Bourbon Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

From Protecting Youth To Peddling Pappy, W.Va.’s ABCA Commissioner Has A Dual Mission

Randy Yohe spoke with ABCA Commissioner Fred Wooton about the marketing, tourism and product enhancement initiatives that are key aspects of a forward-thinking mission statement.

Distributing beer, wine and spirits, along with enforcing and controlling the sales and consumption of alcoholic beverages are not the only priorities of West Virginia’s Alcohol Beverage Control Administration (ABCA).

Randy Yohe spoke with ABCA Commissioner Fred Wooton about the marketing, tourism and product enhancement initiatives that are key aspects of a forward-thinking mission statement.

This story has been lightly edited for clarity.

Yohe: When you were appointed to lead the Alcohol Beverage Control Commission in 2017, you helped get the Resort Bill passed. What new opportunities did that bring to West Virginia businesses?

Wooton: We had a large ski resort in West Virginia that basically had 20 different alcohol venues on the mountain there. Before the resort bill passed, they would buy 20 different sets of licenses. Now we can cover the entire mountain, up to 20 venues under one license. It just streamlines the process to apply for a license and to renew those licenses. Now they renew one as opposed to doing 20 in the past.

Yohe: Also in 2017, your annual report said you wanted to ensure the agency is meeting consumer demands and current industry trends. First of all, how are those determined?

Wooton: In West Virginia, we operate 182 privately owned retail liquor stores. My job is to make sure that we have the newest, latest products here to supply to the stores. I receive information from our suppliers, also our retail liquor store owners. They may hear about a product and they may call us up and say, “Hey, can you get XYZ product in the warehouse for us?” We run a bailment warehouse system and it’s about managing space. I want to put products in that warehouse that will sell. The stuff that does not sell there, we want to delist that product and move it out so we can bring the new innovations into the warehouse.

Yohe: High-end bourbon has become a national trend. You mentioned in a recent interim legislative committee hearing that West Virginia was not high on the national bourbon allocation list.

Wooton: That’s because of the size of our state. There are 1.8 million people here. They base those allocations on the size of the population of the state. What I would like to do in my role as the commissioner of ABCA is to meet with the suppliers and plead our case that we need more allocated products in the state of West Virginia. And so far, it’s been pretty successful.

Yohe: You talked about the promotional activities by your team to enhance the bourbon experience in the Mountain State. People like that Kentucky bourbon, and I know you sent some people to Kentucky and did something with barrels.

Wooton: Before I became commissioner, no ABCA commissioner had ever done this. We traveled down to Kentucky and we did private barrel selection picks. We actually taste a few products down there, and we make our selection and we bring those products back to West Virginia. Our suppliers put some type of a connotation – Blended for West Virginia, West Virginia Private Select, things like that. Those promotions have been great when we put that West Virginia connotation on those bourbons, they sell before they come into the state.

Yohe: And then you did something with area codes?

Wooton: We got three barrels of Maker’s Mark, we hand-numbered each of the bottles. West Virginia has two area codes, 304 and 681. And so when we hand-numbered those bottles, if you were the lucky person that purchased bottle 304 or 681, we awarded you the empty barrel. It was great.

Yohe: You also called the Pappy Van Winkle bourbon brand a unicorn. For the unenlightened, explain that term.

Wooton: Years ago, the name wasn’t as prevalent as it is today. You could find it on the bottom shelf at Walgreens. Now, it’s a phenomenon. It’s like finding a unicorn in finding a bottle of that stuff. It comes in a three bottle case. Last year, I think we received 52 cases of it. So we only received 156 bottles for the entire state. Trying to distribute 156 bottles is a real challenge. If I listened to my brokers and suppliers, they said send it to the five biggest stores in the state. That’s not my way to adequately and fairly distribute that product here. I told those lawmakers I want to send that product from Moundsville to Mullins, Huntington to Hedgesville so everyone in the state gets a shot at buying that rare, allocated bourbon.

Yohe: How’s the craft beer industry faring in West Virginia?

Wooton: It’s booming. We’ve got some great brewers here in downtown Charleston – Short Story, Fife Street. Our craft brewers statewide are outstanding. This year, there were some changes in legislation that actually allowed them to have a second point of manufacture. So if your business is doing great in Reedsville, you could open another brewery in another part of the state.

Yohe: Aren’t some of our beers here in West Virginia starting to take off regionally and nationwide?

Wooton: Absolutely. Our resident brewers have developed some distribution networks to move that beer out to our surrounding states.

Yohe: On the other hand, it’s also good to get a variety and to let that consumer see a variety. I see that Rhinegeist from Cincinnati recently came into West Virginia. That’s an example of a popular beer. So we can go both ways. We can export, we can import, right?

Wooton: Exactly right. It’s a win-win for West Virginia brewers and for our citizens to get to try beers from out of state.

Yohe: At ABCA, you’ve got a dual purpose. You have to make sure that there’s control and safety and public protection, especially with our youth. On the other hand, you’re working with a marketing and tourism governor that wants to see the best of those marketing and tourism efforts in almost all of his agencies, right?

Wooton: That’s absolutely right. Between Gov. Jim Justice and Tourism Secretary Chelsea Ruby, they’ve been a great partner to work with. We’ve run several large bills in the state legislature the past year. They’ve all been new innovations, new opportunities for our licensees in the state. I see things in a positive light. I think things are going great.

W.Va. Alcohol Commissioner Working To Increase High-End Bourbon Availability

Fielding questions from the interim Post Audits Subcommittee Sunday, Alcohol Beverage Control Commissioner Fred Wooten said he will use the leverage he has as the incoming chairman of the National ABCA to bring more single barrel bottles of Blantons, Maker’s Mark and others to state retailers.

“We’re a small state and we get small allocations, but I’m gonna try to use my role to bring more of that product to this state,” Wooten said. “I assume spiritual responsibility here. I’m a bourbon drinker.”

Wooten said his team is now bringing back barrels of high-end bourbon from Kentucky, labeling some bottles with West Virginia codes for a contest, and awarding winners the empty bourbon barrels.

“We have two area codes in the state of West Virginia, 304 or 681,” he said. “We hand numbered each one of those bottles there. If you got bottle 304 or 681, we awarded you the barrel.”

Wooten said 15 years ago, you could buy the rare Pappy Van Winkle bourbon from the bargain bin at Rite Aid. Now, he’s working to make Pappy available statewide.

“We want to send it from Mullins to Moundsville, from Huntington to Hedgesville, so that everybody in the state at least gets a shot at buying that product,” Wooten said. “There’s such a cult following that with Pappy Van Winkle. It’s like finding a unicorn.”

Wooten said the barrel giveaways have also featured the WhistlePig, Elijah Craig and Yellowstone brands.

Trump Tariffs Hold Promise, Peril For Ohio Valley Industries

The Trump administration has made good on a promise to impose steel and aluminum tariffs on some major U.S. trading partners, including the European Union, Canada and Mexico.

The U.S. commerce department exempted the EU, Canada and Mexico from a 25 percent tariff on steel and 10 percent tariff on aluminum in March. Those exemptions were set to expire in May, but countries were given one more month. U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross announced Thursday the exemptions were expiring and the tariffs will go into effect at midnight. The President is still able to cancel or extend those exemptions.

The move has major implications for the Ohio Valley, home to more than 220 steel and aluminum facilities. But other industries in the region could suffer from higher prices on raw materials and punitive tariffs other countries have pledged to impose targeting some of the area’s major export products.

The Century Aluminum smelter in Hawesville, Kentucky.

Aluminum On A Roll

The Ohio Valley still provides more than 44,000 jobs in the steel and aluminum industries despite sharp declines over the years due to foreign competition. Century Aluminum Executive Vice President Jesse Gary said President Trump’s decision to implement tariffs will increase U.S. production of aluminum by more than 60 percent by the end of the year.

“The goal of these tariffs was to restart U.S. production, to protect our national security as a country and to be sure we have some industrial base to service our military, to service our electrical grid and the other uses we have for aluminum in this country,” he said.

Century Aluminum is in the process of increasing production capacity at its smelter in Hawesville, Kentucky, which had earlier cut production and employment.

Brady Carwile applying for a job with Century Aluminum.

But Erica York, a Policy Analyst with the free-market think tank the Tax Foundation, said tariffs can carry a steep price for other U.S. industries. York said the Bush administration placed tariffs on steel for similar reasons and it ended up hurting workers.

“What we found then was that the higher prices of steel caused more American workers to lose their jobs than the number that were employed by the total steel industry itself at that time,” she said.

York predicts that while the industries protected by tariffs could see a bump in employment that is unlikely to last. In the long run, she said, the unintended consequences of the higher prices and job losses in other industries outweigh the short term benefits.

Maker’s Mark workers hand dip bottles in red wax.

Bourbon On The Rocks?

Another consequence of tariffs is the risk of retaliation by affected trading partners. The European Union has already indicated that retaliatory tariffs are coming. The EU filed a list of target US products, including agricultural goods and bourbon, something important for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s home state.

There are 32 distillery companies in Kentucky selling to customers around the world, including liquor giant Brown-Forman, where Paul Varga is CEO.

“A company like Brown-Forman could be an unfortunate and unintended victim of a policy which in part is aimed at promoting something which Brown-Forman is a stellar example of, committed long term American manufacturing company,” Varga said during a quarterly earnings call in March.

Barrels of bourbon are stored and aged for about 5-7 years.

The Kentucky Distillers’ Association said bourbon and distilled spirits accounted for more than $450 million in Kentucky exports last year, and nearly half of that went to European Union countries.

Association President Eric Gregory said in a statement that the distillers remain hopeful that continued negotiations will avoid a costly trade war. Gregory added that bourbon is an $8.5 billion industry in Kentucky, generating 17,500 jobs.