Who Needs To Taste?
I can clearly remember the four most common words uttered by consumers each time I recommended them a new bottle of whiskey: Have you tasted it?
It all seems so long ago.
I can also remember when distributors and importers actually made appointments to taste interesting new products with me. Today, they only bring the bottles they can’t move. The really good stuff is allocated. Because it’s allocated, no one gets to taste it.
And why should we?! It’s going to sell out in ten seconds whether we like it or not.
The actual taste of a whiskey no longer has anything to do with sales, mainly because consumers have learned one important thing in the new era: you snooze, you lose. By the time you get the opinion of a friend or trusted critic, the bottles are long gone. Because certain whiskies are in short supply, scalpers and flippers will hedge against demand, sending secondary prices into the stratosphere.
Whereas customers in the past would agonize over dropping $100 sight unseen, today’s consumers will blow thousands without knowing anything about a whiskey’s flavor. Which begs the question: does anyone still care about the way whiskey tastes, or has it evolved purely into a status symbol?
Plenty of other consumer genres have gone in this direction. My wife is quick to point out some of the hideous outfits on reality television, decked out in head-to-toe Gucci, but with no real sense of style. There have always been label whores in the wine and spirits game as well, but they were usually completely unaware of what was in the bottle anyway. Today’s status hunters pride themselves on knowing what is and what isn’t worth paying for: rarity, alcohol percentage, cask type, source, etc.
Of course, other than the rarity of a whiskey, the data points that drive demand are all specifics that affect a whiskey’s flavor. So shouldn’t the ultimate flavor of a whiskey be most important?
Let me instead ask you this question: have you ever had to present a report to your company about the success of a project or initiative? If so, then you’ll know the importance of KPI: key performance indicators. KPI are measurable benchmarks; they are the metrics by which one can gauge the effectiveness of objectives or goals.
In today’s business world, you can no longer access a manager’s performance by how effectively he or she builds morale or takes time to mentor staff members. Why? Because those assets are not measurable by data. There are no KPI for company morale and mentorship, even if the impact of that guidance is seen in the data. All that matters is that sales are up. That is how a manager’s effectiveness is measured.
The vagueness or subjectivity of taste has always needed a metric, which is why Robert Parker created the 100 point wine system, turning his opinion into a measurable data point. That was the beginning of taste’s devolution, as the 90+ point score became more important than personal opinion.
Who cares what it tastes like? The guy who knows says it’s good!
Therefore, I like it.
While a number of today’s whiskey hunters bristle at the idea of the 100 point rating system, many of them have simply adopted a new data deity: proof. The alcohol percentage of a new whiskey can completely make or break a sale, to the point that producers are now retooling their products to fit this demand.
Look at the new Jack Daniel’s Coy Hill as an example, a barrel proof expression that can clock in as high as 148.3 on the label. Whiskey fans everywhere are falling over themselves trying to get a bottle right now, yet it has nothing to do with tasting notes or critical reviews. It’s literally unblended, straight from the cask, so every barrel will taste completely different.
But Jack Daniel’s already knows what I know: how it tastes has nothing to do with why it sells.
-David Driscoll