A growing sector: a word from "Just Drinks"

[Capn Jimbo]

From the industry's "Just Drinks" Newsletter...


"Good times ahead for the rum sector:

"For a long time seen as something of a poor relation in the spirits world, the rum category is identified as the "next big thing" in this latest IWSR/just-drinks report.

While the report forecasts that the overall rum market will decline by 1.73% between 2014 and 2019, shedding as many as 12m cases, this fall will be seen at the value end of the market. At the other end of the spectrum, the picture is far rosier.

Excluding value and low-priced rums, the market will grow by over 5.5m cases to 64.5m cases by 2019. Imported rums are expected to continue to build market share, with further growth coming from golden/dark rums, premium-and-above products and flavoured variants, notably the "still dynamic" spiced segment.

Senior industry executives contributed to the research and provided some interesting views on the state of the category, such as:

"You have a whole new trend of people looking for genuine products and simple relationships with their friends and, for these people, rum is a perfect match – it is less formal than other categories and it is a high quality spirit. It is that balance that makes rum a unique category compared to other brown spirits." Jérôme Cottin-Bizonne, MD, Havana International

"White rum is consumed in all manner of ways. In the US we are seeing a huge, bartender-led resurgence of the Daiquiri, while the Mojito and the Cuba Libre remain reliably popular around the world. In Latin America we are seeing increased traction around the Mismo, a simple Cuban highball." Dmitry Ivanov, CMO, Bacardi"


Flat Ass Bottom Line

The Bacardi CMO projects a loss of 12m cases of the cheap stuff, to apparently be replaced by 5m cases of "better" rum, whatever that is. Yet he then refers to a growing mixed drink market (which doesn't use the good stuff), and lets slip that the marketing is aimed toward the naive younger drinker whose goals and tastes are "less formal" (meaning ignorant).

What that means to me are tricked up younger rums, probably NAS, that are really the cheaper rums in disguise and accompanied by slick new stories designed to cast them as somehow "better". I'd expect a raft of new names, stories and labels. And LOTS of sugar.

Unfortunately, he forgot to consider or mention The Great Sugar Test, whose widespread effects are yet to be experienced.

[mamajuana]

Looks like Bacardi is stepping up their game to me. They are apparently starting to let private buyers in and opening up the stocks of the better stuff and also providing age statements on bottles.

Check this out (Binnys.com press release)

For the first time in their 153 year history, the Bacardi family invited a retailer to visit their distillery, providing access to the private collection of Bacardi family's private library of rums. The Whiskey Hotline jumped at the opportunity, sampling from the best of the best, finally developing this limited edition bottling.

Made with rums as old as 20 years, and none younger than 10, this is a rum drinker's rum, with notes of caramel, vanilla, tropical fruit – banana and pineapple. Rich and complex on its own, it retains Bacardi's trademark freshness and mixability too.

The culmination of the first ever collaboration between the Bacardi family and a retailer, Binny's is honored to launch Bacardi Limited Edition.

Whether this really is a one off production or just begins a larger National release remains to be seen.

But what price do we expect for a rum 10 years old minimum with some as old as 20 years in the mix? The Limitada at about 100 dollars a bottle is aged for between 10 and 16 years. This one boasts 10-20 years! Surely it must be fairly high.

Nope. Right now 19.99 a bottle for a Bacardi product with a similar age range as a bottle costing 5 times that amount. With this price you can afford to mix it and should outclass many other rums in this segment easily. Binny's appeared to make a massive buy on this rum as it can be had in great stock at all locations which is rarer for them.

This really takes a step back from the super expensive rums they have been putting out that are older such as the Facundo series most recently. I really wonder how this rum holds up I will have to get some bottles ASAP.