News Updates

Bourbon Auction for Kentucky Tornado Victims Reaches $1 Million in Bids

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By Mark Gillespie December 18, 2021 – The recovery from last weekend’s devastating tornadoes in Western Kentucky and four other states could take months, but Bourbon lovers are hoping to help make some of the burden easier…not with their whiskey, but with their money and their hearts. An online auction of whiskies, experiences, and other memorabilia has already raised more than $1 million in bids in less than 48 hours. “To be honest with you, that was the goal for the entire auction,” says whiskey writer and podcaster Fred Minnick, who organized the auction along with the Bourbon Crusaders and Read More »

Heaven Hill Strike Ends With New Contract

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October 24, 2021 – Striking Heaven Hill workers are putting away their picket signs and preparing to return to work this week after ratifying a new five-year contract Saturday. 420 members of the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 23-D had been on strike since September 11 at Heaven Hill’s main maturation and bottling facilities in Bardstown, Kentucky. Both sides will now try to repair damaged relationships following the six-week strike, which led to at least one court hearing, a National Labor Relations Board complaint, and the beginnings of a social media-fueled boycott movement targeting Heaven Hill whiskies after the Read More »

Tentative Agreement Reached in Heaven Hill Strike

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October 22, 2021 – After nearly six weeks of picketing, accusations, and counter-accusations, a tentative agreement has been reached between Heaven Hill Distilleries and Local 23-D of the United Food and Commercial Workers union. Union members will vote on the five-year contract  tomorrow. The agreement followed Heaven Hill’s announcement earlier this week that it would begin hiring replacements for 420 striking workers after declaring an impasse in contract talks. In addition, there has been a growing backlash against the company on social media since that announcement with calls for a boycott of Heaven Hill’s brands, including the popular Evan Williams Read More »

Pernod Ricard Jumps Into Retail, Acquiring The Whisky Exchange

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By Mark Gillespie September 21, 2021 – Like other spirits companies, Pernod Ricard has been nibbling at the edges of the e-commerce business with in-house platforms. Now, the number-two spirits producer is taking a shark-sized bite with a deal to acquire London-based retailer The Whisky Exchange from founders Sukhinder and Rajbir Singh. The brothers entered the retail business 22 years ago with a single shop in London, and have expanded over the years to become one of the world’s leading online retailers of whiskies and other spirits while opening two additional locations in London. Terms of the deal were not Read More »

Heaven Hill Workers on Strike

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By Mark Gillespie September 11, 2021 – With the biggest weekend of the year in the “Bourbon Capital of the World” just a few days away, visitors  to Bardstown, Kentucky for the Kentucky Bourbon Festival may be greeted with picket signs at the town’s newest attraction. Heaven Hill workers started a strike today after their five-year contract expired at midnight and are staffing a picket line outside the Heaven Hill Bourbon Experience, which opened this summer after a two-year renovation and upgrade project. Members of the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 23-D voted overwhelmingly in favor of the strike Read More »

Jack Daniel’s Revives a Piece of History With New 10-Year-Old Whiskey

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August 23, 2021 – Jack Daniels became the world’s best-selling American Whiskey without an age statement, but that’s not how Jack Daniel himself made his whiskey. Before his death in 1911, Jack Daniel regularly bottled whiskies with age statements ranging from 10 to 21 years old. After Prohibition ended and the Motlow family resumed distilling, the lack of older whiskies forced them to bottle Jack Daniel’s without an age statement. That changes with the debut of the new Jack Daniel’s 10 Year Old Tennessee Whiskey, the first whiskey from Jack Daniel’s in more than 100 years to carry an age Read More »

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