Big brands stifle innovation, says blender

Sazerac master blender Drew Mayville – a leading hand in the distiller’s Bourbon offerings like Buffalo Trace and Eagle Rare – has hit out at big producers’ lack of experimentation, claiming they are “all about consistency” at the expense of encouraging new ideas.

Buffalo Trace Bourbon is one of the Sazerac’s leading labels (Photo: Buffalo Trace)

Speaking to the drinks business at a portfolio masterclass in London last week, Mayville revealed his thoughts on what he says is the unimaginative atmosphere that exists in some of the world’s biggest spirits brands.

He said, “I used to deal with some of the biggest brands in the industry: Captain Morgan’s Spiced Rum, Crown Royal, Seagram’s Gin – all the main brands.

“All we did was try to maintain consistency. If you came in with a new idea it was like “see ya later Charlie” because it’s all about the marketing and making the money at the end of the quarter.”

He continued, “When I worked for the big companies, Diageo especially, you were always on guard. It was all about the politics.”

Comparing this environment to that of Sazerac, he said, “It was really different. Here we treat it like our own business.

“I mean, we want to make money obviously. But we’re not out to gouge. I mean look at our pricing; we could easily charge more, so it’s a different type of company.”

Master blender Drew Mayville: “If you came in with a new idea it was like ‘see ya later Charlie’” (Photo: Spirits Business)

Sazerac is around four months in to its first Bourbon experiments at Warehouse X – a purpose-built million-dollar facility recently set up at the company’s Buffalo Trace distillery.

The warehouse hosts an array of monitoring equipment, and the company has set years aside to gauge the effects of a number of environmental factors in Bourbon production – including light, temperature, air flow and humidity – in an effort to create “the perfect Bourbon.”

Speaking on the experiments, Mayville was unable to go into great detail due to the infancy of the project, but said, “We’re not doing it to make a pot-full of money, it’s all about making better whiskey – that’s the motivation.

“As soon as you think you’re good that’s when the trouble starts.”

At a time when Bourbon stocks are still struggling to meet demand, the devotion of so much time and money to a project that won’t bear fruit for many years doesn’t faze Mayville.

He said, “A lot of companies might capitalise on the shortage and raise their prices. We’re not like that.”