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Eau De Vie launches RTD cocktail range
Australian bar Eau De Vie has agreed a nationwide distribution deal with Vintage Cellars to release its first bottled small-batch cocktails range.
Australia’s Eau De Vie bar has launched its first small batch RTD cocktail range now available nationwide in Vintage Cellars stores
The collection consists of three ready-to-drink cocktails that are now available in Vintage Cellars stores across Australia and promises to offer consumers the chance to enjoy “bar quality cocktails” at home.
“We’ve been wanting to do this for years and am really excited to see this project come to live,” said Sven Almenning, owner of Eau De Vie.
“The idea really is to give our guests and other cocktails fans the opportunity to enjoy a great Eau de Vie quality cocktails at home without the fuss and mess that sometimes accompanies making these yourself.”
The current selection offer a choice of three RTD drinks, Cold Drip Negroni, Coconut & Banana Rum Old Fashioned and Smoked Bacon & Maple Manhattan.
“My wife Amber and I have had the bartenders at Eau De Vie prepare batched cocktails for years,” explained Almenning. “Although we of course can easily prepare great cocktails at home, having them pre-made makes it easier when entertaining, as well as making cocktails at home a lot more spontaneous.
“The feedback we’ve had when hosting parties at home and when bringing them along to dinners and private poker nights etc. has always been positive so I eventually decided it was time to give them a go.”
Despite a 70% tax hike on RTDs in 2008, which led to a volume decline of more than 13% in the same year and continual shrinkage of the category to almost half its size in 2007, premix remains the largest category in Australia, comprising 43.6% of the total spirits market.
On the other side of the world, London’s White Lyan has also jumped on the RTD bandwagon. Founded by mixologists Iain Griffiths, formerly at Bramble in Edinburgh and Eau De Vie, and Ryan Chetiyawardana formerly of 69 Colebrook Row, Purl and Worship Street Whistling Shop in London, White Lyan has a stritly no perishables rule and all cocktails are pre-batched and made using only house spirits with no ice.
For more information on the RTD category in Australia see the March issue of The Spirits Business.