by EllenJ » Mon Apr 01, 2013 12:32 pm
Heh-heh. Yep!
Of course, you also need to consider that it costs about a dollar fifty a bottle to make the whiskey, no matter how fancy the corn you use. Warehousing MIGHT be twice that, if you're amortizing a new warehouse, but not if it's been paid for decades ago. Taxes are the big thing, at $13.50/proof gallon for the feds and whatever for your state. I couldn't find anything on Rhode Island, but California sticks $3.30/PG on, and they're not known as a tax-friendly state. Double that per bottle for higher-than-100-proof (this is California; go figure. Your state may vary). So the cost to send a bottle of 80-proof, 1-year-old Ghost to the distributor (after which all bets are off as far as the distillery is concerned) should be a little under five bucks, while a bottle of 94-proof, 12-year-old Elijah Craig costs Heaven Hill, uh... a little under five bucks. Because it's higher than 100-proof, Buffalo Trace pays around $8.30 (in California) for each bottle of George T. Stagg you buy.
The REAL price of ANY whiskey is WETTWB (whatever-the-traffic-will-bear), and it always has been. P.T. Barnum had a phrase for some folks, involving how often one was born, but that's only with some brands, and most of us rationally prefer to spend a bit more for higher quality -- especially with our sippin' whiskey.
$26 dollars seems like a quite reasonable price for folks used to buying Stoli, or Rain, or Skyy (none of which are aged at all, nor are intended to be drunk neat), and will (at least for some people) taste better in the same mixed drinks as those white spirits would, don't you agree?
EDIT: I just realized that the state tax I was adding is per proof/gallon, not per 750ml bottle, so the cost is even less.