BEHINDTHEBRAND

Going For The Black 

    In a global spirits trade in which consumer tastes shift and realign, where beverage palates graduate over time and new trends in the way cocktails are served come into vogue, and nothing, ultimately, is sacrosanct, many a brand that does not change with the market dynamics sooner or later winds up unsold and forgotten, gathering dust, not dollars, behind the bar.
    No spirit, regardless of how illustrious its sales or embedded its image, is immune from this reality in a new and getting newer all the time cocktail age, where great rewards only tend to drive even greater risk and competition. And no one on the supply side of the spirits industry knows this better than Diageo North America, the U.S. division of the largest spirits company on the planet.

Reinventing Tequila
    With its Jose Cuervo Especial better known as Cuervo Gold, as well as the largest tequila portfolio of them all to boot, it might seem that Diageo PLC has a vested interest in maintaining the status quo in the tequila category. After all, when you’re on top, why compete against one’s own core brands with category rollouts that take patrons into new and uncharted taste territory?
    Yet that is precisely what Diageo has done with the 2006 launch of its Jose Cuervo Black Medallion tequila, a super-premium step up the ladder toward greater agave spirits that debuted in select markets in the United States last year. Far from the Cuervo that Baby Boomers drank in their college days, Cuervo Black Medallion may aspire to a whole new paradigm in tequila, as opposed to a super-premium label that represents nuance and refinement on tequila’s traditional taste profile.
    The launch of Cuervo Black Medallion –– the latest in a line of imported tequilas that includes Cuervo Especial, the No. 1  tequila worldwide, Jose Cuervo Clásico, Jose Cuervo Tradicional and Jose Cuervo Reserva de la Familia –– is about more than making a better Margarita.
    “Tequila is no longer just about shots and Margaritas,” Carlos Arana, managing director, Jose Cuervo International, says. “With Cuervo Black, Jose Cuervo is revolutionizing the way people think about and drink tequila. This smooth, rich and versatile spirit shatters tequila stereotypes by offering consumers a ‘step up’ in quality, taste and style while giving them a reason to stay in the tequila category.”
    Aged a minimum of 12 months like many other super-premiums, Cuervo Black’s taste distinction is achieved in part through its maturing in new charred oak barrels instead of the previously used barrels that are the standard in the tequila category. As the Cuervo master distillers in Tequila, Mexico, will tell you, the fire-charring process is done to eliminate impurities on the barrel’s interior so that the wood’s true tasting notes soak into the tequila.  
    As a result, the taste profile of Cuervo Black is more complex, with the conventional agave notes minimized in a unique aging process exclusive to this new super-premium that bequeaths an oaky flavor to the resulting spirit reminiscent of fine, aged whiskeys.

Cuervo and Cola
    The superlative leap in rich tequila taste and refined aromas makes Cuervo Black particularly well suited to be enjoyed on the rocks or mixed with cola and lime.
    “As consumers tastes evolve and their palates become more discerning, they seek products that reflect this heightened sense of quality,” says Neil Gallo, senior director, North America, Jose Cuervo International. “Cuervo Black is the perfect tequila to show the world you have grown up, not old.”
    With its national rollout now complete, making it available to operators at a full contingent of bar/club/lounge/resort venues throughout the United States, Cuervo Black already is meeting and exceeding expectations in some markets, says Yvonne Briese, Cuervo Black brand manager. “At on-premise promotions (via custom research), more than 75 percent of consumers rated Cuervo Black good or excellent.” NCB