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.
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.
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.
Scotch drinkers might have a better selection than other spirits categories, but does it really matter when you're paying $79 for a 750ml of Lagavulin in PA vs. $48 in New York?
Volume buying only seems to bring the price down on the swill.
Where in New York do you find Lagavulin 16yr for $48? That sounds unbelievably low. In NYC I find prices ranging from $70-$85. Even checking the super-discount places in LA, I don't see it for less than $59. Bevmo lists it for $79, and Binny's in Chicago lists it for $95. North Carolina and Virginia state stores sell it for $90 and $95 respectively.
I agree that the volume-pricing benefits the PLCB claims to receive do not get passed on to consumers, but for the most part, in-store items aren't priced too far from the national norm.
The main thing that struck me is that assuming I can use one category to judge (tequila, because that's the one section I know best), the column of in-store is still overly optimistic compared to what you actually find in the stores. I know you already remarked upon the stuck-in-2003 nature of the selection. But you have 70 varieties listed for in-store, and I'd say show me a store that has more than 40 or so at any given time, even counting the mixto swill. I've never seen one.
I found it interesting that you mentioned Siete Leguas, as that one had piqued my interest recently. (I'm still rather new to tequila in general, but it is the section I've stared at in the stores far more than any other.) I tried and failed to get El Tesoro on a recent out of town trip even though the store I went to was listed on the El Tesoro web site. Sigh. Anyway, 7 Leguas, looks like that counts as in-store for your list based on your writing. But wait, no store in Allegheny County has it. And then, just to be sure, I checked Philadelphia, Montgomery, nothing. So the only place you can buy is the online store, I would guess, if it's not available in the two largest cities in the state. And while that is an improvement over SLO, it's not in-store in a real sense of the word.
I'm guessing all the in-store listings are padded by stuff that's actually only available on the online store. I'm not blaming you for that; I know the LCB site doesn't make a distinction. But I am saying it overstates what is really in the physical stores if that's what you meant to depict. The reality is we have it even worse than the list above unless we have planned ahead.
It's good stuff, though, this blog. It's new to me today from China Millman's posting of the link on Twitter.
Greg --
You're never going to see all in-store products in a single store; that's not how the PLCB allocates their inventory. They divide the less-popular products between many different stores, which allows them to offer a wide variety of items across a geographic region without risking a large capital investment to build one or two giant super-stores that carry everything. I routinely visit 3-4 different locations to buy the spirits I use.
I hadn't realized Siete Leguas was no longer available off the shelf. It certainly was at some point in the past, which is why I started recommending it. Unfortunately, I think that means there are no longer any tequilas in stores that I could confidently recommend for sipping. The Cuervo Reserve Platino is supposed to be good, but other than that it's pretty much all mixers and trash.
In your case, I'd say bite the bullet and SLO some El Tesoro. It's reasonably priced here (about $45) and since you're in Allegheny County, Southern will waive their minimum order size so you can get just a bottle or two. Trust me, it's worth the effort.
I agree that it's frustrating and deceptive to lump online-only items with in-store items. While ordering from the online store is easier than placing an SLO and you don't have to worry about minimum order sizes, it's certainly less convenient than grabbing things off the shelf and it requires advance planning. I'll add a note to the article and see if I can break out online-only items separately in future reports.
Thanks for visiting the site and joining the discussion!
Seems a weird way of allocating things to me, well, eh, although come to think of it we've certainly noticed that happening with wines. I didn't really think it would happen on the spirits side though because there are so many fewer products. Have to say I missed any point that Siete Leguas was on the shelf (not just by looking in stores but even by the online search) but then it may never have been in the store I go into the most (which is actually the large Cranberry Twp store across the border in Butler County).
I was lucky enough a while back to receive a gift of sorts that had 4 bottles of tequila. Not that lucky since they all came from the store shelves ;-) but at least I don't have to buy these myself to taste them. There's a Corralejo reposado which I've had before (it's been a while, don't remember it being that exciting), that Millagro reserve something or other which is in the weirdo bottle which I opened last night (didn't seem impressive), El Mayor silver, which I haven't tried but is one of the newer options in the stores, and yes, that Cuervo Reserva de la Familia Platino, which did impress me. That may have spoiled me at least for any lesser silvers that's for sure. But as I said I'm still pretty new at that so haven't tasted too many.
Looks like I may be making a few more margaritas or palomas when it gets a little warmer, but that'll work too I guess. ;-)
Thanks for the SLO tip about waiving minimum order size. May try that.
Really interesting data and commentary, Nathan. Rather discouraging too, unfortunately. Thanks for putting this together.