241 – Celebrities in Bourbon and the Current State of the Secondary on Bourbon Community Roundtable #41

Bourbon

February 20, 2020

On this episode, we touch on three topics. First, we look at how bourbon producers can reach new consumers. Then we take on the new celebrity craze. Over the past year, there have been about half a dozen music artists and TV personalities that have come out with bourbons. While we don’t see this trend stopping, we ask ourselves if this is good for bourbon as a whole. Lastly, we examine the current state of the secondary market. It’s a group consensus that we all miss it, but how has it affected value, store pricing, and distributor allocation?

Show Partners:

  • The University of Louisville has an online Distilled Spirits Business Certificate that focuses on the business side of the spirits industry. Learn more at uofl.me/bourbonpursuit.
  • Barrell Craft Spirits enjoys finding and identifying barrels that contain distinctive traits and characteristics. They then bottle them at cask strength to retain their authentic qualities for the whiskey enthusiast. Learn more at BarrellBourbon.com.
  • Receive $25 off your first order at RackHouse Whiskey Club with code “Pursuit”. Visit RackhouseWhiskeyClub.com.

Show Notes:

  • This week’s Above the Char with Fred Minnick talks about celebrity whiskey.
  • How do bourbon producers reach new customers?
  • What about new label designs?
  • What do you think about celebrities getting into bourbon?
  • Are celebrities helping or hurting bourbon?
  • Let’s discuss the current state of the secondary market.

0:00
Have you held a bottle of bourbon in your hand and wondered how was this made? sure there’s the grains in the barrels and all that science that goes into it. But what about the package design, class manufacturing, shipping logistics, or purchase orders for thousands of cork stoppers. These are only a handful of things that you need to know. But what the University of levels online distilled spirits business certificate, you’re only a few clicks away from learning from industry experts from renowned spirits businesses like brown Forman, jack daniels and more. Learn more about this online six course certificate at U of l.me. Slash

0:35
bourbon pursuit.

0:38
Carey is fashionably late for his returns.

0:41
I said he’s making a big entrance right

0:45
see, I like this new platform because I hold the power like I actually don’t have to put them on the screen.

0:50
Perfect. really sing as actually it’s kind of cool how this works. Yeah,

0:54
it is cool. Yeah. Alright, he’s here now should Adam

0:57
Can you can you like put his head face like behind a curtain kind of thing or voice? I can I can kick him

1:03
from the studio. He will do that.

1:06
I’ll put him in. And then I’ll take him out.

1:21
Everyone, it’s Episode 241 of bourbon pursuit. And if it’s your morning drive, good morning, if it’s your daily run, break that record. And if you’re sitting at work, let’s make this day go by one hour faster. Last week, whiskey magazine presented their 2020 icons of American whiskey awards in New York City, and I’ll be damned if we weren’t even considered in the running. Who knows maybe next year, but here’s some of the names that you might recognize. Brent Elliott from four roses was named master distiller the year Buffalo Trace as the best distiller and visitor attraction. peerless distilling companies small batch Kentucky straight bourbon was named the best Kentucky bourbon While Rebel Yell took home the best Kentucky single barrel bourbon and iron Republic out of Texas as the best non Kentucky and eh Taylor ride took home the best rye while to 91 Colorado whiskey took home the best new make award. And lastly Peggy no Stevens accepted and induction into the Hall of Fame as well. winners from the icons of American whiskey and world whisky awards. 2021 now go head to head and their competition across the globe to figure out who will be the best whiskey in the world. Now we presented in London in March of 2020. The Kentucky distillers Association announced that the famed Kentucky bourbon trail and Kentucky bourbon trail craft tour destinations Welcome to 1.7 million visitors in 2019. And now is celebrating its anniversary with its 21st birthday. Now, let’s get into some bourbon economics beam centuri self solid sales growth in 2019. posting a revenue increase of six and a half percent for the Year and beam centaurs flagship brand, Jim Beam had a strong year in the US, where depletions increased eight and a half percent to 5.7 million cases. That also includes flavors variants of Jim Beam, according to impact databanks estimates. Now basil Hayden was another dynamic performer estimated up 37% to 345,000. cases in the US last year in Japan became the largest export market for Jim Beam last year, driven by the high vol craze, Kentucky Governor Andy Bashir announced that Kentucky is leading the nation in whiskey exports, which shouldn’t be much of a surprise. The governor made the announcement while filling the 16th million barrel of Jim Beam at Jim beam’s American steel house in Claremont, Kentucky, and Kentucky led all states in whiskey exports in 2019 at 480 $5 million. That total marks a 326% increase since 2004. While Canada united Kingdom, France, Brazil in Mexico make up the Commonwealth top five export destinations. Alright, today we’ve got the roundtable, a show where internet friends gather and discuss a bunch of bourbon popery. And On this episode, we touch on three topics, we look at how brands and distilleries can start reaching new consumers, and what are the best ways of getting your product in the eyes of them today? Then we take on the celebrity craze. Over the past year, they’ve been on a half a dozen music artists and TV personalities that have come out with Bourbons on the market. While we don’t see this trend, stopping anytime soon, we ask ourselves, is this good for bourbon as a whole. And lastly, we examine the current state of the secondary market. It’s a group consensus that we all miss it. But what has been the effect for pricing store pricing in distributed application, since this is all happened over six months ago. And if you’re a Patreon supporter, you got the email yesterday that we’re going to be doing a new pilot episode called Extra pursuit. This is a new kahlan radio show format that we’re going to test out that is exclusively available to our Patreon community. We hope to see you all mine soon and make it successful to see how this thing’s going to turn out. And speaking of things that are happening in the Patreon world, we have two barrel pics that are happening a Buffalo Trace this week. So if you want the opportunity to get your hands on one of these bottles of these private selections, as well as even possibly join us on the pic, go to patreon.com slash bourbon pursuit. It’s this community that funds a lot of the things that happened with this podcast, and we’re happy that we can bring these experiences like this to so many of our listeners. It’s showtime. So here’s Joe from barrel bourbon, and then you’ve got Fred minich,

5:45
with above the char.

5:48
Hey everyone, Joe here again, we enjoy finding and identifying barrels that contain distinctive traits and characteristics. We then bottle them a cast rank to retain their authentic qualities for the whiskey enthusiast. Next time Ask you bartender for barrel bourbon.

6:04
I’m Fred MiniK. And this is above the char. Right now we’re seeing a plethora of celebrity whiskies come out. Most recently Jason Aldean, and Terry Bradshaw have announced their whiskies Of course, last year we had slipknot and Metallica, Bob Dylan, and I got to tell you, there’s going to be a whole lot more coming. I’m even familiar with a few of them, that some of which I cannot disclose at this time. But let me just tell you, we should not think of celebrity whiskey as something that is the end of times or a sign that the bubble is about to bust. Rather, celebrity whiskeys just mean that we have right now the attention of all those who are interested in making money. And basically celebrities are like any other business. They’re all about trying to make money. And whiskey is one of the hottest games in town right now. course it doesn’t help that George Clooney actually made a couple billion dollars off of a tequila a few years ago. And so with the rise of spirits come more celebrities, I believe we should actually reward those who make good whiskey or at least put their name on good whiskey. Here’s the thing, this is what we don’t want. We don’t want whiskey to become the next vodka, where celebrities galore just kind of sign up and they just put their name on it. We want the celebrities to actually be involved. We want them to be involved with good whiskey. And you know, the Matthew McConaughey project with wild turkey is a good example of how a celebrity can be used to improve a brand. Now, we’ll see if that ends up working in the long haul, but I kind of liked the idea of more celebrities coming in to the game of whiskey. And that’s this week’s above the char Hey, if you have an idea for above the char hit me up on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook, just search my name Fred MiniK Pape Until next week, cheers

8:03
Welcome back to another episode of bourbon pursuit, the official podcast of bourbon. This is bourbon Community Roundtable number 41. So we’ve been doing this quite a while and we’ve got a whole lot of good topics lined up tonight. And it’s usually the Wrecking Crew that we have here. We talk about some, some culture things that are happening inside of Bourbons, and that, you know, latest news and we kind of give our, our best informed opinions and I guess that’s maybe what you call it.

8:29
You know, maybe sometimes it’s maybe simpler. Sometimes they’re right, sometimes they’re wrong, but that’s just part of the process. But yeah, most of the time I get my comments, you know, decided right before the show, just research the topics and I’m like, okay, that’s how I feel. I don’t even know.

8:49
Yeah,

8:51
yeah, off the cuff.

8:54
That’s part of the fun, you know, we’ve done this enough by now. And I think that’s also funny for Ryan and I when we go and we’re we’re interviewing a lot of people nowadays. They’re all like, hey, um, can you all send me like a list of questions that you want to answer ahead of time?

9:06
We’re like, No,

9:09
we don’t have any questions.

9:13
Like we’re just gonna show up and ask questions. This is how we do it now.

9:18
I don’t think we had an agenda the first time did we

9:20
forget roundtable? I don’t remember. It was very first one that was so long ago.

9:24
That’s too long ago.

9:27
I know. I know. But you know, let’s go ahead and I think we can we can kick it off. So you heard some voices already. We’ll save the our new special guest tonight for last you’ve heard his name on there before but I’ll start with the guy who’s always on here, Blake. You can’t

9:41
get rid of me of the bourbon Roundtable. I’m Blake from bourbon er. Yeah, always fun to be on. You know. Still, this is one of the one of the highlights of the month to jump on here and talk with you guys. So thanks for having me. As always, you can find me on all the social medias, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook. Bo you are Bo nr as well as my, I would say newer, or new site that’s kind of just newish at this point. That’s seal box calm, so es el ba ch s. So thanks me guys.

10:13
Absolutely make sure you go check it out for all your craft whiskey needs as well as pursuit series needs. You can go and get everything ordered right to your doorstep. We always need it. So Jordan, you’re up next, buddy?

10:25
Sure. This is Jordan from breaking bourbon, one of the three guys from breaking bourbon calm. You can find us on all the socials at breaking bourbon and make sure to sign up for our newsletter. We’re always sending out our latest calendar calendar releases. Is that starting already? Oh, it’s it’s been going already for for a few weeks now.

10:43
Oh, gosh. You feel

10:44
like it feels like it’s it’s a good time right now because you’re like, oh, like we don’t have to worry about anything crazy coming out like stag Junior bash 13. Like that came in when already now we can just relax for a minute but like seems like you guys just want to keep the energy going.

11:00
It’d be nice if we got a break, that’s for sure. But the bourbon Gods demand it.

11:04
Yeah. Hey, we got Brian. How you doing, buddy?

11:07
Hey guys doing great thanks for having against Brian with sip and corn on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram is sip and corn. You can find me online at either sipping corn or bourbon justice calm looking forward to it.

11:19
Absolutely. And we have a familiar face of the Round Table making his return.

11:25
Carrie

11:26
How are you buddy? Hey guys, thanks for having me back on here if if Blake is Cal Ripken of baseball, I’m Fernando Rodney. I’m the reliever that you call in once in a while and you’re really nervous because you don’t know what’s gonna happen.

11:43
Yeah, I could either be strong or not, but at least I’ll look good with my hat turned a little bit to the side.

11:50
It’s all a matter it’s come sprinting out. Yeah, sprinting out of right field. That’s right, people. Yeah.

11:57
This is awesome.

11:58
Well, Ryan as two people still watching Baseball I I certainly have paid zero attention to it but I don’t know about you all. Then again, Louisville is not much of the amazing that we get the Louisville Slugger museum. We got the basically the biggest names with baseball here with the equipment yet. Like the city just really doesn’t care that much about baseball because we don’t have a protein just got to go an hour and a half north to be able to do that.

12:20
Yeah, they stink. Yeah, there’s no point.

12:23
baseball’s hot right now just because of the controversy. like everybody’s talking about it now.

12:27
It was just the astralis conference.

12:29
Yeah, for sure. Which is crazy. If you look in depth at all of the stuff that’s come out and then consider like the latest evidence where the guy was holding his jersey when he was crossing, homeboy. I know things like definitely a made for TV movie coming out ridiculous. Lifetime movie come

12:45
Yeah. But it keeps it fun. keeps it interesting. I think maybe like every once in a while, like sports have to do these things like they gotta create something to hype it back up again. Because as soon as it starts hitting this little plummet, you’re like, Oh, am we’re back up again.

12:58
Yeah, they said this is actually good for baseball bat for the Astros?

13:02
Well, that’s true, as somebody’s got to be a pawn in the game at the end of this right. So, all right,

13:07
so let’s go ahead and start hitting some topics tonight. So the first one we want to do is we’re gonna start looking at marketing and trying to figure out really how our bourbon distilleries and producers, how do they reach new bourbon drinkers? And I know that we’ve we’ve thrown a few different ideas around here. And I know Jordan, you had had some thoughts coming into this. So how do you kind of feel that distillers or bourbon, distilleries and marketing like how should they be reaching new consumers nowaday?

13:35
Yeah, so I think there’s two parts, right? I’ll make this short, but two parts. One is through people of the industry and making sure their products get out in their hands and making sure that we’re highlighting them right. So for example, heaven Hill just sent out the whole latest batch of Elijah Craig. Right, which was great and everyone’s posting bottles up and doing reviews and honestly, that’s okay because usually it’s a slam dunk bourbon, right for Most part, but other distilleries don’t do that right Buffalo Trace released that press release for stag bash 13 they didn’t send out any bottles, they just sent a press release. So, you know, I think the distilleries that are getting smart are making sure that bottle is getting hands of different review sites or different people on social media and making sure it gets out there. And then from just a standard consumer standpoint, right i think it’s the people that are doing a lot of just non distiller producers right it’s who is a fun label, who has a backstory good, right wrong and different, whatever your opinion may be on it. That’s the people who walk in I have so many friends who go into liquor store they’ll text me Hey, this looks really cool the labels cool fun backstory, you know anything about it? Like yet it’s difficult. So is every other thing in your hand on the shelf, right? And they don’t know what that means, though. They’re just looking for a fun bottle to give us a present or Don’t be. But there’s nothing there’s nothing wrong with decal, either. It’s just you have to know kind of who’s picking and who’s selecting Right. I mean, we all know we’ve had some fantastic decal barrels coming out of there, but it’s just, you know, that was just an example. So it’s It’s the people are doing it right or making sure they’re getting out to the influential folks and talking about it. And then the rest are trying to just whatever the consumer with fun packaging. And that’s kind of been tried and true throughout the years.

15:10
So you think they’re doing a better job now then? I mean, Fred’s not here. We can poke a jab at him then, like buying another Magazine Ad or something like that. But

15:20
I think they got smarter with the dollars and how they do stuff right. And I’ll go back to heaven Hill, for example, right? They could just as well put up a billboard and global or anywhere else or they could have put out a huge news spread and bourbon plus or another magazine right whiskey advocate, announcing Elijah Craig barrel proof. Instead what they do, they got smart. Instead of sending a sample that people are viewing, they sent a bottle and you know what it’s popping up all over social media, all of our websites and that cost them a fraction of what it would cost to a major advertising campaign. They smartened up the truly half

15:51
I didn’t get a bottle

16:00
After bourbon and beyond and like a nice couple week run of, you know, really being on and things like

16:05
that, even years back, right? I mean,

16:10
bourbon blogging is two hobbies. It’s the love of bourbon as a hobby, and the love of writing as a hobby. And I’ve come to realize that only like one of those two hobbies a lot. I like talking bourbon and I liked hanging out with people, but bourbon, but it’s just the writing thing. It just inspires me for a while and then it it goes away. But if I finished the unfinished stuff that I have in my blog, I mean, I’d have like, I have like two and a half posts, it’d be amazing. So someday, we’ll get back to it. But my question about the marketing stuff, are you referencing celebrities? marketing that or just how they’re trying to reach consumers?

16:48
Yeah, I mean, we’ll get to that in a little bit. I, you know, I’m kind of looking at, you know, how do we reach new bourbon drinkers? Right. And I think we’ll get into the celebrity thing in a little bit because that’s kind of like the second segment of the show. But you know, there’s another thing that that I think brought up in our kind of private chat and that was, you know, I kind of want to stay on this topic a little bit before I start switching gears a little bit, you know, as we start looking into the clinical influencer realm, right, it’s kind of a it’s kind of like, I don’t know if you guys like the word I feel like I’m like, nasty when I call myself an influencer like,

17:19
yeah, hundred percent.

17:21
Yeah, not good.

17:22
Yeah. Well, but that part is it’s true. Right guys

17:24
are influencers though. I mean, you are like, when? Yes, the

17:30
batch 12

17:31
that you can’t find anymore and the price went up. Do you know why that one went up? It’s because of that guy right there. Jordan? Yes. Why? Yeah, that was definitely a breaking.

17:41
Breaking, but we’ll certainly take credit for that. But you know, in our book, and I agree with what Kenny just said and you know, I we don’t like the word influencer, I think to us, right? We put a ton of work into breaking bourbon. It’s more than just a hobby, right? It’s it’s almost a full time job at this point is the job of planning job and we work our butts off for that. I think of influencer I think it’s somebody out in a beach with a bottle and they’re taking a picture. And that’s, that’s all they’re going to put into it right? They’re looking at their latest filter on Instagram. And that’s how they’re influencing folks. For us. It’s truly a love and a passion of making sure we get out our thoughts to consumers that when they’re new consumers are old consumers going to liquor store, we’re able to help them pick out the right bourbon that’s right for them. Right. And that’s more than lensing. That’s that’s going out and doing a job to show in your love for the hobby.

18:27
Exactly.

18:28
I think it you know, kind of what Jordan said with how far is the influencer taking it, like, all right, you know, are they writing posts and had this conversation with, with with Josh from whiskey jug about, you know, you can have an influencer who do an Instagram story that’s there for 24 hours, what does that really get you you know, is there really an ROI on that, but if they put an Instagram story, if they do a post, if they do a blog post, then you have SEO, SEO, you have backlinks, you have all this other stuff that’s kind of building around it and So, you know, I think you almost have to be hitting all those areas to have some kind of influence.

19:08
But as far as which brands

19:09
are doing the best, I mean, you think about I know somebody mentioned this in the chat I think beam does a really good job of this barrel always does a good job about getting beer bottles up to people who are gonna, you know, have an audience and can post them. Heaven hills, come on strong. I mean, I don’t Did anybody receive anything from heaven Hill until about two years ago? I know I didn’t. So those are a few that I think definitely pop up. And Buffalo Trace seems to be taking the opposite approach of you know, we don’t need as as much of this so, you know, used to if there was something you could get a sample it’d be two ounces or something like that. Now, even that seems pretty limited.

19:54
What they’re doing, they get so many pictures

19:58
of just normal people.

19:59
Yeah.

20:00
Well wait one day. Yeah. Why would they send to really anyone when just some Joe Biden it has to take a crop shot crop shot just because he found Eagle rare or something like that? Yeah.

20:12
It was revolution that sample bottles too. So there’s that.

20:18
I don’t know that that sample size really makes a difference in terms of marketing. Because the people that are using you guys, your opinions probably are already into the hobby, right? So you’ve got the, the new people that they’re trying to market to. And then you’ve got the people who are in the bourbon world who might not look at their brands, who they’re trying to get them to switch. So I don’t know. I feel like some of it too, is the marketing by us. And I guess we’re getting into that part. But the marketing kind of gets into trying to influence young people, right, because you have people who in my mind people in college, first try bourbon if they haven’t already, you know, but when you’re 21 and you’re in college, and you try it and then you know you’re having Evan Williams had a full ball game or something and then you graduate and you wanted a nicer bourbon to move to I feel like that’s kind of, I really don’t know if that’s where they’re targeting, but it would seem like that would be your market.

21:09
Maybe I’m gonna disagree just a little bit and at least I’ll speak for us and not a humble brag, but you know, we have millions of unique people come to breaking bourbon every year. And I guarantee you that the indepth crowd that we get caught up in on social media, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, nowhere near is that high, right? So that means to us, there’s a lot of folks who are invested in the bourbon world who go to breaking bourbon. And I guarantee you it’s probably the same thing for bourbon pursuit. They’re probably picking up a ton of new people who aren’t deep in the bourbon sphere. Right? And same with Brian and his book. I bet you have a lot of people are just really into largest into Kentucky history picking it up that part that have no relation whatsoever and who don’t know what bourbon pursuit is we’re breaking bourbon as. So the audience we reach is actually much greater than than we actually realize. And it’s not everyone who’s viewing this, you know, round table right now. It’s much greater than that. So

21:56
they have discovered that because they realized they love bourbon. Or they’re just trying bourbon and saying oh you know I like bourbon I’m gonna find bourbon and people on the internet

22:06
I don’t know we ask we ask a lot of folks who write into us for the first time for the emails we say hey how’d you hear breaking bourbon said honestly I was in a liquor store trying to find more information before I dropped 40 bucks on bottle never heard of you guys before but you know it’s good so they probably search the brand he searched the brand or the bottle totally don’t know about breaking bourbon they’re just searching for bourbon they’re trying to get into it they’re trying to make sure that their dollars right to us. We get so caught up just $200 bottles are in our bottle. Right The average consumer we you know, you need to remember 3040 bucks a lot of money drop on a bottle of bourbon. Right? So that’s what they’re looking for. Make sure they’re spending their dollars wisely.

22:41
Your joke your points really good. Jordan, the people that I talked to in a lot of the presentations that I’ve been doing now, I don’t know they’re they’re not the bourbon enthusiasts. They don’t really don’t know anything and I’m having to explain to them when we’re doing a bottled and bond tasting what in the world bottled and bond is and they’ve never had the three that we’ve got on the tasting. So I think you’re right there, there’s a lot of new people coming into it. And that’s, that’s really what the brands are after I think.

23:08
I compare it to, like, you know, picking up other hobby. So if, if I’m looking at wine accounts, I may be falling for a complete marketing gimmick, but because I saw something on Instagram, so I want to try a bottle of wine or like, you know, some golf tool that is not going to help my game at all. But that’s I don’t know the difference. So I try to find the accounts that I think I can trust and that are giving good feedback. And, you know, just going from there and, like, kind of both y’all alluded to I think we really just, you know, don’t give enough attention to the fact that the majority of the bourbon market is not guys like us. It’s it’s not guys that know what what mash bills are made aware or even care about it. You know, it’s like, Hey, I got $40 to spend. I don’t want to feel dumb. Because I get this bottle home and it tastes terrible. Where do I go? in you know, I think that’s that’s probably 80% of the market at this point.

24:10
Yeah, for so another big thing that makes me happy that this is all happening as well as that, you know, shout out to heaven Hill and a few other ones that that sends you full bottles, right? I mean, that gets you a much better Instagram shot than like a little two ounce sample a little cup that you know, kind of comes in and stuff like that. So I’m always happy to get the full bottles. I think that’s fantastic.

24:32
I remember loving all bottles because they know I’m just going to like, review it, take a few pictures and then they get the bottle so they think it’s the greatest thing ever.

24:42
I remember when Kenny used to get shafted, and now he’s, he’s on he’s he’s all the way to Mini.

24:50
I’m saying that.

24:51
Nothing wrong with that.

24:54
Absolutely not. Yes, yeah. So

24:57
go ahead right.

24:58
Do I get to get a point or not? We’ve had some

25:02
remember, I can put you on mute now?

25:04
Go ahead. No, my first right. No, I totally agree with what Blake says. And I’ve talked to you about this Kenny before, like we to get bourbon and expanded, we got to go to fringe audiences, like people that are interested in food, or cigars or wine, or like even cooking with green eggs or, you know, smoking food, you know, as there’s just, that’s where they got to start allocating their money to because people that are nerdy about something, they’re going to be nerdy about bourbon, they’re going to dive in to whatever they’re interested in. And that’s who you want are those people that are passionate about their hobbies. And so if you can get to those fringe audiences that kind of tie into what you got going on.

25:42
So the other part of this about looking at, you know, how are they reaching new customers, is we look at label designs and sort of what’s happened in the market and on the most recent things that we can think of, of course, is like the new Baker’s redesign, right? taking something that was a flagship product, redesigning it, giving it a Basically a face facelift of a label some new bottle new tops and everything like that. Do you all anticipate seeing this as a another trend forward where we can expect more brands to start saying like okay let’s let’s keep the brand but let’s give it a whole new facelift let’s break it so you look more younger more energetic anything like that.

26:20
Is that kind of part of marketing one on one anyway is is rebranding your image if if sales are hurting a little bit I feel like that’s kind of kind of a standard especially in the bourbon world where it’s just a label it just changed the label up in it you know people it sells out and fever like I got pre label stuff for sale and people go crazy and you know the fear FOMO sets in

26:42
or change the you change the proof or double the price to you know that

26:47
I think that’s a lot of it too, right? I think it’s a good excuse and I’m not justifying this at all, but I think brands are looking for a way to increase price right? One easy thing to do let’s relay let’s not really what but let’s rebrand it right new bottle, different labels. Get a little more upscale 510 15 $20 mortars cost to the price. Right and I think you’ve been seeing that a lot of brands doing it. Or let’s switch from screw top to cork. Let’s do little things that make it feel more high end, same bourbon, right but now they’re gonna start charging more and somehow people feel it’s okay because now seeing the same model with a new increase price they’re seeing a new bottle with an increased price.

27:22
Yeah, and there’s some people in chat that are talking about how wild turkey is going through a yet another one. I think we’ve we’ve touched on this before, like, haven’t they done like two or three of them in the past like five or six years of like, just suddenly changing things on the wild turkey one to one label?

27:36
Well, now it looks like they may switch the bottle up completely based on the last one I saw is that

27:42
I mean, I don’t know if that’s confirmed yet. But they they change everything. They’re probably too much. I mean, look at what Rare Breed has six years. And I mean, they, it’s it seems pointless. A lot of them are small changes. And then you’ve got the ones that do the big changes. I think that’s where people notice A lot of people aren’t going to notice that rare breed has changed four times in the last six years.

28:06
Yeah, I think there’s a lot of thoughts on this one, but you’ve seen a lot over the last few years. You know, Weller had a overhaul, 17 9200 overhaul. lizer crack had an overhaul. And now you know, Baker’s been the most recent and I would say probably Baker’s was the most successful with it, because I can’t like I’ve loved Baker’s for a long time. And I don’t know why more people didn’t drink it. And all of a sudden, like it comes out in the cool bottle and people are like, Oh, man, have you tried Baker’s like, this is not a new product was it

28:39
was it was not

28:40
a single barrel. So that did change. But,

28:43
um,

28:44
but it’s, I mean, go back and taste it against some older bakers. And you’ll be like, wow, this is really good. I love the new stuff. But I mean, that’s a huge win, I think for being because people now love it. It looks so much better on the show. There’s more people buying it people realize how good it is. And all they did was change the label, you know, call it single barrel.

29:08
Marketing one on one, right? The wine world taught me how to do labels and we got new bottles and they sell.

29:15
Yeah. You know how many? How many screw caps do we have on the market today? As opposed to just you know, five years ago? No, no, not a whole lot. You know it. There’s something about that, that value of pulling off a cork instead of unscrew it. You know, even Weller antique, even after the redesign went to a cork instead of the screw cap. So

29:40
very old Barton. That’s all I can think of. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

29:45
And now What’s the next one? benchmark benchmarks about to get a

29:49
overall that’s doing a whole new line

29:50
of benchmark bourbon, too. Yeah. There’s a whole new line extension.

29:54
I mean, Buffalo Trace just moves down the line. Right. Let me

29:57
let me assure you we’ve talked about done in a roundtable been over a year ago, I think that we talked about how they kind of go in the cycle of like finding something and re reinvigorating or reinventing it. You know, like 1792 was a very good example of that in the past a year and a half of maybe even two and a half years now, of what they’ve done to actually bring out new line extensions, repackaging everything like that, to really uplift the brand from what it had actually been before. So as we kind of continue down this path to and trying to figure out well, what how people are they going to be reaching new consumers and we look at something that we’ve talked about before and that’s celebrities, celebrities getting into whiskey, notably bourbon, you know, there’s there’s a lot of things in whiskey but you know, this is bourbon pursuit. I think we’ll focus on bourbon. And so in the past year, you know, we’ve had Bob Dylan, there’s been Slipknot, Metallica, Matthew McConaughey, and now, Florida, Georgia line and Jason Aldean are now teaming up to create their own. And then also in the past two weeks, I think one that maybe took us all by shock was Terry Bradshaw.

30:56
Like Yeah,

30:56
I was I was I saw that too. And I was like, wow, I mean, Captain Kirk like I understood that one like, but like Terry Bradshaw like really? That’s a new one. Did you watch

31:06
the Super Bowl? Pretty sure he was drinking it live during that. During that

31:09
broadcast. We’ll talk about best advertisement you could. There’s freakin terrible tiles everywhere you look at like watch every Steelers game no matter where they are. It’s like there’s just everywhere. It’s the Anima when you buy McDonald’s here run.

31:22
Yep, exactly. I think you know, a lot of its going to be back to right George Clooney is tres amigos. Right? So if you’re another celebrity, you have any influence whatsoever and you have a name recognition. If you realize three guys can pull off a billion dollar brand you’re gonna try and get in. Right? I think what people fail to realize or maybe not people, right? I think people realize what celebrities fail to realize is that isn’t always the case like lightning. That was a lightning in a bottle type situation like Dan ackwards had Crystal Skull Baka since 2007, right and like people know what that is, but by no means is that a billion dollar brand? Right? So I think everyone’s trying to cash in on their fame and do it think they’re probably not going to see a huge payout, right, they may get a kick out of seeing their name on a bottle of whiskey on a bottle of alcohol. But if they’re looking for a payout like the other folks had good luck. I think Ryan Reynolds is the next track to really take a very Jen super far right. I think he’s Yeah,

32:16
I think that’s a smart move to with the gin route instead of, you know, sure you’re targeting a cool market, which I don’t know, maybe we’re just all wrong. And we’re still like, over or under estimating the amount that people care about, like what’s actually in the bottle.

32:33
But

32:34
now, I mean, I was texting with Oj leamas about this. And he said, Nobody wants to buy my shoes from a guy or basketball shoes from a guy who can’t dunk. But it’s kind of different in the bourbon world. You know, it’s like you know, what is actually dunking in the bourbon world. So if Slipknot comes out with a bourbon or whiskey, whatever they came out with, like, people buy it, I guess I don’t know.

32:58
I don’t they buy it though. I mean, yeah. It’s growing

33:02
like crazy. There’s more

33:03
for me of what I want if they’re gonna leave my four roses single barrel alone and I can actually find it on the shelf again great, you know sell it out

33:13
they’ll come back and buy more.

33:15
I think I’m a little more indifferent on this one because it’s like if that’s what what people want to do and that brings more people into the industry and to buy you know hopefully they come in because they want to buy whoever Terry broad shall bourbon and then they’re like, Oh, hold on. There’s actually people who make this who make a lot of other good products. That’s just one more consumer in the door. So

33:39
you’re speaking as the guy you know, was sealed box here as the guy who already walks into total line and there’s people around the corner and you know, you just want to check out and they all want Blanton’s and you’re like, sorry, you know, just you guys are driving me crazy here. And they they you know everything is impossible to get nowadays from that standpoint. You know, you don’t want more people hobby. But I get where you’re coming from too because it’s from our standpoint of people who love hobby and love to talk about, you know, love bourbon and talk about bourbon. It’s good for us, for them to bring more people in.

34:11
Yeah, I think there’s one thing that I really wish that we were able to see in this world is like, if these celebrities really love whiskey and love bourbon as much as they do, like, I wish there was, like, if they were promoting it themselves, like if they were if they were drinking a bottle of Buffalo Trace or wild turkey or whatever it is, and we got, you know, we saw that more often then we’re like, oh, my, like, these guys are really into bourbon. Right? Yeah. And making it versus somebody that like, you know, I don’t know, maybe a picture service to like somebody drinking a four roses, and they’re like, Hey, now I’m gonna start a brand, right? Like, I just, I just wish there was just something more like that was deep into it. They’re like it was able to tell a story that would get people like us excited. Right? And I don’t I don’t think it really gets people like us excited because it feels it feels bad. Like I feel like we’re just so naanum a little bit, but the thing is, is like they’re not really trying to reach us per se. Right? And and I wish that there was a little bit more something that appeals to the whiskey geek in this category that says like, oh, like, this is why we want to do it because we had so much enjoyment of doing this and this and this, which, you know, you take this and you look at what Fred has done by interviewing the guys at Slipknot, same thing with Metallica. And actually like getting the story of you know, they’re like, basically them and why they started the brand and really like what whiskey means to them. Like, I just don’t want this to snowball to the point where every celebrity starting to come out with some type of liquor. I mean, everybody’s talking here in the chat. Like I know the rock is getting ready to come out with a type of tequila. And it’s it’s going to continually growing, you know, it’s going to grow more and more. However, I just want to make sure that you know, I it sounds bad. I feel like I’m on a bachelor Bachelorette like hope they’re in it for the right reasons.

36:01
battlers, which I did have to sacrifice and DVR The Bachelor tonight so y’all are

36:05
well, man. No,

36:08
but I mean like overall like in, you know, Brian, I’ll kind of go to you first like, do you see this is like good or bad for the whiskey world.

36:21
With the careers of master distiller spanning almost 50 years, as well as Kentucky bourbon Hall of Famer and having over 100 million people taste his products. Steve nalli is a legend of bourbon who for years made Maker’s Mark with expertise and precision. His latest project is with Bardstown bourbon company, a state of the art distillery in the heart of the bourbon capital the world. They’re known for the popular fusion series, however, they’re adding something new in 2020 with a release named the prisoner. It starts as a nine year old Tennessee bourbon that is in finished in the prisoner wine companies French oak barrels for 18 months. The good news is, you don’t have to wait till next year to try it. Steve and the team at Bardstown bourbon company have teamed up with racket Whiskey club rack house whiskey club is a whiskey to Month Club on a mission to uncover the best flavors and stories that craft distilleries across the US have to offer. Their December box features a full size bottle of Bardstown suffusion series, and a 200 milliliter bottle of the prisoner. There’s also some cool merchant side. And as always, with this membership, shipping is free. Get your hands on some early release Bardstown bourbon by signing up at rack house whiskey club.com. Use code pursuit for $25 off your first box.

37:32
Do you see this as like good or bad for the whiskey world?

37:36
I think it’s indifferent. I mean, the the people who know what they’re doing and the people who who look at look at you guys for reviews there, they’re going to be picking the ones that are worth buying. And I can’t imagine that a lot of these are worth buying. So I don’t see it as affecting me too terribly much.

37:55
Anybody else? You guys are awful quiet on this

38:00
I feel like I don’t know, I gave my opinion of I don’t think it’s bad to bring more people into the whiskey world. Like, are we pushing it to jump the shark even further? I don’t think so, because there’s going to be so much whiskey. And, you know, Drake released his own whiskey a few years ago and you know, it’s just something that constantly happens if there’s money to be made, you’re going to have these people who say hey, let’s let’s throw a big name on a brand you’ll be the face of it and we’ll handle the back end so I don’t think of it as a bad thing you know, if that means that there’s more bottles on the shelf when people walk into a total line and maybe they see a name they recognize it they buy it, good for them, but i don’t know i don’t i don’t think see it as something that like kind of interferes with our lane of the bourbon nerd world.

38:53
I know any of it is gonna be good. Is what I’m more.

38:57
How many how many bottles of actually Bad bourbon Have you had four major distilleries? And I’m talking about like,

39:04
stuff you can’t drink. Our major dealer is doing rock and roll band releases, though.

39:12
I mean, I think they’re sourcing through somewhere. I don’t think definitely.

39:18
Do we ever sure any?

39:20
Well, I mean, I mean,

39:21
no, I don’t think it’s any race. But I can tell you right maybe it will maybe some MGP maybe you know, Barton’s and

39:30
usual suspects. Yeah, for sure. I mean, I mean, and you know, the Terry Bradshaw bourbon, it’s all from Ozi Tyler right. And I believe it’s gosh, it might be a three or just a four year old or something like that. So that might be one of the first brands that are gonna be coming out of OC Tyler and Brian and AC or they’re making some faces but you know gotta gotta get understand about like Ozi Tyler like sometimes it gets a bad rap because the only like people pin Ozi Tyler repair tear up here like that’s what that’s what people my head one yeah.

40:00
Exactly I was a big mistake on their part because they there that Jacob McCall is actually a really good master distiller there and he makes an outstanding product, but they have that black eye on them because of this like Tara peer thing, because it’s like, I mean, it’s a, everybody thinks it’s a gimmick, and nobody’s gonna get a fair fair shot. So they’re just I think they’re actually trying to rebrand and come out with new brands that you know, aren’t Ozi Tyler so they can get away from that. But back to the celebrity thing, I think it’s good. The more you get it to the, if you will, it’s good. If you want bourbon to grow, if you don’t want it to grow, then it’s bad. The more you can get into common people, it’s just the natural progression of any product, the more appealing it is to the mass audience celebrities do that, whether you like it or not. Yeah, that’s just that’s,

40:44
it’s I’m interested in a little bit of bourbon history and bourbon law. And so I’ve got a

40:51
great book that they can check out

40:53
and really get into it. I’m right there with you guys. I think the more people drinking bourbon, right, whether that’s good or bad for people Trying to find bottles it is what it is. But the more people are drinking up, the more money that producers are willing to invest in it right? Big or small, and more. So the more legs and bourbon has to go a long time before there is a, you know, it’s a boom and bust cycle. So before there’s a bust, and honestly, if they can keep this up, then it’s just ingrained in the American culture, right? And then you’ll see bourbon out there. Let’s be real. You don’t want to see a bus like flavored vodka, what, 15 years ago and everyone’s drinking flavored vodka 20 years ago. Let me tell you how many of you are walking through the store. Like I think I’ll pick up some bubblegum vodka to drink tonight. just doesn’t happen, right? If you drink bourbon now and other people see you drinking it for 1015 years have a hold on long enough. That’s cultural that’s generational. Right? And then we actually have bourbon taking off and just becoming more mainstream, which is fantastic. I mean, I mean, this

41:47
is this is a good discussion, because I think you know, as we it, there’s a lot of things that are happening in the comments as well. People were saying, you know, like, basically there’s Who was it? That was Hank Williams Jr. Our Booker was in a hurry. Williams jr music video with Dreamhouse say that there’s I forget I saw something else but basically saying whoever was was was pushing dickhole a lot back in the day as well. And so I think celebrities do have a role in this right as as an advertising mechanism and stuff like that getting into it be I mean, in Mila Kunis has been doing it for a while. And that’s but that’s just the advertising side of it. I mean, we’re talking about actually like having a hand at creating something that is a product, which is completely different, in my opinion, right? Where I think they probably have a lot more skin in the game, they’ve got their dollars invested into it. And so it becomes something that is a cornerstone for them that they’ve got to make. They’ve got to make successful and so if they don’t, then it could end up being like Trump aka right who knows right? Where it just is no longer on the shelves or something like that.

42:54
But latronnik baka

42:57
you’re sitting on it. I think it’s worth something nowadays. And speaking of worth something now, I guess that kind of leads into a it’s, it’s always a topic we love and we hate it the second at this at the time, but that is the secondary market.

43:10
Nice transition. I know.

43:13
I try to find ways to make it fun and interesting without like Ben and myself is like, oh, they’ll go people that always talk about the secondary market. But it truly is like one of those things that we’re now Gosh, five months, almost six months since the since the kind of smack down if you will, yeah, really had this still exist?

43:33
No, I’m kidding.

43:34
Well, that’s kind of what we’re going to go into.

43:36
July. July was when the group I was running went down. So it’s been over six months.

43:41
Yeah.

43:42
So there we go. I was

43:44
I was thinking it was like sometime like September timeframe or something like that, but it was before then then then we’re definitely over six months. So I guess we’re going to kind of talk about the current state of the secondary. Me personally, I made I made a prediction on our last of 2019 episodes saying that 2020 was going to be the kind of rebirth of it where a new Facebook groups going to come up this whole thing was just going to fly over like blah blah blah blah, who cares? And so far I’ve been completely wrong that has not come to fruition it is continuing to groups either be shut down, or there’s just new rules and saying like no posting of dollar signs or anything like that, but there has not been a group that has started to break you know, really come up and make a name for itself. at the same exact time bottle spot has suffered a casualty, which was something that I did not see coming which I don’t know I kind of took me by surprise. I don’t know about you all but right now, I would say I would, I would say the current state of the market is if we’re going to go like red yellow green like it’s gonna be in the pink area. right it’s it’s an innocent a no bueno. State still,

45:01
you know, it’s certainly maybe not life support but close to life support, right? It’s nothing’s really popped up. I think two things. One, Facebook got really good about shutting down groups where you saw a bunch pop up right after the secondary, the bugs shut down and they just kept smacking down other ones. I think a little bit of Facebook doing better about patrolling things. I think it was a little bit more of people out there saying, well, Now’s my chance to report everything right. Little bit, a little bit Facebook heroes going on, we’ll call it. But I think it’s a loss. I think it’s lost the community whether or not I mean, I never bought or sold on the secondary. But what I love doing was just seeing the latest trends, what people were really after, right? I love seeing new consumer to consumer supported caeser to a different bourbon. They just decided to get into the week before, but it really showed what people were after and what brands were becoming hot, what brands were pulling down what was coming and what people were really looking forward to. And that’s just gone from just a pure, you know, gamesmanship just a fly on the sidelines watching that’s gone and that’s a shame. You know, and I think it’s also a shame to for everyone who now Bye cases and cases of bourbon they just started get into thinking they flip it easy. Sure. Hope they like drinking it for sure. A lot of parties torn up you

46:09
still got all those diamonds? Yeah,

46:12
I’m good. I do diamonds.

46:16
I don’t think the markets really that much. It’s still there. It’s just more spread out. There’s more places there’s more rules. Let me win one market goes down another one comes back up. It

46:28
it still exists. And you can’t stop it. I mean, it’s not going to exist is the thing and and it’ll, whether it’s Facebook or someone finds another platform or whatever it it’ll exist. I mean, I wish it to Jordan’s point. I wish you could kind of see it from the sidelines, but it’s still going to exist in so

46:50
I think

46:50
it actually has been affected way more. You know, I’m kind of with Kenny where it stopped and slow down way more than I thought it would you know, I thought it would always exist. Didn’t it does to an extent, but it definitely took a big hit. You know, I think just the fact that all these massive groups were shut down. I don’t know if there’s a group that is in the, you know, is their group in the six? Well, not in the six figures in the five figures or, or even 10,000 plus members that hasn’t been shut down? Probably not. So, you know, it definitely takes a big hit. Now, it’s like, you have all these, you know, people just selling well or 12 or bottles that really shouldn’t be sold. nobody’s doing that as much anymore because it’s not open. It’s not as big of market so all in all, I think it was a pretty surprising change and how it all went down. So I still think it’s a detriment to the bourbon world because whether you love it or hate it, that was a big part of just watching, you know, what was getting sold, what were the trends, you know, older bottles, and Yeah, it was just kind of fun to see that stuff be sold. You know, I’m kind of with Jordan like I didn’t participate, but I liked seeing that what was going on so a little disappointing.

48:11
I guess. I’ll go ahead Carrie. Sorry.

48:14
No, no, no, go ahead and do that.

48:16
Okay, okay.

48:18
We need our Ryan Come on.

48:19
I know we didn’t need more Ryan.

48:21
I’m talking about the secondary market I’m kind of relieved about it because like, I’m not doing like mega balls and all this crazy like, gambling and stuff like in trying to like, but it’s also because it is a bummer like you used to you know, that was my night like scrolling through seeing what people are buying what they’re selling what they’re going for. I do love the yard sale stuff. Oh my god, it cracks me up like that keeps me entertained. But uh, yeah, I think it’s, you know, I’m indifferent about if it’s detrimental to bourbon. I mean, it’s detrimental to us. But as a I think bourbon is just like we were talking about earlier we forget about the common consumer and they have no idea that’s exist. Still. It doesn’t affect them. It’s still growing. Besides that, but I do think some brands like really valued from the secondary market Buffalo Trace being one of them, I’m not really sure that they would be what they were without it, and I don’t and there’s brands like old Scout, there’s no way they would be anything without the secondary market Vlogbrothers all these MGP brands, nobody would have gave us, you know, two flips about them if there wasn’t a secondary market out there. And so, I think it it does hurt us but I think people got in it early enough to where they got educated about brands that they didn’t know existed and now it does suck for the people that bought bottles, but I don’t know do you think like so? I’m gonna give a shout out to my boy Guthrie at toddies. I know he’s listening in but do you think like liquor stores that can sell that stuff now? Does that help them? You know, with pricing or does it hurt pricing?

49:52
Well, I think in my opinion, this is this has become a basically a guessing game right? Somebody says, Oh, I got this bottle what’s it worth? I mean Blake we had this conversation the other day he came across some some pre pros and he was like, Hey, what is this worth? I were like shit I don’t know we don’t have a database there’s no there’s no information and so it’s like there’s no way that we can really like pin a price down any of this stuff anymore. You know, and thankfully the is the even though I mean I think the bottle blue books still there because it’s ran by some of our really really good friends of the show as well. But that might be the only indication of the value of the anything that’s even out there in the market anymore. And even at that is still like it’s a varied range, right? Like a each Taylor tornadoes anywhere from like 1300 or 2000. Like that’s that’s an all over the place, in my opinion.

50:46
Yeah, but if you look at it’s still what’s what blows my mind is that if you look at Pappy 15 despite everything that has happened to all the markets, it’s established value is still the exact same as it was before all of the markets crashed. hasn’t changed. It’s still the exact same.

51:02
Again, I think that’ll be

51:04
better too though. That’s the one you can talk to anyone who knows nothing about bourbon but they might know they might not even know a bourbon is but they know that Pappy is a whiskey and that they want it. Right. It’s just something that people want that they can’t have bottom line.

51:16
Well, I think that’s where I think you have like your your solid, you know, cornerstones of the bourbon bourbon secondary that won’t change, you know, antique collections never going to change. mixers are going to change.

51:30
You know, where 17 changed a lot.

51:33
Well, yeah, no, no, I’m saying that they’re, they’re always going to have that secondary market. But I think it’s the lower ones. You know, it’s the Weller, twelves it’s the victors 10 years, it’s, it’s those that will just kind of say, Go away, and maybe that’s a good thing. Maybe that just means that more available. Market is more available, so

51:51
means you can go to the store and actually find it.

51:54
Not unlovable. I

51:56
think I still can’t find it here.

51:58
Well, I think we still have a lot time until that goes into, you know, into Karis point as well, there are still smaller sex where this is happening, right, like just smaller groups and just spread around a little bit more. And you can’t be in a mall. And if there’s only 500 people in it and you get a good deal on something, then that’s what it is. And maybe you drink it, and you hold on to it and you find somebody else you try to sell for the same exact price. I don’t know, whatever it is, this is just it’s been basically a collapse of the Empire, if you will. And so now you’ve got all these, these little armies that are trying to I wouldn’t say try to take anything over, but they’re definitely trying to keep something alive.

52:35
And the one point I would agree with Ryan about the part that I think hurts the average everyday person is if you wanted to trade a bottle, you know, used to be easy to kind of figure out values of what you had, and what you wanted and make a very similar kind of trade. You know, you’re staying in the hobby, you’re not trying to make money from your stuff. You’re just trying to trade to try different stuff. And I think from that aspect, the limited secondary market definitely makes it harder to do that to reinvest in your hobby?

53:02
So I think that is that is one drawback of it.

53:05
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, miss those trades.

53:08
Yeah. Well, that’s, that’s for sure. But so there is also another thing that I kinda want to bring up and this was a an article that Chuck Cowdery actually had written I think, Jordan or Blake, whatever kind of took me on to this as well, because I know I read it. However, you know, this was this was Chuck’s sort of summary is that saying that really the the secondary market doesn’t matter. There’s no objection to it or anything like that. He’s just saying that basically, all it’s really doing is just helping out a small limited subset of brands. But if you want to just go find larceny or anything else, then it’s really not a big deal. And so, really, if you wanted something that you want to find good to drink, there’s plenty of stuff on the shelves. But if you want to go ahead and play that game of what it takes to get there, then you know To find these limited bottles, then you get to play that game.

54:04
So I I’ll chime in cuz I think we might have thrown that out there. I appreciate. I appreciate Chuck having his own viewpoint, right. But what I found ironic about that article is Chuck said, that’s a setup for like, you’re a moron.

54:20
Don’t say it, I will.

54:23
But here’s, here’s what I found super ironic about that article. You know, he says it doesn’t impact but a small few brands and he lists out a bunch, right? And then he’s like, but there’s other good bourbon and drinks such as this that you know, they’re good weed and Bourbons or stuff like this. And he lists larceny and other things. And you know what? I think that takes into account what Chuck may like, right? He might think is good, but there are truly people out there who’ve been drinking Blanton’s for 20 years or Waller you know, well, there used to be my house bourbon, I would buy a case at a time, right? Just to make cocktails or throw parties and put it out just regular Weller and now I can’t find it and that’s a shame. Right? And you know what, I liked it that bourbon. I know other people out there like plans They weren’t selling or flipping and they just like to drink right? So the people who truly like to drink the brands now the secondary market didn’t make a big difference right? And I’m glad that Chuck things you know, there’s other Bourbons that might replace it but for some folks they don’t get replaced even drinking the same brand for 20 years and it did impact them in a big way. So again, I respect Chuck having that opinion Dr. Ruth unknown now one debt whatsoever, but you know, it’s he threw it out there so I’m gonna throw back and say, you know, it’s that’s a false that’s a fallacy.

55:26
Well and the other reason he’s wrong as he points out Rittenhouse is you know, why would Rittenhouse be $11 a few years ago and why is that gone up? It’s because with bourbon all all ships are rising when you when you increase the ceiling on what people will pay for a bourbon that is popular or the people want to get that gives you room to raise the price of the lower ones and that’s why we don’t have heaven Hill six year bottled and bond anymore. I mean, it just doesn’t make sense to have that anymore. When a distillery can make so much money, so much more money on it or so much more money from Rittenhouse it’s it all rises. And that’s that is a direct relationship to the secondary market.

56:11
I was gonna say we do still have it, we just have it at 30 bucks more, right?

56:15
Well, that’s right. It’s there. But it’s it’s because it’s it’s you’ve got secondary market that has increased demand. And it has increased ceiling of what people are now willing to pay. I mean, 10 years ago, I could get seven different Bourbons for about $25 that were fantastic that are now all over $100 on the secondary market and you can’t find at least in lieu of on the shelves.

56:41
Yeah, speaking of that marketing, heaven Hill, bottle and bond six here. Yeah, got a new label. And now you can’t find it on shelves anywhere. That’s right.

56:51
Man, that’s because of the secondary markets a direct relationship. That’s where I think it

56:55
I think, where we probably we undersell You know, the the vast majority of the market a little bit with with not bringing them into some of the decisions that we’re talking about. But with this, I feel like there is a small percentage driving the market and prices and distilleries are looking like that. We have countless examples of them looking at the secondary, and bumping prices up to that. And you’re, you’re trying to tell me that that doesn’t drive a lot of like these rebrand names we’re talking about and all this other stuff, like there’s no way like, that’s exactly what’s behind it. Because ultimately, for a lot of us, this is fun. We enjoy it’s exciting. But these are businesses they’re trying to make the most money they possibly can. So, you know, I, I would have to disagree with Chuck on this one to say, No, you’re kind of missing the point that while the the rudder may be a small part of the ship, it’s still what steer it.

57:57
Right that metaphor down, say that one over and write

57:59
it They’re very true.

58:07
Yeah, so

58:08
I’m gonna leave it at that.

58:12
No, I think that’s those are all really good opinions because I and I tend to agree with the group here that I really wish that it was still around only because of for that sake of either seeing trends and everything like that the other side of it actually going away is I feel like I have a lot more time on my hands I feel like I can scroll through Facebook I I find myself getting into like high end watch groups now instead of like that’s on my feed, and then somehow also joined like a hype group. And so there’s like all kinds of like shoes that are coming on. I’m not a sneaker I’m not a sneaker person at all, however,

58:45
and this is

58:46
all kind of I’ll bring this up because I find this fascinating, right? Like, we talked about flippers and everything like that, and how they’re the scum of the earth and Battleblock in in the shoe world. It’s like hey, that’s just par for the course man. Yep,

58:58
yeah. Ended amazing. A world where it’s par for the course. I hate

59:03
to promote another podcast on this podcast but go listen to the it’s a podcast called business of hype and it’s the guy Jeff staples who’s like, big into the streetwear world and in the it’s produced by hypebeast. But then you start to realize like, oh, like we’re not doing anything new. This is in so many other like industries and like small niche communities and like the bourbon secondary market isn’t something new. But But yeah, it’s, it’s crazy. If you look at all that stuff, especially with sneakers, like there’s a whole other world there’s like stock x which tracks the price of them and all this other stuff and like we’re actually a little bit behind in the perfect world. And when you look at some of these other industries, so

59:49
so Kenny you looking at like vintage 40s Chuck Taylors or something.

59:56
No, no, just these like crazy like I like Yeezys and Please, like, I don’t know, like pale pink Jordans that came out I don’t really know what they are but it blows my mind where everybody’s just like I’ll I’ll pay 350 for any pair you want in any size. I’m like,

1:00:11
What are you gonna do with the size five and a half of

1:00:13
kale Jordans and

1:00:16
that was money I guess

1:00:18
I guess there’s a market for everything but that’s that’s definitely a world that I don’t know much about but hey, it’s at least that’s it’s just it fascinates me that that is one world where you know flipping is just that’s just par for the course like that’s just the nature of the game. And people are okay with it. And there’s there’s two guys that are like these guys paid $1,000 for a bottle of bourbon.

1:00:44
Once they opened it, it was worthless.

1:00:46
masses. econ one on one it’s supply and demand. You know it’s

1:00:51
good. You can’t rewear bourbon multiple play. You can resell

1:00:53
shoes. You wear them

1:00:59
well Uh, I think that hit on some good topics tonight. So with that, let’s go ahead and we’ll we’ll wrap it up. So fellas, I want to say thank you again for coming on the show tonight because we had a we had three topics but we spent a good amount of time and kind of hitting a few different things here. So was fantastic to, to kind of kind of look about that and I see a lot of things coming in the chat here. They’re talking about like, I came from the sneaker game, you know, like, I used to collect sneakers, so it’s it’s fun to see that these are these worlds are always kind of coinciding maybe when one thing’s hot, you kind of go to gravitate to one thing but before we wrap it up real quick

1:01:32
cuz Yeah, cuz Carrie’s not writing anymore. So Carrie, what’s your what’s your latest bourbon trend? Where are you into since no one’s heard from you and forever.

1:01:42
I like drinking. I’m

1:01:45
a fitness guru. Some guy said it looked like a moose. So I’m just gonna go. You know. Life is a is a lot of family right now. It’s kids. It’s family. It’s friends. It’s Enjoying bourbon it’s I’ve listened to you guys and your podcasts and check out your websites and all your stuff so honestly I’m just having fun with life right now and when I can I’ll write something and I’m on Twitter and Instagram when I can but you know just it’s it’s nice to just step back and spend a lot of time with the family and all that good stuff and also I didn’t get to mention but you know, I met you guys in person in September for bourbon and beyond it was it was a really cool experience. You guys are as cool in person. Most of you are as No, I’m kidding. It was it was a lot of fun getting to meet you guys and have fun with you guys in real life. So I appreciate you bringing me back on tonight.

1:02:41
Absolutely. Love your brother. For sure for sure. All right, well, Kerry got you got your your farewell there Brian or Jordan gonna go next. Jordan.

1:02:52
This is so once again wrapping up. Thanks again for having us. Jordan, one of the three guys from breaking bourbon. You can find us on all the socials at breaking bourbon. Of course breaking bourbon com Check us out for our near daily updated bottle Release Calendar

1:03:05
Alright my turn Yeah, I’m gonna give I’m gonna give a shout out because this is this is part of what it’s really all about I mean internet friends right that’s that’s why we’re here and hopefully I don’t get in trouble for covering up the microphone there but that’s that’s a great pic guys really been enjoying it tonight Brian from sip and corn you can find me on the socials that sipping corn si PP apostrophe n c o r n and also bourbon justice.com

1:03:34
Thanks guys. Brian LinkedIn send me a picture or if you can get

1:03:40
the sticker email he

1:03:45
should get you a sticker

1:03:47
bottle you guys have my glad you guys are enjoying that.

1:03:54
Your bottles coming Carrie Oh good. You

1:03:57
like that what someone you were gonna get me that never came Something else some sort of kick. You did not send me the new riff that everybody was moaning about on the show. I’m still looking for my new riff to like

1:04:09
your Oh yes.

1:04:15
All right, is it on me?

1:04:16
Yes Sure is. Yes. Save your seal box career right now knocking

1:04:21
over people actually pay that. No,

1:04:26
I’m Blake from bourbon are always fun to be on here. Carrie great to have you back Always. Always a good time and yes check me out on social media is Bo you are Bo in our calm and as well as CEO box calm if you’re interested in some of these bottles that these guys are talking about. It will get them to you a lot faster than we have gotten them to some of them so that box se LBA ch s. Thanks for having me guys.

1:04:54
Absolutely. Always love having you guys on. It’s always a one of the best attended roundtables. I think We’re up to like 120 something people this time so fantastic yeah

1:05:06
and I call it the carry

1:05:07
effect

1:05:10
everybody in cashiers North Carolina is tuning in man all three

1:05:13
of us down here I have everybody upstairs tuned in I turned on like eight devices and just signed to give you smores if you’re watching

1:05:23
awesome well thank you again everybody for for joining make sure you follow all these guys and social media follow us as well. bourbon. Sorry, yeah bourbon pursuit Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and tick tock, you’ll find us on Tick Tock is we’re trying new ways of marketing. I know you all hate it. It’s so much fun. Just get on there. Yeah, we’re not doing renegades right now. We’ll do that later. But anyway, again, thank you all for coming in. And thank you for everybody that was sitting here joining the chat live asking questions, being a part of it. Being communicative and responsive and actually, you know, having a lot of good playful banter back and forth in the chat, too. Always great to see that happening. And if you liked the show you want to support us patreon.com slash

1:06:05
bourbon pursuit.

1:06:06
With that. Thank you, everybody, and we’ll see you all next week.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

The post 241 – Celebrities in Bourbon and the Current State of the Secondary on Bourbon Community Roundtable #41 appeared first on BOURBON PURSUIT.

Source: Bourbon Pursuit

SIGN UP TO
FRED'S NEWSLETTER

FOR UPDATES, EXCLUSIVE CONTENT AND MORE!