Today’s podcast, as you guessed it, is a reflection on what’s been happening with COVID-19. The whiskey industry is going to see some big changes. We’ve seen legislation pass as it relates to shipping and delivery of alcohol because it’s deemed an essential part of living and our culture. How long will this trend stick around and will we see this continue when the pandemic is over? Do you want to see more relaxed liquor laws? Lets hear it in the comments.

Show Notes:

• This week’s Above the Char with Fred Minnick talks about grains.
• Lots has changed since our last roundtable with COVID-19.
• Are people actually drinking more? Or are they just hoarding?
• Is distribution down with distilleries producing hand sanitizer?
• Will COVID-19 change consumer demand indefinitely with services for shipping and delivery?
• KY HB415 has passed. What could this mean for the greater United States?
• Should these large corporations that have donated 50k, 500k, or 1M be donating more? Billions in revenue vs a small donation amount in comparison.
• When this is all over, what’s the best thing that will come out of COVID-19?

Transcription:

0:00
Are you interested in preparing your expertise on the distilling process with key business knowledge such as finance, marketing and operations, then you need to check out the distilled spirits business certificate from the University of Louisville. It’s an online program that can be completed in as little as six courses. The program is taught by both UVL business faculty and corporate fellows. So you are getting real experience from experts at the most renowned distilleries, companies and startups in the distilling industry. We’re talking leaders from Brown Forman beam Suntory, jack daniels and more. get enrolled to this online program at U of l.me. Slash bourbon pursuit. So your meetings of the day are Andy, Donald Trump.

0:46
No wonder you drink Jesus.

1:01
This is Episode 249 of bourbon pursuit. And it’s another week stuck at home. I don’t know about you, but we’re party hopping. We’re going from the living room to the dining room, the kitchen, all just looking for some entertainment. And as you can guess the industry news has also been pretty slow. So you’re in luck. We’ve got a short intro this week. We all know that restaurants and bars are feeling the pain right now. So one man in Tampa, Florida stepped up with a $40,000 cashier’s check to purchase a bottle of the old Rip Van Winkle 25 year decanter that was listed for $20,000 to help save debts one of his favorite restaurants in the area. This bottle was only one of 710 that was released back in 2017. That had an MSRP of around 1800 dollars. In bourbon pursuit news. Our jack daniels barrel proof single barrel went on sale this week. And then it’s sold out. Because of COVID-19. We’ve had to delete three of our barrel selections this year, and we’re hoping we will have to reschedule anymore but I hope everyone can

2:00
Be grateful that we’ve got ourselves a few good bottles that get us through this process. And if you want to see all the barrel selections that we have scheduled, and the ones that we have for the rest of the year, go to patreon.com. Slash bourbon pursuit. During this time when you’re hanging out with family or friends on zoom, they might be seeing you there sipping a bourbon neat. While they’ve got a cold, refreshing beer in their hands. Ask if they want to try some of your bourbon, fill up a sample bottle or to walk it over, drop it in their driveway, put it in their mailbox, take this opportunity to spread the good word of bourbon. And since they’re stuck at home, tell them to check out your favorite bourbon podcast so they can binge and catch up as well. You’d be doing both of us a favor, and we’d really appreciate it. As you know, we’re pushing out more content on live streams. So make sure that you’re following our social media handles. And you may have even seen some bonus episodes this past week as well. Remember to subscribe to the podcast and make sure that you never miss those bonus episodes. today’s podcast as you guessed it is a reflection on what’s been happening with the Coronavirus

3:00
The whiskey industry is going to see some big changes. Because of this. We’ve seen an insurmountable push for legislation. And that’s been passed because reflects the shipping and delivery of alcohol because it’s now deemed an essential part of living in our culture. But how long will this trend stick around? Can we continue to see this as the pandemic is over? Hopefully, we get to see more relaxed laws continue to happen. And if you want to see more relax laws and what you’d like to see changed, let’s hear it in the comments. Once again, enjoy this time inside with your family. Have a nice pour bourbon, and now you get to hear Joe from barrel bourbon. And then you’ve got Fred minich, with above the char.

3:39
I’m Joe Beatrice, founder of barrel craft spirits. Our Bourbons have won a few medals, some of the most prestigious spirits competitions out there, but don’t take their word for it. Find out for yourself. Use the store locator at barrel bourbon calm.

3:53
I’m Fred MiniK, and this is above the charm. This week’s idea comes from an old email

4:00
Keith Norton wrote on March 3, sorry for the delay Keith wanted to know, what’s the difference between bourbon rye bourbon, and a weighted bourbon from a taste perspective? is one sweeter than another? does one have a multi flavor? And, yeah, happy to approach that. It’s actually a good good chunk of that information in my book bourbon curious that you can go to and it’s a pretty good guide. Look, when it comes to breaking down the flavors of all whiskies, not just bourbon, but scotches. There’s so much that goes into it. The mash bill is something that we tend to get

4:42
connected to because we understand it, we really start formulating thoughts about how one profile is different when in fact, a weeded bourbon has is historically going in at lower barrel entry proofs and I would argue that hey, maybe it’s

5:00
Not the wheat that’s causing it to have that real velvety structure and the deep caramel notes. Maybe it’s the barrel entry proof. And then you have

5:10
the high rye Bourbons that tend to be extraordinarily spicy. I’ve had some of late that tend to be more floral than spicy. And where does that come from? Why it’s a matter of fact, the yeast, but talking about the yeast is not necessarily as sexy as as the grain. Now there are definitely those that are more malt forward and heaven Hill is a kind of a like a classic example for me that they tend to a lot of their whiskies will have like a caramel malt flavor to it. Now where’s that coming from? ag could very well be their distillation technique or the the way the barrels raging. But when it comes down to it, you do have some generalizations to how these whiskies will taste in nine times out of 10 the higher the right content, the more spicy

6:00
You will find okay so I’m talking about like pepper, cinnamon, cardamom all these like baking spices that you would like have in your your baking spice rack, you know you’ll find a lot more of those and the higher right Bourbons, you’ll also tend to find like a nugget of herbs from time to time. Now the weeded Bourbons will they tend to be a just a touch sweeter, just a touch softer and they don’t have that same kind of vibrant finish on kind of a generalization. Now you give me a William LaRue Weller from the Buffalo Trace antique collection and you’re gonna get your socks knocked off, you know, so I mean, it varies but Maker’s Mark which is kind of like the everyday standard, you know, we did bourbon, you know, four or five years old we did. recipe, you know, a lot of people will taste that and says it’s very wood forward has nothing to do with a wheat

7:00
So more more of the things that we taste in a nose out of whiskies, you know, grains only probably make up 20 to 30% of, of the, of the flavor. Most of it’s coming from the barrel and the techniques, if you were really you need to lump the grains into like the fermentation techniques. So if you put that if you put the grains in the same kind of like soup as the fermentation and the yeast, you know, then I think that that 20 to 30% goes up to about 40% it’s all about who you talk to, and you know what distillery prioritizes? How, you know how they make it. So is the grain important? Oh, God, absolutely. It all starts with the grain. But is it the end all be all for the taste and flavor that you get? No. But it sure is fun to talk about and it’s easy to understand. So that’s the

8:00
This week’s above the char Hey, if you have an idea for above the char like Keith, why don’t you write me an email you can go to my website Fred minik.com that’s Fred minich comm click that contact button, and at the very least, maybe we can start a conversation about good bourbon. Until next week. Cheers

8:21
Welcome back to another episode of bourbon pursuit the official podcast of bourbon. This is the 43rd recording of the I know that sounds like a question. It is the 43rd recording of the bourbon Community Roundtable actually to have the second guess myself because it’s so many times but Fred Ryan, good to see you all again on this glorious quarantine evening. How are you all? Great. I feel like I see you all more on quarantine virtually in real life.

8:51
No, it’s Oh, it’s always just good to hang out with my with my fellows. It’s good to see you guys. Well, I would say that I’m I’m getting

9:00
Getting a little stir crazy, like I’m ready for this stuff to end. It’s that or I’m also getting to the point now where I have to get on like zoom meetings for my daughter, because she has like virtual soccer practice or like classrooms and stuff. And it’s killing me because I’ve been using zoom for three years now. And I know how to press the damn mute button, and you log on and it’s just chaos. There’s just sound coming from everywhere.

9:26
Well imagine what it’s like to be a teacher. You know, I mean, this whole thing has made me realize that we don’t pay our teachers enough in and whatever we can do to increase their salaries. Let’s do it. Yeah. Yeah, we can pay their salaries.

9:43
Exactly. I’m all about it. I’m all about it. So we’ve got it. We’ve got a good lineup of stuff to talk about tonight. But let’s go ahead, we’ll go around the horn. And you know, because a lot actually changed since we’re here at the Ross roundtable with COVID-19 but I was able to just do the regular introductions.

10:00
So we’ll start off with Blake Blake, just kind of tell people where you blog at. And, you know, if if you know, where do you think or how do you think Carol Baskins actually killed her husband?

10:11
Yeah. So I’m Blake from bourbon er. You probably know me as the Cal Ripken roundtable still undefeated on the roundtable that you know, if you’re undefeated by just showing up that’s how that’s what I kind of W in this in this world. But no, always fun to be here. So thanks again. Yeah, everyone who watched Tiger King, go back and listen to the podcast. I feel like that’s the new debate. It’s like, well, was the movie better? Was the book better? You know, our generations debate was was the podcast better? Or was the documentary better on Netflix? So check that out. Definitely more entertaining. So I’ll go out and check the podcasts. We actually ended up watching last night the the kind of like after, whatever it is with Joel McHale. And so it kind of talked about, it was just like a one hour series of just you know, interviewing pretty much everybody

11:00
Except the tiger king himself, so it was, it was pretty good. Yeah, check that on Netflix if you haven’t yet. Officially on Netflix, I saw everybody complaining on Twitter that Joel was basically just making fun of everyone.

11:14
He made fun of himself too. So, okay, that’s what makes a good host. Yeah, he was also tied in so we me and Joel McHale something in common.

11:26
Yeah, just go ahead and just dm each other on Twitter. Yeah, yeah, but the glory days.

11:33
All right, Jordan, what do you think was did she feed into the Tigers are buried in a septic tank? Oh 100% the Tigers quick, easy. They were hungry. Why not? So this is Jordan from breaking bourbon calm and catch us on the socials at breaking bourbon. Make sure to visit this site for our near daily Release Calendar updates. Awesome. And Brian, what are your thoughts? Do you think Carol did it or you think you think you think maybe she’s she’s clean on this one.

12:00
I mean, you are the wall here. Well, I’m gonna throw you for a loop on this. I haven’t seen it. I don’t have Netflix. I’m also the person who avoided seeing Titanic and Avatar, so I try not to do those things. Yeah, I’m really exciting like that. Yeah.

12:17
Titanic was it because you like you already knew what the end was gonna have. It was well is knew what was gonna happen and it was it people were too far into it. Well, it was too big. I guess I was contrarians on that.

12:29
But I can’t so I can’t. I mean, I know from Twitter what’s going on, but I’m clueless when it comes to it.

12:36
But if so, if you want boring stuff that’s not up to date. Come see Brian here, right. sipping corn mostly on Twitter, sipping corn calm and bourbon justice, calm. Thanks for having me on again, guys. As always, man, always happy to have you here. So I guess the one thing we want to start talking about is because a lot has happened since the last time we talked, I remember it was what three weeks ago

13:00
Go. And it was maybe actually it’s probably four weeks ago things were like just starting to snowball, right? Just a little bit. I know Jordan in Pennsylvania like there was talk of like some things happening but they hadn’t closed down all the liquor stores yet. And now they now they like reopen them up somewhat like online like a hot mess. Yeah. So yeah, so for those at home that don’t know about PA, it’s a state run system. And it’s beyond sloppily managed on a good day, right? Oh,

13:33
they shut down the liquor stores. But before they did that, they announced that they’re gonna shut it down. There is of course, a mad rush and ever ignored social distancing. And they also shut down online delivery. And then they’ve opened up online delivery maybe like a week or two ago, but I have yet to talk to one person who has figured out a way to get in. And it was really funny. So they did an article, like basically saying the came out touting the success of the online liquor.

14:00
Store and how well it’s going right? They basically measured it by saying, Well, on a normal day we get, we processed four orders an hour, but now we’re up to like 50 orders an hour. Right? And you think about that, and that’s an entire state, right. So like any other private business would go out of business long time ago. And somehow pa spins out for a wind. So it’s been a hot mess, the good news, local distilleries around pa or shipping. You know, we’ve seen a lot of uptick in supporting local, which is great. And I’m a huge advocate, especially during this time supporting local for all businesses. So we’ve seen a huge influx of people around the state buying from their local distilleries or trying out new distilleries around the state, which is really nice, but point at the state just dropped the ball on this one. And I guess that kind of goes into really like the first subjects when we look at the way that consumer demand has really changed from COVID-19. I mean, let’s let’s not beat around the bush like we’ve been touting this for a long time. And you know, Blake’s been on the forefront with opening sealed box and trying to get shipping happening in and making that happen.

15:00
And then all of a sudden you see drizzly and instacart and Bart and all these different kind of services like they’re gonna meet like five or six x three annual projections now, and you now are also seeing every single liquor store every single restaurant scrambling to get their, their, their online or basically get their store online. And not only that, I mean, we’ll talk about how 15 Hospital for 15 and a little bit, but I mean, do we see that after this thing starts ending like after it’s over? Are we going to see some of these services start going like back to normal? Or do you think this is this is gonna be the new normal? thing, Pandora’s Box been open when it comes to liquor delivery, that’s for sure. So, you know, other businesses aside, I think consumers now are realizing Well, we should be able to everything else. When we get to our doorstep, we should, you know, be able to get liquor to our doorstep to and the convenience is just there, right. I mean, if you can avoid a trip to the store, they don’t have it in stock, all that stuff. Sure. And I think people are once they once they get used to it. They’re going to continue to

16:00
expect that afterwards and I don’t blame them. And it’s not going to take along the east to this. I mean, if we can get drive up cocktails made ahead of us for the from the restaurant and get that and if we can get curbside service or delivery service from the liquor store. I mean, it’s the trains leaving the station already. I hope that’s I hope this lasts. One thing that I noticed that after after I wrote that Forbes story, and

16:26
I can’t remember what the title was, was something to do with like a pandemic, you know, bring a war between the distillers and wholesalers. I got a lot of feedback from distillers thanking me for this the one thing that I have realized in this in this current state is that the distilleries really really want shipping. I mean, they want they want shipping, probably more than anything that’s out there. And

16:55
you know, they don’t all come out talking about it, but they all really want it

17:00
Because it’s another revenue driver for them. And this has shown that this is where the consumer populace wants to live moving forward because we’re not. I don’t know where when you know, when we’re going to go back to normal. I mean, everyone wants to talk about, you know, when that’s going to be a nobody got a crystal ball, but everybody needs a drink. And that drive thru is nice. That delivery is really freakin nice. And so let’s I want to talk to the guy a little bit that that actually could show us a graph of sales like Blake, what have you seen in regards of like, just your online sales? I mean, have they increased at all? Or is it kind of status quo? It definitely has, um, it’s a little hard because it is a newer company. So like saying that it’s up, you know, 90% over last year’s is a little bit of a, you know, a false sense of what’s actually happening because I don’t have a ton of historical data but in general, you know, you have what they call OMD. So October

18:00
November, December, then it slumps. And we still haven’t seen that slump yet. You know, it’s it’s been jumping right up. And, you know, it’s funny, you can kind of see as some of these states, certain states in particular will, they’ll call for a lockdown, and we’ll see an increase in traffic from those states. So it is a really interesting thing because I think a lot of these government officials are having to think about this for the first time whereas before they just had a lobbyist or whoever was saying, nope, we can’t do that. It’s not safe. And it’s like hold on with all this. It’s like, what Why is this not safe again, like it’s not safe for people to go to a liquor store. So explain to me why it’s not safe for them to have it delivered to their home. So you know, you don’t want to say like something good comes out of this where we get this push through because it is so minor compared to what we’re facing, but it it has a lot of people rethinking it and, you know, just on the steelbook side, we’ve seen a giant increase in in sales and people interested

19:00
from other states that we can’t ship to, and it’s like, hey, why can’t you ship to me in New York? We’re, you know, we’re locked down and I’m like, I’d love to, but your state says we can’t. So.

19:11
Yeah, a fear I have

19:14
is then that they’re going to be so busy trying to rebuild their states and do deal with so much more important issues that’s gonna get put on the back burner even more. And so like, I don’t know, it’s every day It seems like Andy gets at contended our governor gets asked like, so why are liquor stores essential? You know, and like, it’s so you know, there’s still people trying to like prod that there. You know, because we have some inch, we have an interesting demographic in our state. Well, I think I think we might have talked about that last time picking back on that though, Ryan, so I know. Right? And that’s what was surprising for a lot of people in Pennsylvania because there is you know, I’ve read a lot of articles from just doctors and nurses have the same thing as much as we don’t want admit it right like alcohol.

20:00
abuse is a large issue for a large amount of the population and if you don’t give them access to alcohol then they’re the ones clogging up the hospitals oh yeah right no doubt so and but I think that also should show you like it should be eye opening for a lot of people yeah for sure no doubt i mean i i totally agree and this is kind of broke down that barrier like that distributors could say Oh, it’s not safe but now they’re like we need this to keep sales going. So it’s like you know it’s a it’s pretty funny but yeah, I hope it all continues on because I mean, it’s it’s fantastic. We tried the drizzly app and got stuff shipped to our house and now I got all my neighbors doing it for party mark here and like they’re like loving it. It’s it’s pretty sweet.

20:42
You know, there’s a there’s been another wrinkle that’s come up from this and you know, while the the shipping stuff and everything is Come on, I you You always hear me talk about this. But the anti alcohol people have started coming on saying that this is

20:59
they’re looking

21:00
To try and ban alcohol and every single state right now. So they’re they’re taking advantage of this pandemic in a very different way. They’re saying that this is going to lead to more abuse in the homes there’s going to be more domestic abuse, there’s going to be more alcohol related problems, there’s going to be more liver failures and stuff. So they’re taking this as an opportunity to say, hey, look at all these sales, you know, our country we’re going to be hurting from this we need to ban all liquor sales. I mean, that that’s some of the stuff that that’s also going going on right now back door, and I just with legislators, I feel like we should make an amendment to the Constitution then if that’s what it’s gonna be to

21:36
try that.

21:40
Yeah, Brian, you’re not busy, right?

21:43
Let’s do that. Round two. I know there’s a surge in sales, but it’s more of like a stocking up thing. Like I just don’t see it continuing down this path. Like if things kind of slow. Well, I go back open and so like, is this stocking up or have you guys seen those videos of people going on and

22:00
Dog filming their neighbors recycle bins 17 bottles of wine Yeah. And and bourbon bottles all over the place. Yes. I don’t know if it’s stocking up, you know, in full transparency my my consumption is definitely up because I don’t know everyday feels like a Friday and a Saturday kind of so it’s like Alright, well it is five o’clock I can go ahead and have a drink and then some days like alright, it’s three o’clock I’m not doing anything the rest of the day. You know, I’m not getting drunk or hammered any of the times, but it’s definitely more than I normally would during the week.

22:37
So you know that that adds up over time. Yeah. Oh, yeah. My consumptions way up it actually yesterday. I was like, I’m taking a day off yesterday. Yeah, fires me. And I still haven’t had a drink yet. And I’m like, I was like, I haven’t not drank ever since since it started it. You know, I would usually drink take like three or four days off a week. But now it’s like you

23:00
You just do 234 every night because you get off at five o’clock with Andy. And then he cut in President Trump’s lawn and then you have dinner.

23:08
And then you put your you have dinner with your kids and you turn on a movie, then you have more drinks. And then next thing you know you’re in bed and you wake up, repeat. So so your meetings of the day are Andy, Donald Trump.

23:24
No wonder you, Dre. Jeez.

23:28
I might be the only one like, I feel like I’m still like my, like normal scale like myself. I’m right there with you, Kenny. Yeah, I was like, I don’t really think anything’s really changed in that regard. However, there were a lot of stats that came out. I mentioned them. I believe last week on the opening of the podcast, talking about really like there has been a spike in alcohol sales like it’s there’s, there’s no you know, there’s no hiding it like there has been a surge. But then there was another great article that came out an opinion article by Steve Coombs last week that kind of talks about like are people actually doing

24:00
making more or are they just hoarding? Because if you look at the actual sales of things that are happening, it’s a lot of like 1.75 and one liters of stuff. And so that equates to a lot of unfortunately Tito’s, but there’s also a lot of 1.7 fives of Maker’s Mark and other types of, you know, basically bulk whiskey that people are actually purchasing rather than going out and you know, getting this little 750 here or anything like that people actually making these big bulk purchases. However, I think most of us here have enough bourbon in their library or their

24:36
choose any random choose any random closet in your house that could defeat the most general populace out there. So I tell you, I’ve been doing these nightly tastings and I’ve been trying to be creative with the stuff I taste and, and

24:52
and that’s when you I found that that’s, that’s the one the one way to like determine how much I really care about a bottle because I’m finding myself

25:00
been very reluctant to go into my stash of like 1930s the 1950s stuff. And

25:09
and I’m like, I, I know it’s I know people want to see me drink that, but I can’t do it. I can’t open it up yet. I don’t want to open it up for that I want to open up for something else. So maybe it’ll we’ll get there. But what I have noticed is that yes, well we have a lot of stuff. It’s very interesting to see what I am drinking. Because, you know, when I’m that, you know, live streaming or something, I’m drinking something very different. And it’s not stuff that I would know that I wouldn’t think I would be drinking. So just Evan Williams bottled and bond

25:41
it’s nothing like that. It’s mainlining it it’s funny you say that phrase because I think you know, mean economic have talked about this a few times. We’ve almost taken like the opposite approach. In fact, Eric did an opinion piece on the site not too long ago where, you know, the more we The more we know, people are getting impacted especially from economic and being in New York. I think

26:00
Almost switched our mindset to be like you have a special bottles we’re holding on to maybe we’ll start cracking one or two more of those more often just because you never know. Right? So I think it’s interesting you say that and it’ll be even more interesting to see how your mentality changes the longer the actual lockdown goes down. Right? Yeah, that’ll be truly interesting. Yeah, it’s definitely a psychological thing and it’s not really it’s, it’s I’m definitely still drinking the good stuff Don’t get me wrong, but I mean, I’ve got some of those really, really rare bottles that I hunted for worked hard to get and, and, you know, I was looking forward to like cracking them open with friends and like, our night or something nothing and it’s like when the hell am I ever going to be around people? Yeah. You know? Yeah. I mean, I’d like to look at the see that that hopefully the lies at the end of the tunnel, but man, I just something tells me it’s not though. I really want this to be over soon. But today was pretty. It’s pretty grim. So yeah, yeah. How do we how do how do we get to it?

27:00
point where we’re not. We talk about it, but not like in the depressing sense. It’s like, Oh, yeah, so make sure you wear your new mask out there, by the way, the weather is going to be 55 and sunny today. You know, it’s only when you become used to it, and no one no one’s bracing for that. Yep. It’s a maybe a poor analogy, right. But in terms of so think when the smog index came out, and you know, you go to a polluted city or pluta country stuff like that, and used to be home in the smog, like off the chart now. It’s just like, you know, la or, you know, if I go to India or anything like that, it’s like, here’s a smog for the day. Gonna be bad for your health. Moving on. That’s it, and you’re like, Oh, okay. normal part of life now. All right. It’s just gonna be kind of like that, like, viruses are breaking out. Just be extra productive today. All right. Great. Thanks. So the trash cans, employees, please don’t. But it’s a good question that came in from Brian here. And he’s wondering if, if the distribution from distilleries distributors is way down right now, especially with hand sanitizer production going on. Along with folks being quarantine. I mean, what

28:00
What do you think is the the short term and the long term outcome of what we’re going to see here? So I actually talked with a couple people about this from the distributor aspect. And they were saying that basically, their sales numbers were about pretty close to dead on what they were in prior months. And that’s 100% because of off premise. So they lost all of the on premise. And we’re able to make up the majority of it with off premise sales.

28:29
Now for other distilleries who rely heavily on their tasting room or that’s even you know, they lost that part which really hurts but as far as like the big guys go, I don’t know that they’re that affected because the demand through distribution has been so strong because retail has been so strong.

28:48
So I don’t know it’ll be interesting to see how that all I think the hand sanitizer thing is great for their, for them just kind of giving back, but it’s not really making up

29:00
A huge part of their revenue. And ultimately, I think it’s the smaller guys who are going to be affected who, who have a bigger, you know, tasting room and all that kind of all those kind of sales going on. Yeah, I mean, anybody who geared up for tourism is just looking at this scared and glammed up scared, kind of want to get, you know, Brian or Jordans kind of thoughts if we see any kind of short or long term effects of these distilleries haven’t been shut down or producing sanitizer. Yeah. So, sanitizer. I think it’s great. I’ll address that first. I think it’s awesome. I think it’s great. I have yet to see some hit areas or at least even be available online. I think it’s going to first responders, which is the right thing, so that’s even better. But I was thinking about this the other day as I was going for a run on the treadmill, right? So all these distilleries the last two years have just dumped money and expanding their visitor centers right Woodford just opened up their new one right buffalo trail.

30:00
was doing a huge expansion. Everyone’s that was the whole the whole shtick, right? let’s dump more money, let’s think big thing, right? But those who have put all this money in there, it’s almost a shame because I don’t know if it’s ever going to go back to the way of having just a crush of people line up at a bar right thing of going to a Woodford for a Buffalo Trace on a Saturday, right, with all the tourists. Everyone’s just lined up getting shots and tasting your samples and stuff like that. And that may never go back to the way it was. And, you know, they might be regretting that that influx of cash, they just put in that this your experience now. I mean, I think it’ll come back to at least some extent, but that’s never where they’re making their money. I mean, they have to get the people there in the first place. And there are a lot more people who are drinking Woodford than ever that ever make it to that tour or to any other distilleries. So they’ve they’ve got plenty of bourbon that they’ve distilled in the last few years socked away, that’ll still come to the market.

31:00
They just need to find a new way to market it. And instead of trying to bring people to the distillery, which I think is a small percent, I mean, it’s a growing percentage, but it’s a smaller percentage. So we’re taking a hit on the old bourbon trail, as far as that marketing goes, but there’s, I think there’s plenty more to do and they can recover from that. Yeah, and humans forget things. I mean, it’s, yeah, we’re I mean, it’s easy now to say all we can but it’s like even like after the last recession, you know, like and people got in trouble with you know, loans and mortgages or whatever and like a year later, they’re doing the exact same damn thing. Yeah, we’re still giving like no proof mortgages in like, you know, I AR, whatever you call it, but just alarms and all that. Yeah, arms. Yeah. We just need like two more tweets that says whiskey kills the virus and it’ll open.

31:56
Start just spreading the rumors now might as well

32:00
So I guess that kind of makes me want to go into sort of like the next segment here. And that’s looking at House Bill 415. So I know that a lot of us have been kind of following this for for quite some time in regards of what this means. And there’s this, this great PDF that got sent out by some of the people that were for the bill and making it happen. So just to kind of like digest this down. What this really means is that, and hopefully what this means is a potential domino effect of what we could see for the rest of the United States to hopefully latch on to. And this is the giving the ability for distilleries to now ship direct to consumers, completely bypassing a distributor and bypassing and actually, I guess they function as the retailer in this point, right. And that’s what I know that there was a lot of

32:52
commotion, I guess, you could say from distributors and everything like that and retailers that didn’t want this. I mean, of course, you don’t want this right. I mean,

33:00
Kinda like it pokes a hole in your whole business model. But the the other side of this is that this is now putting spirits and putting Kentucky as one of the first states to now have the same exact law as around what is it like 40 or 42 other states that allows shipping of wine, right i mean shipping and wine from California or anywhere else like that’s pretty, pretty standard.

33:25
However, this is now starting to allow this to happen for for greedy spirits. So looking at this now, I’m all for it. I think this is something that we’ve been offered for a while Blake, I know is he’s over the moon for it. But I kind of want to think is there because I know Fred, we had brought this up before and this that you know you you had talked about the warning signs of saying like, well, all it’s gonna take is for like, you know, one kid intercept something and then this could all all go under. Has this bill passed like sort of change your mind and regarding

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of of potentially like the shift we’re starting to see in in the legal side of things

34:10
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35:00
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35:19
you had talked about the warning signs of saying like, well, all it’s gonna take is for like, you know, one kid intercept something and then this could all all go under. Has this bill passed, like sort of change your mind in regards of of potentially like the, the shift we’re starting to see in in the legal side of things. Well, first of all, I’ve always been for you know, some type of shipping. I’ve always thought that you know if wine can do it, you know, whiskey should have that same, right. I’ve always just taken the side of like, taking the kind of devil’s advocate side of like, I know like how the wholesalers think and as soon as this bill was passed, they came out against it.

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very heavily. And basically said it was a shame that Kentucky took advantage of a, of a pandemic to get this thing passed. And they called the they called the KDA. And a bunch of people who push for quote bad actors. I they use that a lot in their press releases. I still don’t understand what that means. Well, still hasn’t like approved or vetoed it right. He’s hasn’t even like, right. Didn’t auto into Milan? Yeah, but not until like June or July, I believe. So there’s a 90 day period before it become goes into law. But it’s like it was but by him not signing it or vetoing it, it basically passed and that was just the weird provision to it. So it’s, it’s good. But yeah, I think from a from,

36:50
from an overall perspective of like, people have kind of swung to this pendulum of like, as long as someone is checking the ID

37:00
And oh, by the way, the wholesalers, they own a little piece of a company called drizzly. So they’re okay with delivery as long as they are getting, you know, it’s as it seems as long as they are, have like a guaranteed structure of someone, you know, being 21. And someone texted me today and said, The wholesalers are okay, as long as they’re getting their cut. That’s what I was gonna say. I was like, making sure that we’re getting there. 25% that’s what I was making sure that that’s what they’re gonna say. And and that’s a, I get that. But, look, if wineries can do it distillers should be able to that’s it. You just sound like a bad actor. That’s all it is.

37:41
But I mean, I mean with this, it’s still only two like six reciprocating states, right. So it’s, it’s more than that. It’s like 12, I believe. Yeah, it’s a handful. But yeah, it’s a handful and it’s in that it’s in that release.

37:56
But the some of the big wind states are on there. So

38:00
California is not on there. But you know, Rhode Island. What are we going to get from Rhode Island or Hawaii? I mean, hold on the islands get some decent distilleries. How do they do it?

38:11
Alright, so here are the states. Alaska.

38:15
Arizona. I you know what? No, Connecticut, Hawaii, Kentucky, Nebraska, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Rhode Island and Washington DC giddy up. I mean, when I look at this, though, I try to think picture it from. And I think this is one of the things that Chris, one of the people that helped draft this and lobby for it kind of looked at this as really the first domino to fall, right. I mean, this is this is a radical change in consumer demand and the way that laws have to now adapt to what we’re going through. I mean, I think john Henderson said it in the YouTube channel, but earlier, like, it only took a global pandemic, for us to finally move the industry forward. Right and

39:00
And if you look at that, I think we are moving in the right direction. Now it’s a move in the right direction, but you need you need a legit state to jump on board with this to make it matter. And I think we’re the first logistic unit. Well, the thing is the the list of states you just listed off there nothing in the record, you mean like a large long Nabila? gorgeou, Florida, you’re nice. No, I like that. And that’s when it’s gonna make the most difference, like because the no offense the other states, but they’re, they’re peanuts compared to those and like, I just have a feeling to those states are gonna iron fisted, you know, to keep it in their states as well. So is that right move in the right direction, but it’s not there yet. Well, I mean, do you look at this as a move for that? Or is it a move to actually help distilleries? Right, this is this is another another way that we can look at putting more money back into the pocket of the distillers. We’ve, I don’t know how many times we’ve talked about this on the show that the three tier system has been a problem.

40:00
That’s why the secondary market exists because, you know, they it goes off to the distributor and distributor goes, Well, I don’t know, like it goes to whatever kind of algorithm that they want to however they want to do it. This now puts a little more power to the distilleries, if they want to do it. Yeah, they are. But they still have to have the distributor to process the tax payments and stuff. So the distributor is going to charge something and get a little bit but it does, it’s definitely great for the distiller because they’re gonna keep more revenue, but the distributors have, because I doubt each distillery is gonna have their own, you know, maybe they will, but I don’t see enough. I just don’t see enough shipping demand with those states to justify having a dedicated team to deal with the tax implications of you know, shipping and cutting out the distributor as the current level, not just attacks the right building out three commerce capabilities, building out the team, that shipping everything dealing with the customer experience online and all that stuff. It’s it’s harder than people realize to just snap your fingers and do those things. I think

Transcribed by https://otter.ai