Market Watch, January 2020

20 MARKET WATCH MARKETWATCHMAG COM JANUARY FEBRUARY 2020New Kid On The BlockIn its first year on the market New Riff Distilling makes its presence knownKen Lewis spent 38 years as the owner of Bellevue Kentucky liquor retailer The Party Source building it into a 40 million a year business and becoming a Market Watch Leader along the way But five years ago Lewis switched careers and became a distiller After selling The Party Source to his employees in 2014 he launched Newport Kentucky based New Riff Distilling New Riff rolled out its first products New Riff Bottled in Bond Bourbon 40 a 750 ml and Single Barrel Bourbon 50 in the fall of 2018 followed by its Bottled in Bond rye 48 in early 2019 The releases have garnered critical acclaim with the rye recently earning a place on Whisky Advocates Top 20 Whiskies of 2019 list finishing at No 17 New Riff focuses exclusively on bottled in bond and single barrel whiskies Thats our baseline says Lewis adding that his vision is for the company to become one of the great small distilleries of the world To help achieve that goal he tapped the consulting services of master distiller Larry Eber sold whose pedigree includes decades of experience at Seagrams Lawrenceburg Indiana distillery today MGP He also hired ex brewer Brian Sprance formerly of The Boston Beer Co as head distiller Jay Erisman who worked at The Party Source with Lewis is a co founder and serves as vice president of strategic development While bottled in bond is the core focus New Riff devotes an unusually high degree of attention to its single barrel program For many distillers single barrels can be a nuisance because they get in the way of production efficiencies it doesnt move the needle much to sell a few barrels to some one says Lewis But we expect to sell over half of our core products in single barrels Were also selling quarter and half barrels to the on premise as well as to individuals and groups so that people can become involved New Riff has shipped hundreds of private single barrels to on and off premise accounts across the U S Potential buyers can visit the distillery and receive an education on production aging and tast ing Well thief sample from the barrel for them and they can taste through every one Lewis says Well do that for the trade on and off premise We encourage even our most experienced trading part ners to send their employees here as a get to know New Riff experience The distillery is about 100 miles northeast of Louisville and its location directly across the Ohio River from Cincinnati has been helpful in attracting visitors Further down the road New Riff also plans to release branded expressions that go well beyond bottled in bonds 4 year aging requirement We hold back at least a third of our production for further aging Lewis says Long term it will be older products that help establish our reputation so were highly committed to making 8 10 or 12 year old whiskies New Riff is also a contract distiller although its own brands are taking a rising share of total output Branded production this year will account for 5250 barrels or about 66 of a total production of 8000 barrels Within about two or three years around 90 of our production will be for our own brands Lewis adds New Riff sold 23000 cases in 2019 with an even tual goal of hitting the 65000 75000 case mark The portfolio is widely available in Kentucky Ohio Indiana Pennsylvania and New Hampshire with limited distribution in Nashville and a Michigan launch planned for this year In some other markets New Riff has been developing relationships with key retailers including K L Wine Merchants Binnys Beverage Depot Total Wine More Garys Wine Marketplace and Happy Harrys Were looking to find first class retail partners and develop long term relationships in terms of their support and brand building says Lewis mwDavid FlemingSPIRITS SPOTLIGHTFounded in 2014 by long time beverage alcohol retailer Ken Lewis New Riff Distillerys first releases bottles pictured came in late 2018 While the brands bottled in bond offerings are the focus single barrels are also a priority