Price Gouging? At the LCBO? Never! Or so I thought...
I've defended the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO) several times in the past (see my post here), and I still believe that the system as it is works to a great extent (although many will disagree with me). However, I'm finding it harder and harder to do so. A couple of weeks or so ago, Martini wrote about his experience dealing with the LCBO with respect to the fact that it had suddenly ceased stocking the Auchentoshan Three Wood. I off-handedly commented that, based on his success in getting a response from them, I should also contact the LCBO and ask if they had any plans to stock the Talisker 57' North, Storm, or Port Ruighe, and/or the new Aberlour 12 year-old non-chill-filtered expression. He said I should. So I did.
And what would you know, I got a fairly quick response. Yes, they were planning to stock the Talisker 57' North, but no, they weren't planning to stock the new Aberlour 12. A few days later, while perusing the LCBO website, I noticed that they did indeed have the 57' North in inventory, but it was limited in supply and it was...could I be reading that right? It was $174.95 for a 700ml bottle? Has the LCBO lost its collective mind? $174.95 for a No-Age-Statement whisky? Ok, so it is a cask strength, or "Special Strength", whisky, and it is really, really good (I still need to do a write-up on the mini-Talisker Vertical we did in December), but is it really worth that much? And I say "Special Strength" because it has to be adulterated in some way: every other cask strength whisky the LCBO has in stock seems to vary in strength between batches.
Speaking of those other cask strength whiskies, just how much do they cost? Well, a quick search of the LCBO site turns up the following, and probably non-exhaustive, list:
If you compare these prices to the standard distillery expressions, such as the Aberlour 10 (~$45), the Bowmore 12 (~$52), or the Glenlivet 12 (~$48), the prices of the cask strength expressions appear to be close to double the price of the regular expressions. The exceptions being the Springbank, which is only about $20 more expensive than the standard Springbank 10 (~$80), the Arran, which, aside from the Robert Burns Single Malt, is actually the cheapest Arran expression at the LCBO at the moment, the Macallan, which is only $7 more expensive than the Macallan 12 (~$93), and the Glenfarclas, which is actually $6 cheaper than the Glenfarclas 15...
Does this general trend (if you want to call it that) of 'double-the-price-of-the-standard-expression' justify the 57' North being listed at more than twice the price of the Talisker 10 (which is itself around $80)? Certainly not, especially when you look the 57' North up on wine-searcher.com, where you find that the average price for a bottle is around $80, that the price topped out at around $111 back in 2008 when it was first released, and that it has hovered around the $80 mark for the past three years (for a 750ml bottle, no less). Also, the prices for the Macallan Cask Strength and the Springbank 12yr Cask Strength - if you want to use a 'luxury', recognizable brand of whisky and an independent 'craft' whisky for comparison - are only around $25 more expensive at the LCBO, respectively, than they are on wine-searcher.com. So why the huge mark-up on the 57' North? Did the LCBO not leverage its vast buying power, as it has been advised to do by the Ontario Auditor General, and pass on the savings to its customers? Obviously not, unless, of course, the gouging is coming from the distiller / distributor and not the LCBO...which it could be, I suppose.
Still, I find it interesting that as the LCBO began to stock both the Talisker Distiller's Edition (now gone from inventory, but it was listed at $109.95 when they did have it) and the 57' North, it discontinued the Talisker Collection, which contained three 200ml bottles, one each of the standard Talisker 10, the Distiller's Edition, and the 57' North (I used one for that mini-Talisker Vertical I mentioned above). The LCBO had the Talisker Collection priced at $64.95, which was an absolute steal when you consider the per millimetre cost, at the current prices, of its component parts: 200ml of Talisker 10 will run you $21.32 right now, while 200ml of the Distiller's Edition would have been $29.32, and 200ml of the 57' North will cost you $49.99, for a grand total of $100.63...did they drop the Talisker Collection knowing that it was priced more fairly than the full-sized bottles? We'll never know...
Despite my overall general feelings of goodwill toward the LCBO (you can still get fantastic Canadian whisky at very reasonable prices!), I just can't understand the mark-up on the 57' North, and while I'm usually willing to defend the LCBO against allegations of price gouging, etc., I can't in this case. And, as much as I love the 57' North, I won't be buying a bottle of it here in Ontario...I'll have to make do with picking one up when I'm on vacation in July.
And what would you know, I got a fairly quick response. Yes, they were planning to stock the Talisker 57' North, but no, they weren't planning to stock the new Aberlour 12. A few days later, while perusing the LCBO website, I noticed that they did indeed have the 57' North in inventory, but it was limited in supply and it was...could I be reading that right? It was $174.95 for a 700ml bottle? Has the LCBO lost its collective mind? $174.95 for a No-Age-Statement whisky? Ok, so it is a cask strength, or "Special Strength", whisky, and it is really, really good (I still need to do a write-up on the mini-Talisker Vertical we did in December), but is it really worth that much? And I say "Special Strength" because it has to be adulterated in some way: every other cask strength whisky the LCBO has in stock seems to vary in strength between batches.
Speaking of those other cask strength whiskies, just how much do they cost? Well, a quick search of the LCBO site turns up the following, and probably non-exhaustive, list:
- Aberlour A'Bunadh - $94.95 (59.5% ABV; NAS);
- Arran Cask Strength - $75.95 (54.1% ABV; 12yr);
- Bowmore Laimrig - $98.95 (54.4% ABV; 15yr);
- Glenfarclas 105 - $81.95 (60% ABV; 10yr);
- Glenlivet Nadurra - $82.95 (54.2% ABV; 16yr);
- Macallan Cask Strength - $99.95 (60.1% ABV; NAS)
- Springbank Cask Strength - $102.95 (54.6% ABV; 12yr)
If you compare these prices to the standard distillery expressions, such as the Aberlour 10 (~$45), the Bowmore 12 (~$52), or the Glenlivet 12 (~$48), the prices of the cask strength expressions appear to be close to double the price of the regular expressions. The exceptions being the Springbank, which is only about $20 more expensive than the standard Springbank 10 (~$80), the Arran, which, aside from the Robert Burns Single Malt, is actually the cheapest Arran expression at the LCBO at the moment, the Macallan, which is only $7 more expensive than the Macallan 12 (~$93), and the Glenfarclas, which is actually $6 cheaper than the Glenfarclas 15...
Does this general trend (if you want to call it that) of 'double-the-price-of-the-standard-expression' justify the 57' North being listed at more than twice the price of the Talisker 10 (which is itself around $80)? Certainly not, especially when you look the 57' North up on wine-searcher.com, where you find that the average price for a bottle is around $80, that the price topped out at around $111 back in 2008 when it was first released, and that it has hovered around the $80 mark for the past three years (for a 750ml bottle, no less). Also, the prices for the Macallan Cask Strength and the Springbank 12yr Cask Strength - if you want to use a 'luxury', recognizable brand of whisky and an independent 'craft' whisky for comparison - are only around $25 more expensive at the LCBO, respectively, than they are on wine-searcher.com. So why the huge mark-up on the 57' North? Did the LCBO not leverage its vast buying power, as it has been advised to do by the Ontario Auditor General, and pass on the savings to its customers? Obviously not, unless, of course, the gouging is coming from the distiller / distributor and not the LCBO...which it could be, I suppose.
Still, I find it interesting that as the LCBO began to stock both the Talisker Distiller's Edition (now gone from inventory, but it was listed at $109.95 when they did have it) and the 57' North, it discontinued the Talisker Collection, which contained three 200ml bottles, one each of the standard Talisker 10, the Distiller's Edition, and the 57' North (I used one for that mini-Talisker Vertical I mentioned above). The LCBO had the Talisker Collection priced at $64.95, which was an absolute steal when you consider the per millimetre cost, at the current prices, of its component parts: 200ml of Talisker 10 will run you $21.32 right now, while 200ml of the Distiller's Edition would have been $29.32, and 200ml of the 57' North will cost you $49.99, for a grand total of $100.63...did they drop the Talisker Collection knowing that it was priced more fairly than the full-sized bottles? We'll never know...
Despite my overall general feelings of goodwill toward the LCBO (you can still get fantastic Canadian whisky at very reasonable prices!), I just can't understand the mark-up on the 57' North, and while I'm usually willing to defend the LCBO against allegations of price gouging, etc., I can't in this case. And, as much as I love the 57' North, I won't be buying a bottle of it here in Ontario...I'll have to make do with picking one up when I'm on vacation in July.