By Sacha Delfosse – editor bars&clubs
Sydney’s award-winning Eau-de-Vie bar has launched a range of small batch bottled cocktails, which will see the bar extend its reach beyond the on-premise channel.
The initial range features two cocktails – a Cold Drip Negroni and a Coconut & Banana Rum Old Fashioned – in 120ml small bottles, with the bar planning to add more to the range in the coming months.
Launching its own brand of cocktails has been on the cards since Eau-de-Vie opened, owner Sven Almenning told TheShout, with the intention of making “the Eau-de-Vie brand bigger than just the bar”.
“We set up a new company that will sell the drinks and license the Eau-de-Vie brand.
“[The drinks] will always be made by our bartenders, but we are hoping to go to some scale. The feedback we’ve gotten from retailers and people is that they think there is definitely an opportunity for this to be a trend,” Almenning said.
The target market for the new bottled cocktail range is not the on-premise, although Almenning says they might suit some bars. The real aim is to give people, especially Eau-de-Vie patrons, a chance to enjoy good cocktails at home.
“We have a pretty mature crowd at the Eau-de-Vie bar, people who may not be able to go out three to four nights a week, but people who do like to have a drink and unfortunately the culture in Australia isn’t to make your own cocktails at home, people think it’s difficult,” Almenning said.
“So the idea here is basically even if you are at home playing poker with your friends or having a quite dinner with the wife you can still pour yourself a quality Eau-de-Vie cocktail at home.”
Initially the range will be available in local bottle shops located near or around the bar, with discussions already underway to secure larger distribution. In addition, The Kirketon Hotel (where Eau-de-Vie is located) will be stocking the cocktails in its rooms – with a few other hotels in the area also interested in doing the same.
“We are just going to test it and see if its something that consumers are keen on – obviously the price point is very different from a standard RTD, so it remains to be seen if people are willing to pay this kind of price to have a good quality cocktail at home,” Almenning said.
“We are still discussing [the price] with retailers, we’re hoping that it will land in the bottle shops for $15-16. We think it’s a good price – you’d be paying $20-24 at Eau-de-Vie for these cocktails. It’s as cheap as we can have it go to the retailers for, so hopefully they’ll be able to sell it at that price and make the margin that they need to.”