Most best-selling hard liquors were created by mavericks. From whiskey maker Jack Daniel to gin master Charles Tanqueray, the history of distilling is full of larger-than-life promoters. Today a new generation of spirit entrepreneurs is originating innovative brands for cocktail drinkers.
Probably the most successful of the recent crop was Sidney Frank, the booze baron who sold Grey Goose vodka to Bacardi for $2.3bn, the top price ever paid for a single spirits brand. He ran a major distiller called Schenley, before striking out on his own in 1972, and obtaining the US licence for Jägermeister, the German liqueur.
Later he launched his super-premium, French distilled vodka. Within eight years he had secured a spectacular disposal and become a cash billionaire. He knew that persuading drinkers to choose a specific liquor is all about marketing and a great story. So he chose a different country to produce his booze, with expensive packaging, while generating great PR. And his masterstroke was to charge even more for his product than Absolut vodka, then the most expensive such tipple around. The gamble worked, and cemented his fortune.