Sweet, sweet nectar
I went into the Montgomery County Liquor store on Colesville Road last weekend, and much to my surprise and dismay, the shelves were barren of my beloved Maker’s Mark. Thanks to the arcane liquor control we still have in place in MoCo, I assumed it was the fault of someone in an office in Rockville somewhere. When I asked why, the clerk at the store told me there had been a fire at the distillery. I almost cried.
Luckily, we have the series of tubes known as the Internets. After some simple searches (and thanks to my status as a Maker’s Mark Ambassador), I found a blog post from Mr. Maker’s Mark himself, Bill Samuels, saying they started toying with inventory management to head off a potential shortage. The efforts seem to have gone awry:
Back about six months ago when it became apparent that maturing barrel stocks of Maker’s would likely not be sufficient to meet growing U.S. demand we thought it would be possible to create demand/supply alignment by implementing some inventory management. Our confidence was bolstered by the fact that a modest wave of additional barrel inventory (from our distillery expansion six years ago) would be coming available later this month, thus eliminating the problem for at least the next two to three years.
Inventories have been brought down to their lowest levels in 30 years and still we have not been able to prevent an out of stock situation in some restaurants, bars and stores across the country. That’s the bad news.
The good news is that restocking the pipeline will begin in earnest late next week and should continue until this potentially aggravating situation has been rectified. So, if you notice any out of stock situations with Maker’s Mark, hang in there.
So why would MoCo liquors scare me like that? If you happen to go to the liquor store anytime soon, please reiterate that there has been no fire, and since this message was posted back in mid-July, they should get off their happy asses and put the good stuff back on the shelf.
In the meantime, Woodford Reserve will serve as a less-than-adequate substitute.
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Growing U.S. demand, dwindling supplies, restocking the pipelines. Has anyone asked the Presidential candidates for their position on makers mark management? For example, should we establish a strategic whisky reserve and under what circumstances would it be appropriate to tap into this reserve? Are we better off prospecting for new supplies of whisky or should we diversify our portfolio and look into ethnonol or potato-based alternatives? What’s their position on off-shore drinking? Or maybe we should limit our consumption. Is the U.S. addicted to alcohol?
Strategic Whisky Reserve would be a spectacular band name.
Ah, another devotee of that greatest of whiskeys, bourbon. In the absence of Maker’s Mark, a suitable alternative (for the money) is Elijah Craig. Me, I’m a Booker’s fan, though my wallet is, alas, more of a Wild Turkey fan.
Don’t get me started on our county controlled liquor. Luckily, I have a small strategic Maker’s reserve in my liquor cabinet so the crisis has not effected me… yet.
I tried to by Maker’s Mark from the MOCOlesvile Store and got the fire reason too. Glad to hear its not true. I picked up some Knob in its absence. Good to see there are some other bourbon fans out here.