News Updates - BourbonSphere

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

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 »

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 the Kentucky Distillers Association. “We had no idea that people would bid so quickly and often…and big,” he said in a telephone interview Saturday.

As of Saturday afternoon, the highest bid received so far was $149,100 for an entire barrel of vintage Four Roses Bourbon to be selected by the winning bidders from a group of barrels between 17 and 24 years old in a private tasting with Master Distiller Brent Elliott. High-bid items also include a chance to pick a barrel of Angel’s Envy Bourbon to be bottled at cask-strength by the distillery, with the current high bid at $85,000, along with a bottle of Old Rip Van Winkle 23-year-old Bourbon donated by Julian Van Winkle III at $23,000.

The auction concludes Tuesday evening at 10:00pm EST following a live online auction for those and other selected items to be streamed on Minnick’s YouTube channel. Proceeds from the auction will go to the Western Kentucky Tornado Relief Fund established by the office of Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear.

Listen to Mark Gillespie’s interview with Fred Minnick:

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“We saw the Bourbon community in auction, but we also saw people kind of pulling their resources together knowing it’s for something special,” Minnick said. “Some of it is about the bottles and the experiences, but I think this is just showing how big the heart of the Bourbon community is and it’s a community that has always given back…this hit us hard in Kentucky, and this is people showing up for Kentucky.”

The auction is being held at KYBourbonBenefit.com, and offers the ability to make direct donations to the relief effort as well. Auction items also include a variety of Scotch and other whiskies donated by distilleries, whiskey barrel furniture, and ticket packages for various whiskey festivals around the United States.

Editor’s note: The signed bottle of Angel’s Envy Bourbon shown in this story was donated by the author.

Links: FredMinnick.com | Bourbon Crusaders | Kentucky Distillers Association

Heaven Hill Strike Ends With New Contract

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 »

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 company declared an impasse last week and announced plans to hire replacement workers.

In a statement, UFCW Local 23-D president Matt Aubrey claimed a victory for his members. The union’s key goal was to prevent Heaven Hill from going to seven-day production with some workers assigned to shifts on Saturdays or Sundays, and the new contract maintains the current Monday-Friday work week while “defining more language on non-traditional scheduling,” as Aubrey indicated in a text message to WhiskyCast.

“This new Heaven Hill contract is a strong reminder of what is possible when Kentucky workers stand together to protect the good jobs that keep our economy growing and our communities and families strong. With the strong support of the Bardstown community, including many local businesses and community leaders, these hardworking men and women at Heaven Hill courageously stood up to fight for what all Kentucky families want – good jobs, affordable health care, and to be treated right by the company they made a success. Together, these hardworking Kentuckians preserved the affordable healthcare, overtime pay, and fair scheduling that enables them to balance work with supporting their families.”

Workers will receive a pay increase of up to $3.09 per hour over the five-year life of the contract, along with maintaining current required overtime hours. The contract also calls for additional company contributions to health insurance and 401(k) retirement plans, along with an increase in paid holidays and vacation benefits.

Heaven Hill executives issued a statement thanking union members for ratifying the new contract.

“We look forward to welcoming our team members as we transition back to normal operations. The agreement continues Heaven Hill’s long-standing commitment to its team members with industry-leading health care, wage growth and increased schedule flexibility.”

WhiskyCast has requested interviews with union leaders and Heaven Hill executives. This story will be updated with additional information as necessary.

Links: Heaven Hill | United Food & Commercial Workers

Tentative Agreement Reached in Heaven Hill Strike

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 »

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 and Elijah Craig bourbons.

While specifics of the contract have not been publicly released ahead of the ratification vote, Heaven Hill’s statement indicated that it “continues Heaven Hill’s long-standing commitment to its team members with industry-leading health care, wage growth and increased schedule flexibility.” Reading between the lines, that indicates that Heaven Hill may have achieved its goal of expanding production to seven days a week at its main maturation and bottling facilities in Bardstown, Kentucky.

Union negotiators had fought strongly against the proposal to add weekend shifts to what has traditionally been a Monday-Friday work week, and 96 percent of the striking workers voted against the company’s final offer before the strike began on September 11.

However, the Local 23-D executive committee unanimously recommended today that its members approve the new contract. In a statement issued by the UFCW, Local 23-D president Matt Aubrey thanked local residents who supported the striking workers.

“UFCW Local 23D has reached a fully recommended tentative agreement with Heaven Hill on a five-year contract. With the strong support of the Bardstown community, these hardworking men and women have been standing together for more than a month to protect these good Kentucky jobs that their families have counted on for generations. Heaven Hill workers will make their voices heard tomorrow when they vote on this tentative agreement.”

WhiskyCast has requested interviews with union leaders and Heaven Hill executives. This story will be updated with additional information.

Links: Heaven Hill | United Food & Commercial Workers

Pernod Ricard Jumps Into Retail, Acquiring The Whisky Exchange

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 »

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 disclosed, but the acquisition includes the online and physical retail operation, the Speciality Drinks distribution unit, and the Whisky.Auction online auction site, along with the annual Whisky Show events produced by The Whisky Exchange. In addition, Pernod Ricard will also acquire ABV Global, which produces the London Cocktail Week, London Beer Week, and London Wine Week events.

Elixir Distillers co-founder Sukhinder Singh. File photo ©2018, Mark Gillespie/CaskStrength Media.

Sukhinder and Rajbir Singh will stay on following the acquisition as joint managing directors, but will be splitting their time managing the remaining assets not included in the deal. That includes their new distillery currently under construction on Islay, along with the Elixir Distillers independent bottling unit and Speciality Brands, the UK importer for whiskies from Amrut, Kavalan, Waterford, Corby, Michter’s, and other spirits.

In a statement emailed to WhiskyCast, Sukhinder Singh cited the growth of the whisky industry worldwide as a critical reason for their decision to seek a partner. “The last few years in particular have brought about a period of rapid growth that has highlighted the need for us to bolster our experience, resource and infrastructure to deliver the next stage of business development, and we’re excited to have agreed this deal with Pernod Ricard to help achieve this. Myself and my brother Rajbir are looking forward to remaining at the helm of the business and helping drive future growth for the global drinks industry,” he said.

Pernod Ricard has been operating its own e-commerce unit in countries where it’s allowed to do so. The Paris-based company acquired Uvinium in 2018 and has since rebranded it as Drinks & Co. with online sales in 10 European countries. In 2019, it acquired Bodeboca, Spain’s largest online wine and spirits retailer, and continues to operate it separately from the Drinks & Co. Spanish web site. In addition, it sells whiskies through the web sites for its Jameson, Redbreast, and Chivas Brothers brands where allowed by local laws.

Pernod Ricard CEO Alexandre Ricard expects to use the knowledge the Singhs have developed in selling whiskies and other spirits worldwide through The Whisky Exchange’s online site, including their experience in shipping to the United States. “E-commerce is a key channel in our long term strategy. We are thrilled to work with industry pioneers such as Sukhinder, Rajbir and the whole team to bring The Whisky Exchange to a new step of its development,” Ricard said in a statement.

Listen to this weekend’s episode of WhiskyCast for more details on this story, including an interview with Sukhinder Singh.

Links: The Whisky Exchange | Pernod Ricard

Heaven Hill Workers on Strike

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 »

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 Thursday night, according to Louisville television station WDRB. The local represents 420 production workers at Heaven Hill’s main campus in Bardstown and its maturation warehouses around Nelson County, and also represents workers at Barton 1792 Distillery and the Four Roses maturation and bottling facility in Cox’s Creek. Workers at the Heaven Hill Bourbon Experience visitors center are not represented by the union.

Union leaders are upset with what they claim is a proposal to change work shifts to create a “non-traditional” work schedule that includes Saturdays and Sundays, instead of the current Monday-Friday schedule for all production workers. “They feel that rather than working to live, they’re trying to implement things to make them live to work,” Local 23-D president Matt Aubrey told WhiskyCast in a telephone interview. “They’re family-owned and ‘hey, we want to treat everyone like family,’ they’re not treating these members like family…all these members out here, they have a family, they have sons and daughters, grandchildren…they have loved ones that if what the company wants to preserve and what it wants to push, it’s gonna take these members away from their family,” he said.

In 2016, workers were divided on whether to accept the contract that expired last night. That deal included $7,250 in bonuses for each worker over the length of the contract along with annual pay raises in the final three years, and 66% of those voting cast ballots to accept the new deal. According to union leaders, 96 percent of those voting Thursday night supported going on strike as soon as the contract expired.

Heaven Hill executives were not available for interviews, but shared this statement with WhiskyCast.

“Thursday evening, the membership of the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 23-D failed to ratify a new five-year contract with Heaven Hill. Since the company was founded, the support of our employees has been a source of pride and we have had productive conversations with the union for several months now regarding components of the contract. We will continue to collaborate with UFCW leadership toward passage of this top-of-class workforce package.”

The strike will also affect Heaven Hill’s participation in the Kentucky Bourbon Festival, which gets underway this Thursday. Festival officials have confirmed that Heaven Hill will not be taking part in tastings and other events during the festival, including the World Championship Bourbon Barrel Relay competition in which the distillery’s teams have dominated in recent years. Aubrey told WhiskyCast his members will not be allowed to carry picket signs anywhere other than at Heaven Hill facilities represented by Local 23-D, including the Bardstown campus and nearby maturation warehouses. However, they can wear t-shirts promoting their support for the strike in public – including at the Festival grounds around Spalding Hall in Bardstown.

The walkout will primarily affect Heaven Hill’s Bardstown-based bottling and maturation operations. Workers at Heaven Hill’s Bernheim Distillery in Louisville are represented by a different UFCW chapter, and spirits distilled at Bernheim are trucked to Bardstown to be filled into barrels before being placed in one of the company’s warehouses for maturation. Heaven Hill has not indicated whether production at Bernheim will be stopped or slowed down during the strike.

The last strike affecting a major Kentucky distiller came in September of 2018 when Four Roses workers walked out for two weeks over the company’s plans to create a different benefits package for new employees. That dispute ended when the company agreed to allow all employees to choose between the current sick leave policy or sign up for short-term disability insurance that takes effect after an employee uses 10 sick days in a year.

Aubrey also denied reports on social media suggesting that a strike is also coming at Sazerac’s Barton 1792 Distillery in Bardstown, noting that the union’s contract at 1792 Barton does not expire until 2024.

This story will be updated with additional information as it becomes available.

Editor’s note: This story was updated with additional information following an interview with UFCW Local 23-D president Matt Aubrey. In addition, we have clarified where Local 23-D members are allowed to picket to include the company’s maturation warehouse sites where union members work.

Links: Heaven Hill | United Food & Commercial Workers

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

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 »

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 statement.

Jack Daniel's Master Distiller Chris Fletcher explains the unique method for maturing the Jack Daniel's 10-Year-Old Tennessee Whiskey. Photo ©2021, Mark Gillespie/CaskStrength Media.

“Back in his day, things were quite a bit different…certainly with the level of control we have with raw materials, ingredients, and our know-how with distillery operations and distillation, and of course the barrels that we’re able to produce ourselves at our cooperages, we have so many advantages today that Jack didn’t have,” says Chris Fletcher, the 8th master distiller in Jack Daniel’s history. “Why not do it…why not go back to our roots and do something that Jack himself did…I couldn’t be more excited,” he said in an interview at the distillery.

Fletcher and his team, led by Assistant Master Distiller Lexie Phillips, started the process for this whiskey several years ago, selecting seven and eight-year-old barrels from the upper levels of the distillery’s barrel houses where the temperatures are most extreme and moving them to the ground floor. Traditionally, barrels for the flagship Old No. 7 version of Jack Daniel’s are selected from many different parts of the barrel houses and blended together for a consistent flavor, but Fletcher chose to try something different for this new expression.

“Top floor, single barrel level, that’s really going to bring a lot of rich color, lot of flavor to it, and we really didn’t want to go much longer than about eight on that top floor,” Fletcher said. “Could you pull that off, yeah, who knows…a couple of mild summers, absolutely you could, but we decided in looking at this batch, couple of other batches, to move them down lower just to kind of slow things down and let it simmer out just a bit,” he said. Fletcher also made the call to bottle the whiskey at 48.5% ABV (97 proof), a first for the brand.

The new whiskey will be available in the U.S. as an annual release starting in September at a suggested retail price of $70 per bottle, with no current plans to release it in export markets.

Tasting notes for the Jack Daniel’s 10 Year Old are available now at WhiskyCast.com.

Editor’s note: Our interview with Chris Fletcher was conducted during a press trip for selected whisky writers to the Jack Daniel Distillery, with travel expenses covered by Brown-Forman. However, as with all of our content, full editorial control over this story remains with WhiskyCast.

Links: Jack Daniel’s