The Best Chef in the Hudson Valley is creating a cocktail for us!

We've completed our label and are starting to focus on the "hang tag" that will go on each bottle, and Serge Madikians has very generously agreed to create a cocktail recipe or two.  Serge owns Serevan, an amazing restaurant one town over from us.  Check out the gorgeous website.

Serevan is a country restaurant with an intimate sensibility. Over the past ten years, chef/owner Serge Madikians has developed an original, distinctive cuisine based on both his proximity to the farms of the Hudson Valley and his heritage as an Armenian from Iran.

I met Serge when I took my parents to his restaurant several years ago.  Hanging on the wall was an old photograph of a Tehran street scene.  My father took one look and instantly recognized Cafe Naderi, which was THE place to be when he was a young man.  We told our server this, and Serge came over -- his grandfather started the famous cafe!  

Cafe Naderi in 1947

Naderi café and hotel were built in 1927 by a Armenian immigrant called Khachik Madikians. It was named so because it was build along the then Naderi Avenue. The founder started his career in Tehran first with baking confectionaries and he used Naderi restaurant to introduce Iranians to European foods for the first time. Later on, he built another hotel with the same name close to Naderi café. After Grand Hotel, the Naderi Hotel was the second hotel to be built in Tehran. More about the istory of Cafe Naderi here

And with that "small world" connection, I was lucky enough to meet Serge, who is one of the most high profile, talented chefs, working on not only a local, but national, stage. I am thrilled that Three Meadows will experience some of his creativity and genius. We are unbelievably lucky!

So, we can't say this, but I wish we could!

Read the government warning.

(Alex and his team put this in, greatly improving the standard caution that no one ever reads . . . but it is not actually legal to change the language one iota, so sadly, it had to come out).

And on to the next step

Having obtained our Formula Approval, we are filing for our Label Approval this week.  We've refined it and made it even better.  Though i say it myself, it is world class!

The question on my mind right now is that our designer added some -- extremely funny -- text to the standard government warning . . . I doubt it can stay in, but we're running it by our lawyer.  Whether it stays in or not, I'll post it some time on the blog, but first I want to get the answer.

Some excellent news

Just got word on Friday that we got our Formula Approval.  Hurray!  That's our second approval down, one more to go before we can start production.  Our label goes in for approval within the next two weeks.

And another label update

We've hired the illustrator, and given her a brief for what we want.  She should have something for us within a few weeks.  Next, we've picked the photograph.  And today I am sitting down and working on the contracts for both.

Gift packaging

We've always thought our brand lends itself to gift giving, and as I've been canvassing people I've been getting a strong indication that our audience agrees.  We've toyed with the idea of creating a gift box, but the expense (both for the design, and for the production) are pretty high.  Our bottle is so pretty that one retailer told me to just put it in cellophane bags with a gorgeous ribbon.  She pointed out that we want our bottle (and any accompanying gift, if we do that) to be easily seen.

And the winner is . . . .?

After polling over 45 people, the results are in: over  2/3's went for one of these finalists.  To see which one, stay tuned for our launch :-).

Misleading label?

While I'm so focused on liquor labels, this came across my computer -- Tito's Vodka is being sued in a class action lawsuit, which claims the label is inaccurate:

This is a class action case brought on behalf of all purchasers of all vodka (“Vodka”) manufactured, distributed, marketed, and/or sold by FIFTH DIMENSION, INC. dba Tito’s Handmade Vodka (hereinafter “TITO’S”). Through a fraudulent, unlawful, deceptive and unfair course of conduct, TITO’S, and DOES 1 through 100 (collectively “Defendants”), manufactured, marketed, and/or sold their “TITO’S HANDMADE” Vodka to the California general public with the false representation that the Vodka was “handmade” when, in actuality, the Vodka is made via a highly-mechanized process that is devoid of human hands. There is simply nothing “handmade” about the Vodka, under any definition of the term,1 because the Vodka is: (1) made from commercially manufactured “neutral grain spirit” (“NGS”) that is trucked and pumped into TITO’s industrial facility; (2) distilled in a large industrial complex with modern, technologically advanced stills; and (3) produced and bottled in extremely large quantities (i.e., it is “mass produced”). - See more at: http://www.bevlaw.com/bevlog/#sthash.gdNOuFi7.dpuf

I am happy to say that every single word on our label is true :-)

This also illustrates one of my theories:  it is very hard -- perhaps impossible -- for a small, artisinal, farm distillery-type brand to scale up.  By definition such a brand has to be small as it is impossible to be handcrafted and also produced on a large scale.

label update

We are continuing to work on the label and are getting very close to being done.  We've narrowed the four photographs down to two finalists.  They are very different!  Alex has done a mock up of bottles with both versions and I'm going around and polling my friends (because they fit our customer profile).  With only preliminary results in the voting is 50 -50 between the two pictures.  I suppose this means we can't go wrong!

Art on the label, part 2

Besides nailing down the photograph, we're working on hiring an artist for our label too.  We've narrowed the list down to two artists, both of which are interested in the job.  Both women.  Very hard choice.

And again, the law degree comes in handy

We've selected four finalists for the label photograph, and today I'm drafting the contract for the purchase of rights.

Article on launching new drinks

Here's the link

Highlights include:

One important thing to keep in mind is value, according to Larry Levin, executive vice president for industry insights at IRI. Consumers are willing to pay more for products they find valuable and that make their lives better.

“New product innovation is truly at the heart of consumer demand,” he said. “Value doesn’t mean cheap, value means making my life better.”

And:

According to Levin, coffee and tea and beer, wine and spirits take the top two spots among categories driving sales in consumer packaged goods, and consumers don’t care whether new beverage products come from big or small companies as long as they meet their demand.

“New product launches are for anybody and everybody who’s listening to the hearts and minds of consumers,” he said.