Dan Abrams’ Bottle Raiders Acquires Event Business in Bid to Scale Fine-Liquor Media
variety.comBrian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Dan Abrams is taking a deeper gulp of liquor media. The media entrepreneur, who has built businesses such as the TV-news-obsessed Mediaite and the Law & Crime network, which was recently sold to the creator-fueled media company Jellysmack, is acquiring two specialized event businesses tied to liquor tasting in a bid to grow Bottle Raiders, a collection of sites that offer reviews of whiskey, tequila, gin and rum.
After recently selling Law & Crime “for a nice exit,” says Abrams, “I am looking to try to build now in the fine-liquor space.” Abrams launched Whiskey Raiders, a site that reviews whiskeys and bourbons, in 2020, and has gradually added to it with new efforts targeted at other liquors.
The sites aggregate individualized reviews from various publications — including its own — into one centralized location and assigns one average score Now he is buying Whiskey Washback and Arte Agave, two event brands that hold eleven tasting events each year in New York City, Chicago, Austin, Miami, Houston, Dallas and Atlanta, with more than four hundred attendees at each.
Many tasting events are either too formal or simply too big, says Abrams, who feels there is room in the space for a new model.
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