The Tasting Panel magazine

August 2012

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LAUNCH PAD A Favorite with the Ladies As a source for spirits in San Francisco, Future Bars' Cask is a new breed of retailer, one that aims high and succeeds in pleasing both enthusiasts and the trade with its selections. Manager Amanda Womack, 31, has been with Cask for three years and worked in the spirits industry for the last seven. After her fi rst gig, at Lewell's in Redhook, Brooklyn, she has never looked back. "We use a collective model to evaluate and select products," Womack states. "Every product is tasted by our four-person staff before we allocate shelf space." Womack pays close attention to the industry and takes note when unfamiliar prod- ucts show up on cocktail menus—and she listens to customer requests. Cask stocks up to 40 different gins at any given time and rotates inventory so every brand gets play. "We discovered Uncle Val's after several female customers requested it," said Womack whose clientele is about 35 percent female. Three out of four staff members at Cask are women, and Womack believes that this instills confi dence in female shoppers. Over the last four years, Cask has seen an increase in gin's popularity and in just the last year and a half noted a big jump in the number of customers aged 21–25 who are purchasing gin. "As more and more consumers started making complex cocktails at home, this category has also grown in popularity. " While "American" is not a formal Amanda Womack of San Francisco's Cask. 54 / the tasting panel / august 2012 gin style, more botanical gins are being produced and consumed in U.S. than ever before. "At Cask, botanical gins such as Uncle Val's are defi nitely a leading trend in the category, says Womack. "They contribute sought- after complexity to cocktails."

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