Fort Collins whiskey gets TV cameo, now has unexpected 'Star Trek' following
Two weeks ago NOCO Distillery founder and master blender Sebastien Gavillet was going about his normal life. Now he's commissioning custom bottle corks affixed with Star Trek figurines.
Life — and, in Gavillet's case, some opportune product placement — sure comes at you fast.
It all started April 6, when a bottle of the Fort Collins distillery's "Bourbon II" whiskey appeared on the latest season of Paramount+ series "Star Trek: Picard."
The bottle, which was shown during a bar scene in episode six, appeared on screen for a few seconds — just long enough for fans to pause and make out its name, batch, cask, bottle numbers, the distillery's logo and hometown: Fort Collins, Colorado.
"I was floored," said Gavillet, who woke up to a flurry of text messages and calls after the episode dropped on the streaming service.
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NOCO Distillery had dipped its toes in product placement thanks to Mark McFann, a distillery customer and owner of Cast a Long Shadow, a Fort Collins-based product placement company that's had placements in everything from "Avengers" movies to HBO's "Westworld" and, now, "Star Trek: Picard," McFann said.
Seeing it as an interesting marketing opportunity, Gavillet said NOCO Distillery also pursued small placements on Netflix's "Lucifer," the new Ben Affleck movie "Deep Water" and Peacock's "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" reboot, "Bel-Air."
While most of NOCO Distillery's previous product placements were minor — "if you don’t know it’s there, you don’t really see it," Gavillet explained — Bourbon II's extended appearance on "Star Trek: Picard" was "very unique," he said.
It caught the eyes of fans, and Gavillet soon became flooded with calls from liquor store owners and emails from people around the world asking where they could buy the bourbon featured on the April 6 episode.
"People started showing up at the distillery ... waiting outside before it opened," Gavillet said. "We started getting a lot of trekkies as regulars."
"It's almost like NOCO Distillery's Bourbon became 'Star Trek: Picard' fans' official whiskey overnight," Gavillet said, adding that a later episode of the show also featured the distillery's rum and agave spirit.
Sensing an opportunity, Gavillet is already planning a special release of Bourbon II that will reflect the same batch and barrel number featured on the show. The distillery will release roughly 750 bottles of the oak-cask-aged whiskey around the holidays and already has a 1,000-person-strong list of "Star Trek: Picard" fans who want to be entered into a lottery to purchase the limited-release whiskey, he said.
Gavillet also recently purchased some "Star Trek" décor, including figurines to affix to the top of some of NOCO Distillery's bottles.
McFann, who frequents NOCO Distillery's east Fort Collins taproom, said it's been fun to see fans respond to the recent "Picard" placement.
"Even Governor (Jared) Polis mentioned it in a tweet," McFann said. "We're just delighted to see that kind of coverage and exposure for a fantastic brand."
Gavillet said he's not sure if the current fervor for Bourbon II will still be around when the commemorative bottles are released later this year, but two weeks after the cameo, he's still seeing a steady stream of "Star Trek" fans visit NOCO Distillery and sign up for Bourbon II's lottery.
The concept may have some life left in it yet. Maybe it will even live long and prosper.
Erin Udell reports on news, culture, history and more for the Coloradoan. Contact her at ErinUdell@coloradoan.com. The only way she can keep doing what she does is with your support. If you subscribe, thank you. If not, sign up for a digital subscription to the Coloradoan today.
This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: NOCO Distillery whiskey gains following from 'Star Trek: Picard'
