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Second Distillery bought by company outside USA

Posted: Wed Apr 19, 2017 9:00 am
by Bushman
Not sure if this is a good thing or bad but this is the second distillery this year that I know of bought by a larger distillery group outside the USA.
https://www.thespiritsbusiness.com/2017 ... n-spirits/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

Re: Second Distillery bought by company outside USA

Posted: Thu Apr 20, 2017 3:14 am
by bilgriss
I noticed that too. Actually, I had just purchased a bottle of Monkey Shoulder, which is a reasonably priced, blended Scotch from William Grant that tastes like a single malt, and was looking up reviews. It's good. Came across that link right away.

I don't know whether it's good or bad. Just inevitable that the bigger boys get involved in craft movements and start getting involved to not lose market share. What's bad is when whole markets get gobbled up and consolidation leads to uniformity. We're a long way from that right now, but I can't predict the future for sure.

Re: Second Distillery bought by company outside USA

Posted: Thu Apr 20, 2017 7:35 am
by amdamgraham
I'm guessing you are referring to Westland distillery in Seattle as the first one that got bought by Remy Cointreau? If there is another one, please advise. I am not really a fan of Hudson, their product is expensive for what it is but they definitely have the marketing craft-mystique thing nailed like Westland. Though I give more credit to Westland because they really did effectively launch the American Single Malt class of whiskey. I'm sure there are others but Westland really anchored it. I was recently in NY and bought Widow Jane which is Kentucky whiskey blended down to 90 proof with water from the Widow Jane limestone well, so not truly a New York whiskey but you can definitely taste the limestone in the product and it's good. Also picked up a bottle of Breukelen Wheat whiskey (90 proof), quite sweet but so dramatically different from my usual straight corn/bourbon purchases that it's a welcome diversion and then lastly Kings County bourbon (90 proof) which is also expensive but good quality for a small distiller. These small distiller products often taste "green" to me. I think it's the smaller barrels they use in the rush to market. I use itsy-bitsy barrels in my own corn whiskey so maybe that just makes me a bit jealous that someone else is making a living at it! (though I know lots of distilling operations are run by people with other primary employment).

Re: Second Distillery bought by company outside USA

Posted: Thu Apr 20, 2017 10:26 am
by Bushman
amdamgraham wrote:I'm guessing you are referring to Westland distillery in Seattle as the first one that got bought by Remy Cointreau? If there is another one, please advise. I am not really a fan of Hudson, their product is expensive for what it is but they definitely have the marketing craft-mystique thing nailed like Westland. Though I give more credit to Westland because they really did effectively launch the American Single Malt class of whiskey. I'm sure there are others but Westland really anchored it. I was recently in NY and bought Widow Jane which is Kentucky whiskey blended down to 90 proof with water from the Widow Jane limestone well, so not truly a New York whiskey but you can definitely taste the limestone in the product and it's good. Also picked up a bottle of Breukelen Wheat whiskey (90 proof), quite sweet but so dramatically different from my usual straight corn/bourbon purchases that it's a welcome diversion and then lastly Kings County bourbon (90 proof) which is also expensive but good quality for a small distiller. These small distiller products often taste "green" to me. I think it's the smaller barrels they use in the rush to market. I use itsy-bitsy barrels in my own corn whiskey so maybe that just makes me a bit jealous that someone else is making a living at it! (though I know lots of distilling operations are run by people with other primary employment).
Yes, Westland was the one I was thinking of as it is closer to my home.

Re: Second Distillery bought by company outside USA

Posted: Thu Apr 20, 2017 10:57 am
by Jimbo
Lets not forget the biggie, Suntory bought Beam. All your favorite Beam products (Bookers, Bakers, bla bla) are turning Japanese I think theyre turning Japanese I really think so....

Diageo owns Bulliet, IW Harper, George Dickel

Im sure there's others. Cant say I blame them for selling. If Windy and I are ever blessed to get our gig spun into something big enough to catch the biggies attention, well, everythings for sale for the right price right? Take the cash and start another :) Maybe in a better state, Like Colorado or something.

Re: Second Distillery bought by company outside USA

Posted: Sat Apr 22, 2017 5:53 am
by Bushman
I am sitting here this morning watching CNN, the guest is the owner of Samuel Adams beer and the fact that a lot of the craft breweries are being bought by bigger out fits. He is a large brewery but still considers himself a fraction of the size of the real big ones and probably the largest of what he calls craft brewer. He doesn't like current legislation that is happening and would like to see disclosure. His comment was that if you like the beer drink it but if you think your supporting the small guy (important to me as they are the ones pushing to some degree legalization) and that's important to you then there should be disclosure on the bottle/can.

Re: Second Distillery bought by company outside USA

Posted: Sat Apr 22, 2017 7:00 am
by HDNB
I wonder if these jurisdictions offer favourable taxation to the small guy? It certainly makes a purchase attractive to a larger company.

In Alberta craft beer brewers get a "rebate" of all the sin tax on the first x number of hecto litres, and then scales up until you get to some huge amount like 300,000 hectolitres (30 million litre by my math) when you end up paying full sin tax... like on bud lite for example.

it does help grassroots gain a toehold in an otherwise monopolized alcohol economy...but the sheer enormity of the tax break is beyond some/most? craft brewers to take advantage of the whole break.

They have announced a similar program here for craft distillers to keep the whole booze marketplace more level.

It makes a lot of sense (and dollars) when you consider most of the large corporations in the likker industry are from the other side of the globe. the local economy misses out on the cap ex, labour pool, raw commodity usage and ROI. For the tree huggers it reduces carbon footprint and for the protectionists you get to support the local economy. Investors can put the money into their own city/province/country.

I can see the big monopoly players finding a way to make these tax breaks work for them, re-branding bud lite as joes crafts suds could be a profitable opportunity perhaps. Maybe more so in the "condensed beer" category.

Re: Second Distillery bought by company outside USA

Posted: Sat Apr 22, 2017 4:18 pm
by cob
they claim to have been bought by a small family operation,

and they raised the price of their used barrels.

Re: Second Distillery bought by company outside USA

Posted: Fri Apr 28, 2017 11:16 am
by moonshiner dave
The distillery closest to me recently had a majority stake purchased. I really like their Old Scout Single Barrel and their gin. Unfortunately, they've discontinued their gin and the Single Barrel is very had to find.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-smoot ... SKBN13Y1B7" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow