A lot happened in the world of whisky during 2023, and with the help of WhiskyCast Community app members, we’ve identified the top ten whisky… Read More
A lot happened in the world of whisky during 2023, and with the help of WhiskyCast Community app members, we’ve identified the top ten whisky stories of the year. Join us as we count them down in the news, then listen as Milam & Greene’s Heather Greene shares her lessons on whisky entrepreneurship in WhiskyCast In-Depth. We’ll also have some of your year-end dramming choices in our Community segment, too.
Regular readers of this website know that I often feature “whiskey men” who have contributed to their communities by public service or philanthropy.There were dozens of them.Occasionally, however, the story is about an individual whose activities were so despicable that he deserves attention.So it is with Tom Dennison, the early 20th Century saloon owner, political boss and crime kingpin of Omaha, Nebraska. Shown here, he was known by locals as “The Old Gray Wolf.”
Born in Dehli, Iowa, in October 1858 of Irish immigrant parents,Dennison moved with his family to Nebraska at the age of two.At 15 he left home and headed to the “Wild” West. Over the next two decades Dennison traveled widely as prospector, gambler, and (some said) bandit.As he matured he bought and operated gambling and drinking establishments, including the Board of Trade Saloon in Butte, Montana, and the Opera House Saloon in Leadville, Colorado.
Dennison was 34 years old in 1892 when he arrived in Omaha.By that time highly experienced in “business,” he went there with $75,000 in cash, roughly equivalent to $2.5 million today. He quickly understood that Omaha, a city of about 140,000, was “wide open” with minimal legal control over liquor, gambling, prostitution, and other nefarious enterprises.More important, Omaha had no political boss.His pockets budging with cash, Dennison about 1900 deftly moved into that role.
For the next quarter century, Dennison was the “king” of Omaha politics. He never held public office, instead buying influence through lavish campaign contributions and his ability to get out the vote. Acting as a power broker between the business community and the criminal element, it is said that: “His power was such that no crime occurred in the city without his blessing, the police reported to him daily, and the mayor himself answered directly to him.”
Dennison’s much quoted mantra was: “There are so many laws that people are either law breakers or hypocrites. For my part, I hate a damn hypocrite.”This attitude, however, apparently did not prevent him from teaming up with local prohibitionists to close down half the saloons in Omaha,sparing the half in which he had a monetary interest.Dennison also operated a private bank, loaning money to privileged residents and providing a very private repository for individuals who for various reason avoided traditional banks.
While Dennison was building his criminal empire, he was also having a family life.In Omaha he met Ida I. Provost. She had been born in Council Bluffs, Iowa, the daughter of Charles Provost, a prominent Iowanewspaper editor and publisher.When they married in 1893, Dennison was 37, Ida was 26.Their first child, Frances, lived to maturity.Twin sons conceived 15 years later were dead at birth. Amid the family sorrow the couple named them John and Thomas.
The 1919 Omaha Race Riot and Lynching
The Old Gray Wolf recognized that his operation required controlling City Hall in Omaha. He installed as mayor a crony named Jim Dahlman, shown here, who had come to Nebraska to escape murder charges for shooting and killing his brother-in-law in Texas. Dahlman, through Dennison’s machinations served eight of nine terms between 1906 and 1930.The one exception was in 1918 when a reform candidate named Edward Parsons Smith won office promising to “clean up Omaha” and as mayor proceeded to do it. This led Dennison to his most despicable deed — fomenting the Omaha Race Riot of 1919.
Smith
In an effort to force Smith out of office, Dennison contrived to create a situation that questioned the mayor’s ability to keep order.With the help of the Omaha Bee newspaper he created false stories of assaults on white women by black men, sometimes using white police officers in blackface.Each time the Bee blamed Smith’s administration.Those stories plus the difficult economic situation facing returning World War One veterans created a racial tinderbox in Omaha.
Then the Old Gray Wolf lit the fuse.In late September, 1919,a young white woman was with her crippled companion when a man with a black face beat the man mercilessly and raped the girl.Police officers in Dennison’s pocket arrested an African-American named Will Brown, who was hapless enough to be near the scene.He was thrown into the Douglas County Jail located in the County Courthouse.
Over the next several months, through the Bee and other resources, Dennison whipped up public fury against Brown.On December 28, 1919, a mob led by Dennison’s cronies headed for the courthouse, looking for Brown, as shown above.The rioters gained access to the building, found Brown, carried him out, hanged him from a lamppost, riddled him with bullets, then took him down and burned his body.
Mayor Smith, endangering his own life, attempted to help Brown.He was grabbed by the rioters who attempted to hang him as well.Smith narrowly missed Brown’s fate whenOmaha police detectives intervened in the nick of time to save him from the noose.Cut down, Smith required hospital treatment and lost his taste for politics, declining to run again. Jim Dahlman, known as “The Perpetual Mayor,” was returned to office, much to Dennison’s delight.
Along with Brown two rioters died in the melee and dozens of Omaha police officers and other citizens were injured.The courthouse was torched.Some 1,700 federal troops from nearby Fort Omaha and Fort Crook were dispatched to Omaha by the Governor, equipped with cannons and machine guns.By the next day order had been restored.In the aftermath not a single rioter was arrested.Shamelessly, Dennison, while not admitting to his role publicly,was said to gloat about it when closeted with cronies.
The Old Gray Wolf and National Prohibition
Fast on the heels of the Omaha riot came a new challenge for the Old Gray Wolf when January 1, 1920,brought National Prohibition. Nebraska ostensibly had gone “dry” earlier. As usual Dennison had an answer.Early on Dennison created the Omaha Liquor Syndicate to monopolize the bootleg booze traffic in Omaha, creating alliances with Al Capone in Chicago and Tom Pendergast in Kansas City. [See post on Pendergast, Dec. 2, 2013.]
In 1919 Dennison bought a mansion home in an upscale neighborhood of Omaha, shown above.When Prohibition arrived he arranged for a series of underground tunnels to be built connecting his residence and his downtown offices.The tunnels are believed to have led to a location where the tracks of the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis and Omaha Railway intersected and freight could be unloaded and carried into town.As one commentator has noted:“The unobstructed path to the railroad would have been an ideal way to transport liquor by moonlight.”As shown here, vestiges of the tunnels still exist in the neighborhood of the former Dennison home.
In 1922 Dennison suddenly sold the house and moved away.The change may have been linked to the death that year of Ida, his wife of almost 30 years.Known for her charitable work in Omaha, Ida was a foil for Dennison’s reputation.At age 54,after suffering a stroke that left her paralyzed and on the brink of death, she was allowed go home from the hospital and died there with Tom and a daughter at her bedside.Her visitation at home and funeral at Holy Angels Catholic Church were thronged with mourners.Burial was at Forest Lawn’s Memorial Park.Shortly after, Dennison sold their mansion home. Perhaps the house held too many memories.
Ida’s death, however, did not distract Dennison from his criminal enterprises. He was still strongly in control of the city’s politics and the Omaha liquor trade.A survey in 1929 found more than 1,500 outlets in the city illegally selling alcohol, many controlled byDennison. The Old Gray Fox also ran Omaha’s Flatiron Hotel as a lodging for mobsters running from the law in Kansas City, Chicago and St. Louis.
The End Game in Omaha
In the early 1930s Dennison hold on Omaha weakened.The unsolved murder of one of his most outspoken opponents shocked the community.Public opinion began to turn against him.His hand-picked candidates began losing at the polls.Dennison’s marriage at 72 years to 17-year-old Neva Jo Truman not only raised eyebrows in Omaha but made him the subject of ribald jokes.The oddly matched couple is shown below. The marriage lasted just three years before Neva Jo filed for divorce.
As he entered his 70’s, Dennison’s heath began to falter.In June 1932 he suffered a stroke but recovered quickly.The following December, however, when a bout of pneumonia nearly killed him, he formally announced retirement.The Old Gray Wolf was, however, finding that it was not as easy to control federal lawmen as it was Omaha’s.In August 1932 Dennison and 58 of his cronies were put on trial by federal authorities for violating Prohibition laws.That trial ended in a hung jury and was declared a mistrial.Hauled into court again a few month later on conspiracy charges, Dennison and his lackeys were acquitted.
Probably relieved to have escaped justice a second time, Dennison took off for a holiday with friends in Chula Vista, California, in February 1934.There he was fatally injured in an automobile accident.Ironically, National Prohibition would end the same year.His body was returned by train to Omaha for burial.Suggestive of the hold Dennison still held on Omaha, an estimated 1,000 people attended his funeral at St. Peters Catholic Church.He was buried in Forest Lawn Cemetery next to Ida and the stillborn twins.While some may have grieved his passing, many others in Omaha celebrated knowing that the Old Gray Wolf was dead at last.
Note:This post was drawn from two principal sources:The Wikipedia entry on Dennison and his obituary in the Omaha Bee of February 18, 1934.By the way, it is just a remarkable coincidence that this article, published on the eve of New Years Day, 2024, would be#1111 in the series of posts.
Regular readers of this website know that I often feature “whiskey men” who have contributed to their communities by public service or philanthropy.There were dozens of them.Occasionally, however, the story is about an individual whose activities were so despicable that he deserves attention.So it is with Tom Dennison, the early 20th Century saloon owner, political boss and crime kingpin of Omaha, Nebraska. Shown here, he was known by locals as “The Old Gray Wolf.”
Born in Dehli, Iowa, in October 1858 of Irish immigrant parents,Dennison moved with his family to Nebraska at the age of two.At 15 he left home and headed to the “Wild” West. Over the next two decades Dennison traveled widely as prospector, gambler, and (some said) bandit.As he matured he bought and operated gambling and drinking establishments, including the Board of Trade Saloon in Butte, Montana, and the Opera House Saloon in Leadville, Colorado.
Dennison was 34 years old in 1892 when he arrived in Omaha.By that time highly experienced in “business,” he went there with $75,000 in cash, roughly equivalent to $2.5 million today. He quickly understood that Omaha, a city of about 140,000, was “wide open” with minimal legal control over liquor, gambling, prostitution, and other nefarious enterprises.More important, Omaha had no political boss.His pockets budging with cash, Dennison about 1900 deftly moved into that role.
For the next quarter century, Dennison was the “king” of Omaha politics. He never held public office, instead buying influence through lavish campaign contributions and his ability to get out the vote. Acting as a power broker between the business community and the criminal element, it is said that: “His power was such that no crime occurred in the city without his blessing, the police reported to him daily, and the mayor himself answered directly to him.”
Dennison’s much quoted mantra was: “There are so many laws that people are either law breakers or hypocrites. For my part, I hate a damn hypocrite.”This attitude, however, apparently did not prevent him from teaming up with local prohibitionists to close down half the saloons in Omaha,sparing the half in which he had a monetary interest.Dennison also operated a private bank, loaning money to privileged residents and providing a very private repository for individuals who for various reason avoided traditional banks.
While Dennison was building his criminal empire, he was also having a family life.In Omaha he met Ida I. Provost. She had been born in Council Bluffs, Iowa, the daughter of Charles Provost, a prominent Iowanewspaper editor and publisher.When they married in 1893, Dennison was 37, Ida was 26.Their first child, Frances, lived to maturity.Twin sons conceived 15 years later were dead at birth. Amid the family sorrow the couple named them John and Thomas.
The 1919 Omaha Race Riot and Lynching
The Old Gray Wolf recognized that his operation required controlling City Hall in Omaha. He installed as mayor a crony named Jim Dahlman, shown here, who had come to Nebraska to escape murder charges for shooting and killing his brother-in-law in Texas. Dahlman, through Dennison’s machinations served eight of nine terms between 1906 and 1930.The one exception was in 1918 when a reform candidate named Edward Parsons Smith won office promising to “clean up Omaha” and as mayor proceeded to do it. This led Dennison to his most despicable deed — fomenting the Omaha Race Riot of 1919.
Smith
In an effort to force Smith out of office, Dennison contrived to create a situation that questioned the mayor’s ability to keep order.With the help of the Omaha Bee newspaper he created false stories of assaults on white women by black men, sometimes using white police officers in blackface.Each time the Bee blamed Smith’s administration.Those stories plus the difficult economic situation facing returning World War One veterans created a racial tinderbox in Omaha.
Then the Old Gray Wolf lit the fuse.In late September, 1919,a young white woman was with her crippled companion when a man with a black face beat the man mercilessly and raped the girl.Police officers in Dennison’s pocket arrested an African-American named Will Brown, who was hapless enough to be near the scene.He was thrown into the Douglas County Jail located in the County Courthouse.
Over the next several months, through the Bee and other resources, Dennison whipped up public fury against Brown.On December 28, 1919, a mob led by Dennison’s cronies headed for the courthouse, looking for Brown, as shown above.The rioters gained access to the building, found Brown, carried him out, hanged him from a lamppost, riddled him with bullets, then took him down and burned his body.
Mayor Smith, endangering his own life, attempted to help Brown.He was grabbed by the rioters who attempted to hang him as well.Smith narrowly missed Brown’s fate whenOmaha police detectives intervened in the nick of time to save him from the noose.Cut down, Smith required hospital treatment and lost his taste for politics, declining to run again. Jim Dahlman, known as “The Perpetual Mayor,” was returned to office, much to Dennison’s delight.
Along with Brown two rioters died in the melee and dozens of Omaha police officers and other citizens were injured.The courthouse was torched.Some 1,700 federal troops from nearby Fort Omaha and Fort Crook were dispatched to Omaha by the Governor, equipped with cannons and machine guns.By the next day order had been restored.In the aftermath not a single rioter was arrested.Shamelessly, Dennison, while not admitting to his role publicly,was said to gloat about it when closeted with cronies.
The Old Gray Wolf and National Prohibition
Fast on the heels of the Omaha riot came a new challenge for the Old Gray Wolf when January 1, 1920,brought National Prohibition. Nebraska ostensibly had gone “dry” earlier. As usual Dennison had an answer.Early on Dennison created the Omaha Liquor Syndicate to monopolize the bootleg booze traffic in Omaha, creating alliances with Al Capone in Chicago and Tom Pendergast in Kansas City. [See post on Pendergast, Dec. 2, 2013.]
In 1919 Dennison bought a mansion home in an upscale neighborhood of Omaha, shown above.When Prohibition arrived he arranged for a series of underground tunnels to be built connecting his residence and his downtown offices.The tunnels are believed to have led to a location where the tracks of the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis and Omaha Railway intersected and freight could be unloaded and carried into town.As one commentator has noted:“The unobstructed path to the railroad would have been an ideal way to transport liquor by moonlight.”As shown here, vestiges of the tunnels still exist in the neighborhood of the former Dennison home.
In 1922 Dennison suddenly sold the house and moved away.The change may have been linked to the death that year of Ida, his wife of almost 30 years.Known for her charitable work in Omaha, Ida was a foil for Dennison’s reputation.At age 54,after suffering a stroke that left her paralyzed and on the brink of death, she was allowed go home from the hospital and died there with Tom and a daughter at her bedside.Her visitation at home and funeral at Holy Angels Catholic Church were thronged with mourners.Burial was at Forest Lawn’s Memorial Park.Shortly after, Dennison sold their mansion home. Perhaps the house held too many memories.
Ida’s death, however, did not distract Dennison from his criminal enterprises. He was still strongly in control of the city's politics and the Omaha liquor trade.A survey in 1929 found more than 1,500 outlets in the city illegally selling alcohol, many controlled byDennison. The Old Gray Fox also ran Omaha's Flatiron Hotel as a lodging for mobsters running from the law in Kansas City, Chicago and St. Louis.
The End Game in Omaha
In the early 1930s Dennison hold on Omaha weakened.The unsolved murder of one of his most outspoken opponents shocked the community.Public opinion began to turn against him.His hand-picked candidates began losing at the polls.Dennison’s marriage at 72 years to 17-year-old Neva Jo Truman not only raised eyebrows in Omaha but made him the subject of ribald jokes.The oddly matched couple is shown below. The marriage lasted just three years before Neva Jo filed for divorce.
As he entered his 70’s, Dennison’s heath began to falter.In June 1932 he suffered a stroke but recovered quickly.The following December, however, when a bout of pneumonia nearly killed him, he formally announced retirement.The Old Gray Wolf was, however, finding that it was not as easy to control federal lawmen as it was Omaha’s.In August 1932 Dennison and 58 of his cronies were put on trial by federal authorities for violating Prohibition laws.That trial ended in a hung jury and was declared a mistrial.Hauled into court again a few month later on conspiracy charges, Dennison and his lackeys were acquitted.
Probably relieved to have escaped justice a second time, Dennison took off for a holiday with friends in Chula Vista, California, in February 1934.There he was fatally injured in an automobile accident.Ironically, National Prohibition would end the same year.His body was returned by train to Omaha for burial.Suggestive of the hold Dennison still held on Omaha, an estimated 1,000 people attended his funeral at St. Peters Catholic Church.He was buried in Forest Lawn Cemetery next to Ida and the stillborn twins.While some may have grieved his passing, many others in Omaha celebrated knowing that the Old Gray Wolf was dead at last.
Note:This post was drawn from two principal sources:The Wikipedia entry on Dennison and his obituary in the Omaha Bee of February 18, 1934.By the way, it is just a remarkable coincidence that this article, published on the eve of New Years Day, 2024, would be#1111 in the series of posts.
A partnership between Rhino Whisky and Birdies 4 Rhinos is set to increase the protection of South African wildlife. The move will empower the South African golf project with much need financial aid and public trust. The Scottish whisky brand is renowned worldwide as a premium whisky giant. The Rhino Whisky brand is owned by […]
A partnership between Rhino Whisky and Birdies 4 Rhinos is set to increase the protection of South African wildlife. The move will empower the South African golf project with much need financial aid and public trust. The Scottish whisky brand is renowned worldwide as a premium whisky giant.
The Rhino Whisky brand is owned by two South African entrepreneurs who share a love of conservation. The whisky is distilled in the Speyside region of Scotland and double barrel matured. A passion for the Bushveld, its immense open plains, and its majestic animals was ingrained in Gerrit Wagener at an early age. After a career in financial services, Rhino Whisky has allowed him to reconnect with his early roots.
Rhino Whisky Partners With Birdies 4 Rhinos
Despite being a qualified Ranger/Nature guide, business partner Brin Kushner divides his time between capturing wildlife behind the camera and escaping to the bush to take pictures. His work and passion make him the ideal partner.
From the outset, Rhino Whisky set out to support the Rhino Orphanage in Limpopo, South Africa. It donates a portion of the proceeds from every bottle to the orphanage that cares for baby rhinos orphaned by poachers.
According to an article published by Golf Business News, Justin Walters and Dean Burmester founded Birdies 4 Rhinos to support African wildlife conservation. They are passionate about preserving Rhinos and want to prevent their extinction.
In Birdies 4 Rhinos, professional golfers donate money for each birdie made throughout the season to raise money for rhino conservation
Burmester commented: “Justin and I wanted to give back and do our bit to save these great animals so that future generations – our children – will be able to enjoy these amazing creatures for years to come. By conserving animals for our children and future generations, we secure the natural heritage of our planet, promote sustainability, and provide a foundation for a thriving and resilient future for both humans and wildlife. Birdies 4 Rhinos is our commitment to protect and pass on a healthy and vibrant world to the generations to come.”
An anti-hoarding, pro-rationing poster for the United States during World War II.The rationing poster above refers to an article in the new issue of The Bourbon Country Reader, which subscribers will receive shortly, but I wanted to start with a …
An anti-hoarding, pro-rationing poster for the United States during World War II.
The rationing poster above refers to an article in the new issue of The Bourbon Country Reader, which subscribers will receive shortly, but I wanted to start with a thank you.
The response to my December 13 post was more than I could have asked for, and very much appreciated. Thank you to everyone who commented. As I wrote after the first dozen or so comments came in, my short post happened because lately I feel I am shouting into the void. As a speech major in college, I was taught basic communication theory. The parts of communication are sender, message, receiver, and feedback. The feedback informs the sender as to how the message was received, so it can be modified or built upon. It's pretty basic stuff but the key insight is that communication is a loop, a cycle. One may send messages to some expected receiver, but without feedback there is no communication.
Some of you are subscribers to my old school, paper-in-the-mail newsletter. I wrapped volume 21 back in August and have been dragging my feet on starting volume 22. I have considered discontinuing the newsletter altogether. Thanks to all of you and your encouragement, volume 22, number 1 is at the printer now and will be in the mail in a few days.
What is in the new issue? Exactly 80 years ago, in December 1943, two years after the attack on Pearl Harbor dragged the United States into World War II, a fullpage advertisement appeared in newspapers across the country. The ad’s headline got right to the point: “The TRUTH about the Whiskey Shortage” (emphasis in the original).
Modern "whiskey shortage" concerns are laughable compared to this.
The ad set out to answer three questions: “Is there really a shortage?,” “How much whiskey is available?,” and “How long will the present supply last?”
You will find the whole story in the new Reader.
What else? About a decade ago, I began to keep track of all the column stills making whiskey in the United States. Why? Because the size (i.e., diameter) of a column still tells you that distillery's production capacity, not how much it will produce, or does produce, but how much it can produce. In the story "Size Matters," I go into some of what I've learned from that project.
Launched in 1994, The Bourbon Country Reader is the oldest publication devoted entirely to American whiskey. It is an eclectic mix of news, history, analysis, and product reviews. Do you worry that advertising influences coverage in other publications? No chance of that here since The Bourbon Country Reader is 100 percent reader-supported. It accepts no advertising.
To experience The Bourbon Country Reader for yourself, you need to subscribe. Honoring history, The Bourbon Country Reader is still exclusively on paper, sent in an envelope via the USPS.
Despite rampant inflation, a subscription to The Bourbon Country Reader is a mere $25 per year for addresses in the USA, $32 USD for everyone else. The Bourbon Country Reader is published six times a year, more-or-less, but your subscription always includes six issues no matter how long it takes. For those of you keeping track, this new one is Volume 22, Number 1.
If you prefer to pay by check, make it payable to Made and Bottled in Kentucky, and mail it to Made and Bottled in Kentucky, 3712 N. Broadway, PMB 298, Chicago, IL 60613-4198. Checks drawn on U.S. banks only, please.
Glen Grant 29 yo 1988/2018 (56.3%, Adelphi, cask #9165, sherry, 429 bottles)Glen Grant 10 yo (75 proof, OB for ‘Navy Army and Airforce Institutes, short screw cap, early 1970s)Glen Grant 12 yo (43%, OB, Armando Giovinetti import, -/+1970)Glen Grant (70…
Glen Grant 29 yo 1988/2018 (56.3%, Adelphi, cask #9165, sherry, 429 bottles) Glen Grant 10 yo (75 proof, OB for 'Navy Army and Airforce Institutes, short screw cap, early 1970s) Glen Grant 12 yo (43%, OB, Armando Giovinetti import, -/+1970) Glen Grant (70 proof, 'Supplied by Duke Street Vintners', circa 1950s) Glen Grant 8 yo (70 proof, Gordon Graham & Co Ltd, circa 1930s)
The Whisky Advocate is more than just an online store and whisky critic, it goes into tastings and evaluation of expressions released by the world’s best and newest distilleries. Each year the company releases a list of the top twenty spirits in the world. Why is this list worth it? Whiskies are known for their age […]
The Whisky Advocate is more than just an online store and whisky critic, it goes into tastings and evaluation of expressions released by the world’s best and newest distilleries. Each year the company releases a list of the top twenty spirits in the world. Why is this list worth it?
Whiskies are known for their age and their taste. How many years old, or how long was it aged and what type of maturity? Even more common, which may surprise you, is where was it aged.
How the Whisky Advocate Selects the Top 20 Whiskies?
Some locations just aren’t helpful to the aging process, and the Whisky Advocate considers all this. However, the single most determining factor in a whisky bottle is the taste. How is it on the tongue? What aromas are awakened? How is it on the palette and does it linger?
According to the Whisky Advocate, it has a unique process that follows established criteria.
The Whisky Advocate Buying Guide’s expert team samples a variety of whiskies
All whiskies must score 90 or above on their 100-point scale.
they also consider the whisky’s value and accessibility.
This is where the selection process gets even more interesting. While most lists are bent on sales, shows, and titles, this list is established based on the whisky taste. The organization describes it as a “crucial step”.
The process begins with an international panel that conducts blind tasting. Each panel member tastes “the contenders in a series of blind flights, unaware of each whisky’s producer, origin, age, or price”. The ratings of this panel supersede the initial Buying Guide’s scores.
A list of the best average scores is then reduced to the Top 20 rankings.
Although the list is unique, its true value lies in the blind tasting of the international reviewers who voted for a spirit they had no idea was.
Be on the lookout for incoming news starting early 2024 on Sazerac’s “Traveller Whiskey“, a collaboration between country singer and Kentucky native superstar Chris Stapleton and Buffalo Trace Distillery Master Distiller Harlen Wheatley. News broke in September ’23 of an alliance between the Bourbon Industry’s superstar Master Distiller at Buffalo Trace and the global sensation […]
Be on the lookout for incoming news starting early 2024 on Sazerac’s “Traveller Whiskey“, a collaboration between country singer and Kentucky native superstar Chris Stapleton and Buffalo Trace Distillery Master Distiller Harlen Wheatley.
News broke in September ’23 of an alliance between the Bourbon Industry’s superstar Master Distiller at Buffalo Trace and the global sensation Stapleton. Below is an update provided this week from Sazerac.
UPDATE FROM SAZERAC:
Created in partnership with Master Distiller Harlen Wheatley and Grammy-winning singer, songwriter and musician Chris Stapleton, Traveller is proudly blended and bottled at the World’s Most Award-Winning Distillery under Wheatley’s expert supervision and is the carefully curated result of countless hours of testing, tasting and dedication to craftsmanship.
Traveller brings together the collective artistry of Stapleton and Wheatley to create a uniquely approachable, sippable whiskey. Over 50 blends were considered on the journey to find the chosen recipe for Traveller – Blend No. 40.
Bottled at 90 proof, Traveller Whiskey is characterized by notes of oak, sweet maple, tart currant, and leather. Complex aromas of vanilla, aged fruit, and buttery shortbread are rounded off by caramel and a touch of oak. The flavor profile also showcases a touch of sweetness, followed by spice, toasted nut, and oak flavors, closing with a robust finish. Traveller is a completely unique combination of whiskeys hand-selected from The Sazerac Company’s award-winning distilleries.
Traveller Whiskey will be widely released to retailers, bars and restaurants nationwide beginning in early 2024 at a suggested retail price of $39.99 (local taxes and fees will vary). Learn more about this upcoming release HERE.
2024 is only days away and beer behemoth Molson Coors is providing rides – via a big bus – for New Year’s Eve revelers celebrating the coming of the new year in seven cities. Those seven cities seeing a blue bus in their midst will be Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Milwaukee, Minneapolis-St. Paul and Phoenix. […]
2024 is only days away and beer behemoth Molson Coors is providing rides – via a big bus – for New Year’s Eve revelers celebrating the coming of the new year in seven cities.
Those seven cities seeing a blue bus in their midst will be Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Milwaukee, Minneapolis-St. Paul and Phoenix. For each of those cities, Molson Coors will be collaborating with each city’s public transit systems as part of their Free Rides program which aims to provide fare-free rides on New Year’s Eve and give drinkers in each city a way to pursue responsible transportation and avoid drunk driving.
Molson Coors is encouraging New Year’s Eve revelers in each city to visit that city’s public transit website, review routes and make any potential arrangements before midnight arrives on December 31, 2023.
Molson Coors has offered their “Free Rides” programs in nine cities during 2023, including St. Patrick’s Day, and is expected to continue the program into 2024.
I can vividly remember back in 2010, Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear touting there were over 4,000,000 barrels of aging whiskey in Kentucky, essentially one for every person in the state. Now, more than a decade later and under Governor Andy Beshear (former Gov’s son), that number was reported by the KY Distillers Association (KDA) to […]
I can vividly remember back in 2010, Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear touting there were over 4,000,000 barrels of aging whiskey in Kentucky, essentially one for every person in the state. Now, more than a decade later and under Governor Andy Beshear (former Gov’s son), that number was reported by the KY Distillers Association (KDA) to be at a towering 12.6 million barrels of aging whiskey, 3 to 1 barrel to person ratio in Kentucky. This is a new record for barrel inventory in Kentucky.
Sounds like good news. And it is, for the most part. Certainly better than the alternative as the Bourbon Industry faced a decades long drought of decline from the 70’s to 2000. And the growth of growing barrel inventory has been consistent, setting records year after year after year.
New barrel production clocked in at 2.7 million as 2m has been topped annually for five consecutive years. Total yearly barrel production (brandy, vodka, et) hit 13.3 million, a record in itself. In 2022, the KDA reported that whiskey production has shot up 475% since 1999.
In short, the industry is rolling. With robust production comes an increase in all associated materials needed to make the whiskey, to store the whiskey, and labor put forth to make both the whiskey and the barrels.
Barrel Taxation Hits New Record
The flipside to the coin, the KDA reported another record that the industry is not too thrilled about. Dishing out $50.2 million in barrel related taxation. This is also a record of a reported 30% increase in paid taxes from the prior year which approached $40 million. The year prior to that, taxation was closer to $30 million.
With steep inflation related to COGS (barrel materials, grain, labor, et et), barrel taxation has increased 122% in the last five years. Since 2010, those taxes have risen 316%. The total assessed barrel valuation hit a staggering $6.7 billion, up from the prior year’s mark of $5.2 billion.
Kentucky is the ONLY state in all of America that imposes a yearly property value related tax on all spirit barrel inventory. As a result, it got hot here in the Bourbon State between government and industry, hotter than the top floor of a 100 story rickhouse in August. Better put, it finally came to a boil.
As a result, Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear approved House Bill 5which essentially outlines a 20 year period which ends with the halting altogether of annual barrel taxation in Kentucky. It is progressive in structure, meaning the yearly percentage tax decline increases over time. Funding for local community schools, EMS, fire departments and appropriate municipal related areas are reported to still receive Bourbon Industry funding.
Leading up to House Bill 5, the thought of eliminating yearly barrel taxation to local communities was unnerving to put it lightly. Injunctions were filed to stop new production of barrel warehousing. Yes, that happened. One official said it felt like “a divorce” had happened between their community and the industry. However, mends were made as it seems like peace time has returned to Bourbon Country.
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