There’s a valid question to be asked in how much a company can possibly finesse a product lineup, even when its products tend to be exceptional. At what point is it undeniably superfluous for a distillery to add a new spirit, falling into the sparse, unoccupied ground ground between its existing SKUs? How different and distinct must that new brand be, in order to justify its existence? And will the addition of that new brand actually help the bottom line by capturing some small, additional segment of the target demographic, or will it simply cannibalize potential sales of the company’s other brands?

This is the thought process I immediately started going through, seeing the announcement of The Dalmore 14 as a new, permanent addition to the distillery’s Principal Collection for the U.S. market. I’m a huge fan of The Dalmore’s house style of sherry and port-focused single malts, but it seemed hard to deny that this new brand was probably splitting some hairs. After all, The Dalmore has not one but two 12 year single malts, and a well-established Dalmore 15 Year. It already offers brands in the U.S. with official MSRPs at $65, $80, $100 and $130. Can you really sneak a 14 year brand into that space, position it at $90, and find a way for it to register as distinctive? That seems like a tall task, and a lot to expect from the consumer as well. Not that any of this is relevant to the quality of the spirit in the bottle, but you do have to wonder at the practical considerations of introducing a brand like this one.