Pernod Ricard is adding to its Bourbon portfolio through the co-creation of Mary Dowling Whiskey Co.
The business, which debuts with two namesake iterations, is a joint venture between the Paris-headquartered group and Kaveh Zamanian, the founder of the Rabbit Hole Bourbon brand. The partners know each other, dating back to Pernod Ricard’s purchase of majority control of Rabbit Hole – marking its return to the category after a ten-year hiatus – in 2019.
First out of the traps from the JV are two iterations; Mary Dowling Tequila Barrel and Mary Dowling Double Oak Barrel. The pair of Kentucky straight Bourbons were rolled out late last month to 12 US markets, including Florida, Illinois and Texas, at SRPs of US$75 and $130, respectively.
Mary Dowling Whiskey Co is named after “the most successful and influential female distiller in the male-dominated world of pre-prohibition Bourbon”. According to the JV: “Her whirlwind, awe-inspiring story – filled with various life-altering events, including the death of her husband, a distillery fire, the founding of a bank, furious legal battles and shifting production to Juárez, Mexico during prohibition – had been unknown by many and lost for decades until now.”
Back in 2009, Pernod Ricard withdrew from Bourbon, divesting Wild Turkey to Campari Group for US$575m, a move designed to help deal with debt brought on by the acquisition of Absolut Vodka owner Vin & Sprit a year later. One decade on, the company bought into Rabbit Hole before acquiring Jefferson’s Bourbon owner Castle Brands outright a week later.
“We welcome this great brand portfolio, in particular, Jefferson’s bourbon whiskey, to the Pernod Ricard family,” said CEO Alex Ricard at the time. “Bourbon is a key category in the US which is our single most important market.”
Also this week, Global Drinks Intel reported exclusively on Pernod Ricard’s creation of the global CMO position.
Why infinite whiskey/whisky onto finite US shelves won’t go – Market Intel
