Craft Beer, developed wine palate, Domestic wine, evolved wine palate, Fine dining, gourmet cooking at home, Harris Poll, Imported Wine, McDonalds, Nielson survey, over priced wine, quaffing beer, sipping wine, wine elitist, wine snob

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