Pernod Expanding Jameson Black Barrel To New Markets

From Shanken:

Pernod Ricard USA is set to launch its upscale Jameson Irish whiskey  extension, Black Barrel, to several new markets including New Jersey,  Connecticut, Illinois, Washington, D.C. and Massachusetts. Black Barrel,  billed as a “darker, more full-bodied and complex” extension of the  Jameson brand, originally debuted in the New York metro area last year.  It includes a higher proportion of Irish pot still whiskey than the  parent brand, and is matured in black, flame-charred American oak casks.

Black Barrel, which retails for $34.99 a 750-ml. and $39.99 a 1-liter  bottle, will be backed by launch events in each new market playing up  the role bartenders have had in stoking Jameson’s explosive growth in  the U.S. market in recent years. Pernod USA’s vice president whiskies  and Cognac, Wayne Hartunian, says the upscale extension is a “natural  trade-up” option for Jameson drinkers.