Imagine you’re at home watching the Olympics, and you turn your television on just as the medal presentation ceremony is starting for the marathon. You immediately notice there are two runners standing on the podium for 1st Place. In an incredible outcome for the race, it turns out there was a dead heat for first, and the two front runners finished in a tie!
But here’s where things get weird: It turns out that only one of the gold medallists actually ran the full 42 kilometres! The other runner started at the 30km mark, and in fact only had to run the last 12km of the race. And, to top it all off, that runner also received extra assistance along the way.
Now that’s hardly a fair race, is it? Clearly, the work, effort, and energy put in by the two runners was vastly different – but by virtue of crossing the finish line at the same time, they each received the same reward and recognition.
The above parable would never happen in real life and, yet, a variation of this is precisely how the Australian whisky industry operates. Puzzled? Here’s how it pans out…..