Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/35876
Bourbon is the number-one priority at Beam.” Marketing Innovation Experience has taught George something about the aver- age bourbon buyer: “Consumers don’t want to talk about your brand; they want to talk about experiences they’ve had with your brand.” As George explains, both the unique process involved in creating Devil’s Cut and the memorable product name referencing the angels’ share give consumers a succinct way to share their knowledge and appreciation of the brand with their peers. Beam calls this “simple connois- seurship”—another way of saying that a customer who feels smart about the product is a happy customer. “People are interested in heritage and story and authenticity,” continues George, and Beam is prepared to deliver on all three fronts. Like Beam products in other categories—Cruzan Rum, Thatcher’s Organic Liqueurs and Skinnygirl Margarita, for example—the company’s bour- bons are closely tied to real people, not fictional personali- ties. In the case of Devil’s Cut, the face behind the brand is Fred Noe, seventh in a lineage of Beam bourbon distillers (see Kentucky sidebar on page 55). Richie Moe of Scottsdale’s Citizen Public House. Inspiration for Homemade Ingredients Richie Moe hands us a small snifter—but it’s upside down. On the concave top of the bottom of this glass is a pool of dark brown liquid. “Take a whiff and tell me what you smell,” Moe encourages us to guess. It’s a deep and brooding aroma—reminiscent of my Knob Creek Single Barrel Reserve is superb sipped alone or as a base for classic cocktails such as this Manhattan being mixed at Bourbons Bistro in Louisville. While Beam’s bourbons can be as quaint as Old Grand- Dad, as iconic as Jim Beam, as sophisticated as Knob Creek Single Barrel Reserve or as daring as black cherry–infused Red Stag, the company is taking full advantage of today’s technology not only to develop new products but to market them. Social media provide “a listening tool” for George and his marketing team, as well as a virally-active network grandfather’s pipe tobacco. And I am not far off course. Moe, a talented mixologist and partner in what is now Scottsdale’s most talked-about upscale gastro pub— Citizen Public House—has concocted his own tobacco and leather infused bitters. The formula is part of his swarthy drink, the Black Manhattan. He has used Maker’s Mark with it, but tonight he chooses Jim Beam White Label. “I made a Tahitian vanilla bean–infused maple syrup to tone down the sweet vermouth,” he explains. This takes the cocktail to a sweet tone with a density that transitions from piquant to penetrating and back to sweet. The drink is garnished with toasted orange peel and a skewer of Marasca cherries. “Since Jim Beam is a sour mash, it contains less sugar than some other bourbons; so when I add my sweet vermouth, the maple syrup balances out the drink a bit more.” —Meridith May july 201 1 / the tasting panel / 53 PHOTO: MERIDITH MAY PHOTO: FRED MINNICK