Research

For the past year, I've been reading everything I can about the spirits business and launching a new brand.  There is a lot out there!  Probably the best book is the story of how 42 Below Vodka was launched.

42 Below is a New Zealand vodka, and the founders' journey is not only informative, but as the title hints, very entertaining.  Their book is partly why I started this blog -- maybe someone can learn from what we are doing as well.

Another great book, though now out of print, is  The Business of Spirits, which is a good overview.  And one of the very first websites I looked at:  Start a Successful Liquor Brand.  Finally, I've haunted the American Distilling Institute's forums, which are a treasure trove of information.  Of course, I've read and researched a ton more, but all these sources are really good places to start.

Investors

We are now at the stage where we are ready to raise the money to launch our brand.  This coming week we'll be assembling Investor Packets, which contain our Business Plan, its Executive Summary, our financials (Start Up Expenses and Projected Sales) as well as a term sheet describing the investment.

We are looking for investors to contribute $10,000 for 1% of the equity in Three Meadows.  If an investor wants to be involved we would be thrilled.  We'd like them to host parties, to help create cocktail recipes, take photographs etc -- whatever interests them and will help Three Meadows.

As a friend remarked, it is like investing in a Broadway play -- the odds of success are against you, but if it is a success you will make a ton of money, and in any case you'll have a lot of fun along the way!

The fourth, and most recent, tasting

To recap, we went from six versions of our vodka to three, and then tested those three against premium vodkas already on the market.  For our most recent tasting, we compared our three variations to each other.  Our goal was to select one sample for refinement and final testing before going to market.

Here are the results of the tasting (from Tom's report):

1.  Sample #1 was felt by all to be sweet, and for two samplers too much so in either fragrance or flavor. Typical terms: fruity, candy, strawberry (twice), cherry, bubblegum, unidentified flower.

2. Sample #3’s fragrance did not provoke a consensus. Analogs ranged from marzipan to grapefruit to paint thinner, with one saying it was familiar but elusive, another that its subtlety still managed to conceal the alcohol smell.

3. Sample #6’s fragrance ranged most widely of the three, from none to orange, chocolate, something musty, a macaroon, and lilac or floral but not definitive.  Its flavor, likewise, drew a varied response: vanilla with a vodka aftertaste; a hint of violet, then alcoholy; clean, mint; a mix of nutty and (a second) minty, said to be like a pleasant mouthwash; and a subtle sweet cinnamon termed “lovely.”

4.  It’s useful to look at preferential comments, when a sampler felt moved to offer an unsolicited positive or negative assessment. In aggregate,  #1 had a pos/neg ratio of 4:5, #3 was 3:3, and #6 was 7:0. The comments for #6 in their entirety were: pleasant, clean smell, interesting, liked it, lovely, refreshing, flavorful.

And our conclusion:

Sample #6 was the favorite, with all positive preferences. Its fragrance intrigued testers but they couldn’t define it; a taste elicited descriptive responses, but they found no agreement. “Tangy marzipan” might be a commons for violet, mint, cinnamon, and vanilla. 

So, Sample #6 it is!  

Why did we name our company "Three Meadows"?

This is an easy one!  I live on a farm in the Hudson Valley, in Millerton NY, about 100 miles north of New York City.  In addition to many beautiful meadows,  hay and corn are grown here, and cows are pastured.  I also board retired horses, and currently have 10 horses and one donkey.  You can see more pictures of the horses here:  Sugar Maple Farm Equine Retirement Boarding

Our Second and Third Tastings

The tasting was a serious (but fun!) business

For our second and third tastings, we took the top three versions of our vodka from the first tasting, and compared them to three premium vodkas on the market:  Ketel One, Stolichnaya and Grey Goose.

Remarkably, all three of our versions beat out the established vodkas. This was heartening, though made it a bit difficult to decide which version we should focus on.

Our best scoring version, though, also had a few tasters who did not like it.  Most loved it, a few disliked it.  The number two version, we noted, won in the "most distinctive" category, and also had *no one* who commented negatively.  Though #2, it also scored very well.

Here are some of the tasters' comments for the top three finishers:


“stronger taste than smell,” intriguing, herbal maybe basil, “smoother than most vodkas,” "floral taste, “more herby and flowery,” 

"a bit sweet, flowery, with an aftertaste that’s either “really nice light” or “bitter”

"enjoyable," “would drink on rocks,” flowery with sweet aftertaste, comforting,"“combination of bite and depth,” but one said “rubbing alcohol” and another didn’t like the taste

The Vodka market

Spirits is currently a $245 billion global market.  Vodka is the top selling US spirit, which accounts for nearly a third of the country's sales by volume and half the category's growth.  Vodka sales have been increasing at 6% annually in the US.

from spiritsnotebook.blogspot.com"Spirits Industry Bucking Weak Local Economy"

         
(source: The Financial Times, May 4, 2012)
         

Our first tasting was in March.  We had six versions of our vodka, and we wanted to find which were the most delicious.  We ran the test very carefully, each person going one at a time, judging each sample for flavor and fragrance,  and not talking about their experience until the very end.

The results were heartening.  Three versions stood out as being the most popular.  No one was able to identify the taste, which was delightful,  but mysterious.

Our first tasters
L-R: Alicia Davis, Kelly Austin-Rolo, Theresa Quartararo, Ann Harding and I (missing: Cathy Fenn)

A little more about the basis of our vodka:

The smoothest vodka comes from the softest wheat.  The softest wheats are low protein wheats and soft white from New York rates as some of the softest in the world.  Most wheats are grown in dry climates and tend to have high protein and low starch content. New York’s climate makes it perfect for growing high starch wheat with our cool wet springs and moderate summer temperatures.  New York white wheat gives the distiller a wheat that is better for making high quality spirits than anywhere else in the North America. Our climate more closely matches the cool climates found in Scotland or Northern France or Holland. Making it easy for our master distiller to meet or exceed the quality of any European distillery. The wheat is combined with the pure clean waters of the Finger Lake Region, whose waters are passed over limestone in the same fashion as those waters found in Kentucky’s Bourbon Region and France's Champagne region.  

DISCLAIMER!

Since we may have new readers, or people new to us, let me say:

We have not yet launched our vodka!!

We've done a lot of things, and are well on our way, but we do not yet have vodka we can even pass out to our friends.  Soon!  But there are a lot of steps between here and there.  Stay tuned!

A meadow in our neighborhood

Our water comes  from the glacial depths of  Lake Cayuga,
in upstate New York.

We found a phenomenal distiller near us to make the super smooth taste we were looking for.  They use wheat to make clear spirits, though let me say our brand is gluten free.

Here's the story:  Farmers in  New York had two years of rainy weather at wheat harvest time.  As a result of this rain and the inability to harvest the wheat in the rainy weather, the wheat started to grow while still in the field.  While this sprouting may not seem to be a problem for people in the distilling for malt beverage business it is a disaster for the flour and baking business.  The natural malting of the wheat begins the process of converting the starch to sugar.  Malt is a wonderful thing for the distiller or brewer but as a flour mill owner and farmer it was something that caused serious problems.  After much thought the conclusion was reached that it was hopeless to try and change our wet climate. What was decided is that if you get lemons make lemonade.  Thus began the journey toward making alcohol.  

Other early steps included meeting with Josh Mackey, a partner with Iseman, Cunningham Reister & Hyde. Josh had great advice and encouragement for us, and he pointed us to a company that develops new alcohol formulations, which was fortunate as the kitchen table experiment was a fail.

We also met with Paula Smith, graphic designer extraordinaire, who translated our vision into a draft label.  Tom wrote a great business plan, and my husband John sat down with us to refine the financial statements for Three Meadows.

Almost a year ago the idea of starting an alcohol brand came to me.  The first thing I did was to partner with my neighbor of 20+ years, Tom Parrett.  Tom's an advertising creative director and writer.  I also sat down at my kitchen table with another neighbor to try and come up with the next new flavor.  The picture below shows all the flavorings and juices we tried.  What came from that experience, though, was the sure knowledge that we needed someone who knew what they were doing -- everything we concocted was vile!