The companies that own the rights to the 16 luxury alcohol brands in the world that cracked our list have cracked the code on how to position their brands in such a way that customers immediately start associating their brands not just with quality, but with luxury. This positioning is usually done by price. Most companies that provide premium and high-end products usually do so with a hefty mark-up. For example, Starbucks’ coffee is usually more expensive than alternatives from its competitors, which is why Starbucks is considered a premium brand, in addition to having excellent coffee, cozy restaurants and fancy terms like “venti”.
Ok, maybe Starbucks is not the best example to show how luxury brands are positioned. Watches is probably a better one. Most people are familiar with Rolex, Patek Philippe, and Breitling. These watches carry price tags of thousands of dollars and even though they are of excellent build quality and are sometimes made from expensive materials, they nonetheless remain watches. The basic function of a Rolex and a Timex is the same, to tell time. However, through the higher price tag, Rolex represents a luxury item and Timex is just a watch.
Luxury brands don’t just provide their owners with sales of expensive products, but companies often diversify their range of products to offer cheaper alternatives which generate much higher revenue due to a larger number of products being sold. Alcohol is a great example that illustrates this. For example, Johnnie Walker is a brand of whiskey which is owned by Diageo plc (ADR) (NYSE:DEO), and its most expensive Blue Label goes for as much as $200 per bottle, making it one of the most expensive brands of whiskey, not including rare and old blends that go for thousands of dollars. At the same time, there are cheaper bottles of Johnnie Walker whiskey.
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What also makes alcohol an interesting type of product when looking at brand positioning is that companies don’t have many avenues to stand out in terms of quality. In the case of cars or smartphones, companies can compete with each other in terms of design, build quality, and special features, while everything with alcohol is pretty much the same, with the exception of some details like the quality of ingredients. Take for example vodka, the plainest of alcohol drinks. Vodka lacks both taste and smell, yet there is cheap vodka that you can get at Wal-Mart for less than $10, and then there are more expensive brands like Grey Goose, which costs over $30 per bottle.
Having said that, let’s take a closer look at our list of 16 luxury alcohol brands in the world. For some of the brands, that offer a wider assortment that is oriented towards more consumers, we will also provide the brand value, while for more exclusive brands we will mention some of the products they are offering and their prices.
For less expensive alternatives, we suggest you take a look at the 10 best bourbons under $50 after perusing the following list, which begins on the next page.
16. The Last Drop
We are starting our list of luxury alcohol brands in the world with The Last Drop, that is a blended Scotch Whiskey that comes from two veterans of the spirits world, Tom Jago and James Espey, who also created brands like Johnnie Walker Blue Label, and Chivas Regal 18. Last year, The Last Drop released a 50-year-old “double matured” blended scotch whiskey, which costs around $4,500 per bottle. Each bottle is blended from more than 50 whiskeys, which spent 30 years in bourbon casks and 20 years in sherry casks. The end result is a multi-layered whiskey with distinctive notes of two types of wood.
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15. Royal Salute
Royal Salute is another brand of whiskey from the Chivas Brothers. The brand was launched in 1953 to honor the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II and is named after the traditional 21-gun salute. Royal Salute Scotch whiskey is aged at least 21 years, which is one of the reasons it is among the most expensive. Among Royal Salute’s crown jewels is the “Tribute to Honour”, which is a blend of whiskeys aged for at least 45 years, and which comes in a bottle encrusted with diamonds that costs around $200,000.
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14. Courvoisier
Courvoisier is a brand of cognac owned by Beam Suntory, a subsidiary of Japanese company Suntory Holdings. Courvoisier has bottles with price tags averaging from $30 to over $72, but it also has more expensive bottles. In 1988, Courvoisier partnered with renowned Art Deco designer Erté, who created limited edition cognac bottles with seven unique designs, each representing a stage in the cognac distillation process. Erté died in 1990, shortly after the bottles were made, and to honor his death, Courvoisier released a final, eighth bottle. Each bottle of Courvoisier Erté costs over $48,000. A 1789 vintage Courvoisier & Curlier, its oldest bottle, was sold at an auction at $153,000.
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13. Perrier-Jouët
Another one of luxury alcohol brands in the world is Perrier-Jouët. Perrier-Jouët is a brand of champagne from the house with the same name that was founded in 1811 and owns 266 acres of vineyards in the Champagne region. The champagne house is currently owned by the Pernord Ricard and produces around 3 million bottles of champagne each year. Its prestigious sub-brand is called Belle Epoque, one bottle of which costs well over $1,000.
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12. Dom Perignon
Dom Perignon ranks 12th in our list of luxury alcohol brands in the world. It is what happens when champagne meets luxury. Dom Perignon comes from Champagne house Moët & Chandon. The house produced 41 white Dom Perignon vintages from 1921 to 2006 and 24 rosé vintages from 1959 to 2004. The prices for Dom Perignon start at around $200 per bottle and older bottles are often traded at auctions. In 2010, a buyer bought a Dom Pérignon Rosé Oenothèque, which included 30 rosé bottles, at an auction in Hong Kong for $170,640.
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11. Ron Zacapa Centenario
Ron Zacapa Centenario is a premium brand of rum considered one of the luxury alcohol brands in the world. It’s produced in Guatemala by Rum Creation and Products and is distributed by Diageo plc (ADR) (NYSE:DEO). Ron Zacapa is among the most expensive rums, with a bottle of 23-year-old rum going for around $430 per bottle, while Zacapa XO is at around $130 per bottle.
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10. Meritage
Meritage red and white wines come from California and resemble Bordeaux wines, but can’t be considered Bordeaux due to the region’s protected designation of origin. Meritage wines are made by various winemakers that have to license the Meritage trademark from the owner, Meritage Alliance. There are many Meritage wines available for under $20, like Trader Joe’s Grand Reserve Napa Valley Meritage, which costs $13, but there are also more expensive bottles like the 2000 La Joie from Vérité Winery, which goes for $100, or the 2003 Cariad from Colgin Cellars, which costs $600. The Meritage Icewine from Royal DeMaria costs around $18,000.
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9. Macallan
Up next in our list of luxury alcohol brands in the world is Macallan that is a brand of single malt Scotch whiskey that is made by The Macallan Distillers Ltd., which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Edrington Group. A regular bottle of Macallan, which contains 10-year-old or 12-year-old whiskey, costs around $55, while the more expensive Macallan 25-year-old can go to $1,300 per bottle. The most expensive Macallan is the V6, which costs $4,900 per bottle. A bottle of Macallan Lalique 62-year-old whiskey costs over $30,000.
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8. Chateau Lafite Rothschild
Chateau Lafite Rothschild has been owned by the Rothschild family (yes, that one) since the 19th century. It regularly produces some of the most expensive bottles of red wine. The average price of newer Lafite Rothschild wines is around $900, but it is also responsible for some of the most expensive bottles of wine sold at auction. In 2010, a bottle of 1869 Lafite Rothschild was sold at an auction for $220,000, which made it the most expensive bottle ever sold at the time.
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7. Chateau Pétrus Wine
Pétrus wine comes from a small wine estate in Bordeaux, which makes red wine from Merlot grapes. Pétrus is considered among the most expensive wines, with a regular bottle averaging over $2,600. There also are some vintage wines, with one bottle going under the hammer at $144,000 in 2011.
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6. Hennessy
The next of the 16 luxury alcohol brands in the world we’ll consider is Hennessy, a cognac brand that carries a value of $2.71 billion and sells around 50 million bottles each year. The brand is part of Moet Hennessy’s portfolio, which is owned by Diageo plc (ADR) (NYSE:DEO) and LVMH, which hold stakes of 34% and 66%, respectively. Hennessy has plenty of cheaper types of cognacs that cost between $20 and $40, but it also has “Beauté du Siècle” (“The Beauty of the Century”) which costs around $180,000.
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5. Louis XIII
Louis XIII ranks 5th in our list of luxury alcohol brands in the world. It is a cognac produced by the House of Remy Martin, which is headquartered in the town of Cognac. The brand is synonymous with luxury, with its cognacs being sold in boutiques and usually coming in great-looking bottles. Last year, a bottle of Louis XIII cognac, called “L’Odysee D’un Roi” (“Journey of a King”) fetched $134,750 at auction.
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4. Martell
Martell is a brand of cognac and one of the oldest cognac houses, which was founded in 1715 by Jean Martell. The brand is currently part of a subsidiary of Pernod Ricard. One of the brand’s most expensive bottles is L’Or de Jean Martell, which comes in a crystal decanter and costs over $3,100.
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3. Chivas Regal
Chivas Regal is a brand of blended Scotch whiskey produced by Chivas Brothers, which is owned by France-headquartered Pernod Ricard. Chivas Regal’s brand has a value of $1.26 billion and is one of the leading brands of whiskey aged at 12 years and more. Among the most expensive bottles offered by Chivas Regal is Chivas Regal The Icon, which costs around $2,700 per bottle.
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2. Grey Goose
Grey Goose is a premium vodka brand that has a value of over $1.23 billion. The brand, which is owned by Bacardi, was created specifically for the purpose of developing a luxury vodka to the United States market. The average price of a bottle of Grey Goose vodka is around $30, but it also offers Grey Goose Magnum, which costs around $90 per bottle.
1. Johnnie Walker
Diageo plc (ADR) (NYSE:DEO)-owned Johnnie Walker is a brand of whiskey that has a value of $4.55 billion, according to BrandFinance’s Alcoholic Beverages 2017 report, topping the list of 16 luxury alcohol brands in the world. The brand is mostly known for its more traditional and cheaper types of whiskey like Johnnie Walker Red Label, Black Label, Green Label, etc. At the same time, the brand offers Johnnie Walker Blue Label, which goes for $200 per bottle and even rarer and more expensive bottles beyond that. For example, Johnnie Walker Blue Label 200th Anniversary goes for over $3,000, while Johnnie Walker ‘The John Walker’ costs over $3,500.
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These are 16 luxury alcohol brands in the world. Each of these brands has one or several products that cost a small fortune to buy, and in many cases the bottles made by these brands are bought strictly for investment/collecting purposes.
Disclosure: None
