the biggest little micro distillery

[daveflintstone]

.and now for something completely different

Pernod Ricard-owned Absolut vodka is introducing a new vodka series in partnership with local entrepreneurs around the globe. The Our/Vodka initiative, which began last year in Berlin, will now spread to 11 cities across the U.S., Europe and Australia. In each city, Absolut has linked with local partners to open micro-distilleries that will produce vodka with a focus on local ingredients, although each will have the same recipe and be packaged in a small bottle with a crown cap. Absolut’s partners will have responsibility for running the individual businesses and marketing the new offerings.

An Our/Vodka distillery in Detroit is set to open in June, with projects in Seattle (opening in September), New York (November), Amsterdam, Los Angeles and London to follow later in the year. Our/Austin, Our/Miami, Our/Nashville, Our/New Orleans and Our/Melbourne vodkas are scheduled to begin production in 2015.

The distillery in New York, to be based in Manhattan, will double as a tasting room, shop and event space, while the Detroit distillery will partner with local organizations for events and communal forums. The Berlin distillery, opened last March, also serves as an event space and a liquor store.

[MG Thermal Consulting]

The Mickey D's of Vodka?

[Sorghumrunner]

it's like the new artisan dominos pizza commercials?

[rumfarmer]

I guess this means we little guys have arrived. The big guys are copying us now.

[schnit]

It's just a matter of time, like when the big breweries started making "micro" brew brands. The best thing the small guys can do is spread awareness about the difference between your brand and the big guys trying to look small.

[Salishseaorganicliqueurs]

Next up… The organic market?

[sweetT14]

I am introducing my idea of a distillery to my city and trying to get the green light to set up shop just a couple hundred yards from a pernod-ricard bottling plant.

Not sure why I want to do it. I guess it is just sort of a motivation for me. Gives me a goal. I want to be better than those guys across the street. lol

[Michaelangelo]

Here is the best news for those of you seeking funding. Walk in to your banker's office and show them this article then say "my business model is so successful that even Absolute, one of the biggest brands in the world, is copying me now"

[mendodistilling]

Haha, or you are copying a company that proved it over and over again, hundreds of years of experience later.

[Ralph at Tuthilltown]

About the only one's who think of this franchise as "micro distillery" are the marketing guys at ABSOLUTE. I don't think the proposal would fly for any informed consumer and certainly not with the real craft distillers in the US who will see this for what it is.

I don't think they are kidding anyone but themselves and the "give it to me cheap" market. When asked if the base spirit is actually distilled at the "local" site, with some coaxing the answer finally came, the GNS arrives at the site full strength and is bottled with local water. That is neither, "local" nor "craft".

The fact is that Michaelangelo seems to have hit the nail on the head, it's a good demonstration that Craft Distilling is now a serious, legitimate member of the profitable spirits world. What was that phrase "Imitation is the most sincere form of flattery." Big producer investment in the "small brand" image is a semaphore, the concept of crafted artisan spirits has delivered its message to the big guns, and they are trying their best to emulate, simulate and obfuscate the Craft message.

R