Monte Burrow is without doubt one of the cofounders of Blackleaf, an natural vodka. His enterprise accomplice, Kevin Larkai, met Bertrand Laclie, the proprietor of Maison Rene Laclie, a fifth-generation cognac firm, by probability whereas on trip in Cognac, France. They shaped a distillation partnership and created Blackleaf Natural Vodka. Burrow, who’s a seasoned professional in spirits operations and advertising and marketing with over 20 years of expertise, joined the Blackleaf group and has been pushing the vodka since. Now the vodka is on the market at liquor shops everywhere in the Atlanta metro space together with Residents Market in Phipps Plaza, Bankhead Seafood, Stockbridge Amphitheatre and the Thompson Resort in Buckhead. He dropped by rolling out to debate his natural vodka.
Why vodka over tequila or cognac?
I’d say ease into the business. So vodka doesn’t must be age. You don’t must undergo loads of the barrel processing that you simply cope with. So to know a possibility and a approach to enter right into a market, vodka simply made probably the most sense. Plus, cognac is seasonal. What which means is, when there is no distillation occurring with cognac, the stills are down, this chance to do different merchandise in there. So it simply made loads of sense to do a vodka, however making an attempt to do it otherwise, proper? So, if you happen to actually take into consideration the class, it’s considerably boring. Folks have seen the identical factor for years and years. I received’t title the manufacturers, but it surely’s gotten stale, and we needed to guarantee that we did one thing slightly totally different. So natural vodka, you get a product that’s baked with the perfect substances attainable utilizing the best distillation strategies on the market.
Why did you select to go natural?
Natural implies that within the precise processing of the pure ingredient, which is ours, is a wheat-based vodka, there’s no pesticides, no fertilizers, not one of the chemical compounds are within the product. So you consider it, higher in, higher out, and it’s a possibility to showcase these higher substances. It’s nothing attractive about being natural normally. So, one in all our taglines is making natural attractive, as a result of we’ve not solely a product with higher substances, but it surely’s one thing that it would be best to eat. We strategy merchandise loads of instances with our eyes first.
How do you are feeling about movie star branding and liquor endorsements?
So, the truth for us is the movie star element of any branding is a present and a curse. I received’t discuss what’s taking place within the information these days with movie star within the alcohol house, however I’m certain everybody is aware of completely some horror tales on the market, proper? And once more, it doesn’t imply that that’s all the time the case, however having come from the business. There’s so many different tales that I learn about which will haven’t even made it to the general public. So it’s a present and a curse relating to relating to movie star, I’d say collaboration for us once more. No pun meant, but it surely must be natural, proper? So leaning into alternatives as alternatives current itself, however the lead could be the product. So if we’re actually making an attempt to showcase the worth proposition inside our model, or what makes our model distinctive, if there’s a group on the market, whether or not it’s influences, micro or the like, it must be an natural match. We’re not chasing them, I’d say. However you already know, the place there’s an natural match, we’re all the time open to collaborations. And you already know, I feel being open to foster these relationships is essential. However we’re not ready for somebody to turn out to be the face of the model. The model will drive and develop by itself.