There is a big conversation on the tip of the tongue, or at
least in the back of the mind, of everyone in the spirits industry. You
overhear snippets of it here and there, in Facebook updates and blog posts, but as of yet no one has thrown it out on the ground and let the wolves at it. It’s
our dirty little secret, and nobody is quite prepared to air the laundry.
Well, neither are we.
Although we are currently researching and developing a
feature on the subject, the distinction between micro-distillers (i.e.
those who make spirits from raw materials such as grain or molasses) and craft
spirits (i.e. those who source neutral grain spirits and use this as their
starting point), and whether such a distinction is even necessary, is a discussion not to be entered into lightly. But it is an important one, and if greater transparency between producer and consumer is one
of the underlying precepts of this movement, which we believe it is, then any
dialogue on the matter is certainly worth the while.
Another aspect of the evolving spirit paradigm is the variety
of scenarios by which micro and craft spirit producers launch and succeed. From
tiny stills bootstrapping in garages to turn-key operations backed by the
industry’s traditional players, small batch producers run the gamut. And as
craft spirits gain popularity and claim market share, interest in them, from every
quarter, will only intensify.
One example of this increased attention is the recent
addition of a “craft spirit” segment to the T. Edward Wine portfolio. A loosely
defined collective of vintners and purveyors, T. Edward has been stocking finer
outlets with select wines from their NYC headquarters since 1994. Only
recently, they announced their expansion into craft spirits, and they are now hosting
labels from The Noble Experiment NYC, Roundhouse Spirits, Suerte Tequila, and Industry City Distillery.
What this means to the producers is obvious, but what it
might mean to consumers is amorphous at best. In their press release, T. Edward
cites “integrity, transparency, innovativeness and taste”
as their criteria for both producers and process, which to us seems like a perfectly good
place to start.
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