Bristol Spirits

[mrmaltster]

Hi, all - Does anyone know about the availability of the Bristol Spirits Classic Rums line in the New York City area? Thanks.

Jay

[ctgm]

I have talked to BS and they were recently asked the same question by a German-American. They just found out that their importer into the US doesn't cover NYC! Their improters are Californian Vineyards Incoporated and it might be possible to buy on the net.

Now I don't know the laws you guys have but presume that that is the problem. If they had to find an importer for NYC who would be best? Would it be someone like Park Avenue Liq?

[mrmaltster]

A classic case of Small World Syndrome. I'm that "German-American" who asked them and also the guy who got back to them with CVI's reply that their rums weren't available in NYC I called them a couple days ago after not getting any replies to my post here. They gave me CVI's number and suggested I get in touch. Oh well, nice try. You're right, though, a few of the bottlings are available online. I found some at and one at . I also found a source here in Germany, but since I'll be in NYC next week for a couple weeks I was hoping to find some there, too. The bottlings offered in the US are different vintages than what we find here in Europe. Seems BS bottles some casks at 0.75 L for the US market and others at 0.7 L for the European market. That's a pretty standard practice for independent bottlers of single malts, too.

Thanks for checking and posting back!

Cheers,

Jay

[mrmaltster]

Hmmm, the URLs I posted didn't show up. Is posting URLs a no-no here? How about just Internet wines and Sams Wine Hope that works.

[ctgm]

Jay,

Tis a small world!

The reason for 75cl vs 70cl is purely down to reasons of tax and US law. As I am sure you are aware the US only allows imports of 75cl bottles. Here in the UK we tend to go for 70cl because of less tax per bottle. For your info the Duty on a 75cl bottle at 46% is £6.75 ex VAT and the equiv 70cl bottle is £6.30. It doesn't sound a big difference this £0.45 but here in the UK if you put a 30% mark-up on this and then add VAT it adds £0.75 per bottle which often can push the price over what people are prepared to pay.

As for the different vintages between US and Europe, I presume that this is solely down to what stocks are being carried. BS tends to buy a large parcel of casks of the same vintage and distillery and then bottle it once stocks have run out. For example their Monymusk - I know that the current Europe age is 25yo but I know that there is some 23yo knocking about and think that there must be some 21yo somewhere.

As for the best importer for the NYC region, any thoughts?

[mrmaltster]

ctqm -

Thanks for that info on VAT amounts. I hadn't seen an actual figure before. Re bottle size and US vs. EU vintages....I had a discussion once with an indy bottler of single malt whisky about this. I'd sampled one of his caskstrength bottlings in the US but couldn't find it here. Nobody here had even heard of this particular bottling. When I asked if he knew where I might still find a bottle, he mentioned that since it was a single cask and he'd only get approx. 200 bottles from it, he'd decided not to split it into different sizes, but rather bottle it all at 0.75 L for the US market. Makes sense from a marketing and bottom-line viewpoint. Luckily a friend in NY was able to track down one of the few remaining bottles for me Re an importer in the NY area....dunno, but I'll check around while I'm there.

Cheers,

Jay

Edited October 14, 2003 by mrmaltster (log)