Not Another Whisky Blog

No-Post November

Going the entire month of November without putting up a post only proves that I wasn’t kidding when I wrote on my homepage that posts won’t be regular. Higher priorities, obligations, and life happenings have distracted me from the blog, but I’ve still been writing. A recent essay I wrote had me briefly delve into a topic that I’ve been wanting to post about: allocated whiskies. This short write-up on the subject is not nearly as deep and transparent as I plan to go, but serves as a nice preliminary introduction.

This is only a short excerpt from a larger piece, but I hope that if you can follow along then the people critiquing the entire essay won’t think I’m complete idiot. Let me know your thoughts.

Every leader has something they harp on; a tagline or an ethos that they hope to impart on their organization. I had a commander who would say: “relationships matter.” Vague, but he followed up by example. He would show us how a warm relationship with the dreaded Range Control (the bureaucratic organization that controlled all training on post) opened doors for more frequent and flexible training opportunities. Relationships with upper tier special operations units led to more desirable mission sets and exclusive training. Most importantly, open and trusting relationships with peers within our unit led to better cohesion, communication, and deconfliction on the battlefield.

This lesson has carried me through the years. In the whiskey industry, relationships matter. As an independent shop, I do not have the buying power, nor do I move the same volume as the big box liquor stores. Often, it is the relationships I build with my importers, suppliers, and distributors that help me stand out to the supply side of my business and give me an advantage in a saturated market.

Bourbon whiskey is a great specific example. The market for bourbon is currently red hot, with an insatiable demand for rare and collectible bottles. We refer to these as “allocated items.” Due to the laws of supply and demand, there is simply not enough for everyone to get as much as they’d like. Distributors manually allocate individual quantities to each account (retailers and restaurants). Sometimes, quantities are so limited on a particular item that accounts are lucky to receive just one bottle for the entire year. Unfortunately, the most common and fair way that distributors rank allocations is based on how much volume an account moves on other brands within that company’s portfolio of spirits. This is challenging for a small shop like mine, as I will never move the amount of inventory that Total Wine and Costco can. The way I stay competitive and still receive my fair share of allocated items is through the relationships I cultivate. My suppliers know my passion for whiskey. They know how I engage with my customers. They know that collectors and connoisseurs flock to my shop as a destination. Most importantly, they know I’m capable of handselling unique and obscure labels. Big box stores will always be very good at moving through entire pallets of whiskey at approachable price points: Jameson, Jack Daniel’s, etc. But what they typically don’t sell much of are the small independent producers, or the premium-aged single cask bottles that real whiskey geeks are after. I enjoy educating myself on these unique expressions, which helps me make recommendations to customers. In turn, distributors appreciate that I tap into the deeper parts of their inventory portfolios, and in the end, more than my “fair share” of allocated bottles arrive in my deliveries.