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The whiskey boom that began more than a decade ago seems to be fizzling out a bit, but most drinkers still have to pay a very pretty penny for rare and allocated bottles. That’s especially true when it comes to the lucrative (and largely illegal) secondary market, but one lawmaker in Ohio is angling to disrupt it with a pretty innovative proposal.
The whiskey industry was in pretty dire straits around the turn of the millennium before the tides began to turn toward the end of the 2000s thanks to a combination of factors, including the cocktail renaissance and the “Mad Men Effect” that injected new life into the brown spirits that were suddenly all the rage.
Many distilleries that had previously been struggling suddenly found themselves catering to a rapidly growing customer base as new competitors began to flood the market, and fans of whiskey—especially of the bourbon variety—quickly found themselves subjected to a firsthand lesson in the law of supply and demand as prices slowly but surely began to balloon.
Those increases have been particularly evident when it comes to highly sought-after bottles like Buffalo Trace’s allocated Antique Collection and the hallowed Pappy Van Winkle lineup, and while it’s theoretically possible to snag them at MSRP, the lion’s share tends to get resold by so-called “collectors” who charge astronomically marked-up prices on the secondary market (a practice that’s against the law in most states but is fairly hard to monitor).
Bottles that should sell for hundreds of dollars in a liquor store (at the very most) can end up getting flipped for thousands, and a legislator in Ohio is hoping to crack down on the practice with a bill that contains a very simple solution.
According to WCMH, Democratic State Senator Bill DeMora (who represents the capital city of Columbus) has floated Senate Bill 320, which would require any “allocated” spirit (defined as one sold in limited qualities at the liquor stores that are regulated by the state) to be opened at the time of purchase before it’s allowed to leave the premises.
Cracking open the bottles would essentially eliminate any demand on the secondary market, as you’d be hard-pressed to find many people willing to drop thousands of dollars with no feasible way to confirm the liquor it contains is actually what is advertised on the label given the potential for adulterating.
As the outlet notes, it doesn’t appear the bill will pass during the current legislative session based on the hurdles that would need to be cleared by the time it ends this month, but DeMora says he plans to keep pursuing the proposal and has floated another that would only allow people to buy a single allocated bottle every 30 days.
I can’t say I would have ever dreamed up this particular solution, but it seems like a pretty solid way to address an issue that’s become a sore point among whiskey fans like myself and it’ll be interesting to see if any other lawmakers draw some inspiration from it.