In order to generate the updates I publish every week on this site, I regularly download the entire PLCB spirits catalog and import it into my own database system. This gives me the ability to run many different types of reports against the data besides the usual weekly update. I thought I'd start sharing some of the more interesting ones with you.
Today's report breaks down the spirits available from PLCB stores and SLO vendors by category. These are not the mostly-useless categories that the PLCB uses; they're a custom set that's similar to what private retailers in other states use: Absinthe, American Whiskey, Bourbon, Cachaça, etc. I've hand-sorted all of the PLCB spirit product listings into these categories. I've also removed "duplicate" products—although Tanqueray Gin is listed in six different sizes and two gift packs, it only counts as a single item in the table below.
Note that this table doesn't include wine (except vermouth and aperitifs), non-alcoholic mixers, pre-mixed ("RTD") cocktails, etc. It also doesn't include 35 spirits that I was too lazy to go figure out what they were, like "Gokoo Comfortable Sky" and "Sans Rival Masticha".
**Update (Feb 4): The "In-store" column below includes both spirits available off-the-shelf in retail stores and spirits only available from the PLCB's
online store. As a commenter pointed out, this is a bit deceptive, and I'll break out online-only items separately in future reports if possible.
**Update (Feb 9): I've posted an
updated report with the in-store column broken down further.
| Spirit Category | In-store | SLO only | Total |
|---|
| Absinthe | 6 | 3 | 9 |
| Amari | 4 | 5 | 9 |
| American Whiskey | 21 | 18 | 39 |
| Aperitif | 3 | 3 | 6 |
| Aquavit | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Armagnac | 1 | 24 | 25 |
| Bourbon | 45 | 23 | 68 |
| Brandy - Unflavored | 16 | 22 | 38 |
| Brandy - Flavored | 6 | 10 | 16 |
| Cachaça | 2 | 12 | 14 |
| Calvados | 2 | 12 | 14 |
| Canadian Whisky | 18 | 8 | 26 |
| Cognac | 22 | 43 | 65 |
| Cordials and Liqueurs | 172 | 260 | 432 |
| Cream Liqueurs | 27 | 16 | 43 |
| Eaux de Vie | 10 | 35 | 45 |
| Gin | 29 | 30 | 59 |
| Grain Alcohol | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| Grappa | 5 | 64 | 69 |
| Irish Whiskey | 21 | 13 | 34 |
| Mezcal | 1 | 13 | 14 |
| Other Whiskey | 1 | 3 | 4 |
| Pisco | 0 | 4 | 4 |
| Rum - Unflavored | 39 | 82 | 121 |
| Rum - Flavored | 47 | 29 | 76 |
| Rye Whiskey | 8 | 6 | 14 |
| Scotch | 88 | 145 | 233 |
| Shochu/Soju | 3 | 18 | 21 |
| Tequila | 70 | 76 | 146 |
| Vermouth | 14 | 9 | 23 |
| Vodka - Unflavored | 82 | 68 | 150 |
| Vodka/Gin - Flavored | 141 | 115 | 256 |
| Total | 907 | 1172 | 2079 |
|---|
The in-store breakdown is unsurprising. The catch-all category of Cordials and Liqueurs is the largest; followed by flavored vodka; with scotch, unflavored vodka, and tequila in distant third place. Bourbon and flavored and unflavored rums come in fourth, and then everything else together adds up to less than a quarter of the total.
Some old grumbles stand out here. There is not a single pisco available in stores, although at least 20 different labels are imported into the US. Only two cachaças can be found on the shelves, neither of which I recommend. And now that Coeur de Lion has been put on close-out, we're limited to a single Calvados and a single Armagnac. (I would grouch about aquavit too, but there are like five aquavits available in the whole country, and it's not exactly a high-volume market.)
I was surprised to see that almost sixty gins are available, half of them in stores. A quick investigation revealed that half the in-store gins are well brands, but we still have some bright lights in the gin section: Plymouth, Hendrick's, Beefeater 24 and Bluecoat are all nontraditional labels that I'd be quick to recommend. Unfortunately, there are still too few modern gins in stores, and I look forward to the day I can walk into a Wines and Spirits Shoppe and pick up Citadelle, Martin Miller's, North Shore, Aviation, No. 209, Old Raj, and many others.
Let's talk about whiskey. The bourbon fanatics who always complain that there are few decent bourbons available in stores seem to be right. In recent years the state has added a number of high-end Van Winkle bourbons, as well as the Buffalo Trace Antique Collection, but other than that, choices are pretty much limited to the the basics: Beam Small Batch labels, BT's mid-range bourbons, Wild Turkey, Maker's Mark and Woodford Reserve. Surprisingly, there isn't much bourbon available by SLO—mostly well brands and eclectic labels. The bourbon selection in Pennsylvania leaves much to be desired. (For comparison, Bevmo in California has 87 bourbons available to be purchased off the shelf.)
In comparison, scotch drinkers have less to complain about, scotch being the third largest category for both in-store items and total items. While a selection of 88 scotches is fairly weak compared to larger private retailers, adding in SLO items brings the total to 233. Is it fair to give the PLCB credit for the SLO scotches? More so than for other spirit categories, I think—the in-store selection covers most of the lower-priced scotches, so SLO scotches tend to be expensive enough that distributors will allow retail customers to order single bottles. (Sometimes they need a kick in the tookus to remind them of this. For example, the PLCB website says that Southern wants a minimum order of six bottles of Bowmore 25yr at $187 a pop. This is insane, but it's probably wrong.)
On to my favorite category: rum. I love rum. And, unusually, the PLCB seems to be taking a proactive approach to this fast-growing market. High-end rums on the shelf include not just the heavily-marketed stuff like 10 Cane and Tommy Bahama, but true gems like Appleton Reserve, Mt Gay XO, Matusalem Grand Reserve, Zacapa 23 and Zaya. They even took a chance on a Martinique rum—Clement White—and although it didn't work out, it's unusual to see a niche artisianal product like this show up in stores at all. I hope demand materializes for the other rums, as it would be sad if the PLCB took a gamble on this market segment and Pennsylvania consumers just kept buying Bacardi and Captain Morgan.
The other segment with huge growth at the moment is tequila. Here the PLCB seems to be stuck in 2003. Sure, there are 70 tequilas available on the shelves, but they're mostly the same brands that have been on the shelves for years: Don Julio, Cabo Wabo, Herradura, Patron, and of course all the mixto garbage. Many of the higher-end labels are offshoots of the old giants, like 1800 (Cuervo) and Gran Centenario (Sauza). It's nice to see newer entrants like Corazón and Siembra Azul, but where are the benchmark tequilas that people in other states have been drinking for years? Where are El Tesoro and Partida? Where are Chinaco and AsomBroso? Sure, they're available by SLO, but our tequila drinkers deserve better than that. For now, I just point people to Siete Leguas and leave it at that.
The rest of the categories I can't say much about. Eaux-de-vie seem underrepresented, especially since that category includes kirsch and slivovitz and other fruit distillates; grappas, at least by SLO, seem overrepresented. The cognac selection feels pretty slim, particularly for in-store items, as all but four of those in-store items are from the Big Four cognac houses. It'd be nice to have some Frapin or Ferrand stuff in stores. As for shochu and soju...well...maybe in ten years they'll start catching on.
What can we determine from all this? With the exception of rum, scotch, and of course vodka and flavored spirits, the PLCB in-store spirits selection seems weak. Considering the statutory restrictions under which the PLCB operates, it may be best to resign ourselves to the fact that in-store product selection will probably always be highly conservative. The way things work now, if a product isn't popular enough in the middle of the state, it can't be stocked at either end of the state.
However, with the growing interest in high-end spirits and cocktails in the US, the PLCB may want to consider alternative means for giving retail customers access to speciality products. Reducing the learning curve for the SLO process would be a good start—why can't SLOs be placed through an e-commerce website, instead of requiring a series of coordinating phone calls between the customer, the special purchases section, and the fulfilling distributor? In addition, expanding the range of spirits available through the existing
online store should be an easy thing to do, and promoting it more heavily would probably do wonders for online sales.
Well, I hope this analysis has been as interesting to read as it was to write. Leave a comment with your thoughts, and feel free to ask questions or make suggestions for future analyses.
