PARTICULARLY DURING THE HOLIDAY SELLING SEASON,
SUPERPREMIUM SPIRITS ARE DRIVERS ARE OVERALL PROFITS.
HERE'S A SHORT GUIDE ON HOW TO INCREASE THOSE SALES.
By Robert Plotkin
O
ffering your clientele a fresh array of
spirits on your shelves encourages experimentation and is a proven tactic for bolstering sales. It is especially true now.
There are more handmade, so-called
boutique spirits on the market from which to choose—
products such as organic tequilas, single barrel
whiskeys, pot-distilled vodkas, fresh-pressed rums and
small batch gins. As far as the superpremium spirits are
concerned, these are the best of times.
What is it that distinguishes these hip, artisanal spirits from their more pedestrian counterparts? The fact of
the matter is that not all spirits are created equally. Small
differences in how they're made often have a huge impact
on what inside the bottle. There are six quality factors
that you should know about when you're evaluating any
spirit. Knowing how these factors ultimately affect the
finished product can benefit your selling efforts.
StateWays I www.stateways.com I November/December 2013
• Base Ingredients. As is true for beer and wine,
using high-grade raw ingredients in production goes a
long way to ensuring the highest quality finished product. Distillers today have embraced this self-evident
truth. High-end spirits are often made from locally cultivated grains, potatoes, sugar cane and vine-ripened
varietal grapes. Increasingly, more tequilas are being
produced from organic blue agaves and gins from
indigenous juniper berries, aromatics and botanicals.
Certainly, relying on premium raw ingredients is more
expensive. The same is true about going to your local
food co-op and buying organic products. The decisionmaking process is the same. So step one, find out what
ROBERT PLOTKIN is a judge at the San Francisco
World Spirits Competition and author of 16 books on
bartending and beverage management including Secrets
Revealed of America's Greatest Cocktails. He can be
reached at www.AmericanCocktails.com or by e-mail at
robert@barmedia.com.
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