I regularly have the conversation about bringing a new product to the Las Vegas market and can I help them. The best advice I could give anyone for years was to skip Las Vegas and Nevada and go straight to Colorado. That may not be the advice I give soon. In 2016 Colorado passed Senate Bill 197. Since prohibition, Colorado only allowed one full-strength alcohol license per licensee, which effectively kept any local chains like Twins and Spec’s that dominate the Texas landscape or the Bevmo’s of California from rising in Colorado and now has barred national competition like Total Wine, and Costco from entering the market. Senate Bill 197 now allows one operator to hold as many as 19 licenses and Costco and at least one local liquor store have started buying up licences and I am truly saddened.
For decades, the best place to bring a brand to market was Colorado specifically because it was a one owner one license state. The license situation was responsible for the early traction of the craft beer and spirit industry in Colorado. Sales are all about “no”s. It takes a lot of “no”s to hear a yes, and the old law created a lot of license holders that were potential customers. As more licenses are collected into fewer hands, the entry points to markets shrink and some entry points leave the state to corporate headquarters in other states. This creates less hospitable market overall for craft brands and real innovation. The one silver lining is generations of residents of Colorado have grown up embracing the artisans of the alcohol industry and that shows no sign of ending.
Dr. Bill Lumsden has been on quite a run. Named Master Distiller of the year for 2016 by the International Whisky Competition on the strength of the magnificent Glenmorangie Signet (97 points) and he repeated again in 2017 by winning whisky of the year for his Ardbeg Kelpie Committee Exclusive. It is an amazing feat to blend incredible unpeated whisky as well as deliciously balanced heavily peated whisky. His whiskies do great credit to the distilleries of both Islay and the Northern Highlands.
Another first for PowerfulThirst.com. Our very first media credentials for an out of state event, WhiskyFest 2015 San Francisco. WhiskyFest is one of my favorite events of the year. They get great speakers and attendees like the Eddie and Jimmy Russell of Wild Turkey and Julian and Preston Van Winkle of Old Rip Van Winkle Distillery. In total there will be 375 whiskies to taste. Unfortunately this year’s event in San Francisco is already sold out. Next year they expand to 4 cities with Washington, D.C. joining, Chicago, New York and San Francisco. Time to start setting the schedule.
With only 4 hours to work the entire tasting area, obviously lots will have to be omitted especially when their are seminars going on simultaneously. Monday will be lots of phone calls to see if there are going to be any opportunities to catch up with the Whisky producers as they work the market on Thursday or Friday before the show. This will be my fifth time going up and it really is a great event. Everyone you want to meet in the whisky business in one room but it is absolutely running. Looking forward to a busy week of prep and tasting.
Below is an example of the dilemmas that face everyone at these events. The VIP portion is just one hour. Below is a list of 54 VIP only whiskies. Now I am good but one a minute no way, so I need to narrow it down with your help. Take a look at the list of the 54 VIP Whisky and give me up to four whiskies that you would most like to try. In the contact form give me the numbers from the right column that identify which whisky and I will include the most popular selections.
