politics - BourbonSphere

Eight Special Single Malts…and a Cowboy Bourbon

We’ll have a double feature on this week’s WhiskyCast In-Depth, as Diageo’s Dr. Stuart Morrison joins us to detail this year’s Special Releases series –… Read More

We’ll have a double feature on this week’s WhiskyCast In-Depth, as Diageo’s Dr. Stuart Morrison joins us to detail this year’s Special Releases series – including a Lagavulin finished in tequila casks – and Donnis Todd of Texas’s Garrison Brothers Distillery gives us a preview of this year’s Cowboy Bourbon. It’s an uncut, unfiltered whopper of a Bourbon at 70.45% ABV! In the news, the TTB avoids being caught up in a U.S. government shutdown after Congress passed a short-term budget extension. Kentucky regulators want to shut down two of the state’s biggest buyers and sellers of vintage spirits over liquor law violations, and Scotch Whisky tourism has recovered from the pandemic.

Episode 1024: October 1, 2023

Reviving Rosebank Distillery After 30 Silent Years

When Rosebank Distillery’s stills went silent in 1993, many whisky lovers assumed the Falkirk distillery was gone forever – especially after thieves stole the copper… Read More

When Rosebank Distillery’s stills went silent in 1993, many whisky lovers assumed the Falkirk distillery was gone forever – especially after thieves stole the copper stills for scrap a couple of years later. Now, after 5 and a half years of work, Rosebank has come back to life, and the team at Ian Macleod Distillers filled the first casks of Rosebank since 1993 this week. We’ll talk with Ian Macleod’s Gordon Dundas about the revival of Rosebank on this week’s WhiskyCast In-Depth.

In the news, the whisky world pays tribute to the Bon Accord’s Paul McDonagh after the legendary Glasgow whisky bar’s owner passed away this week. Speyburn Distillery in Scotland is opening its doors to visitors for the first time starting next week, and we’ll have the details. We’ll take a look at sweet mash and sour mash distilling on Behind the Label, and our tasting notes this week include whiskies from Amrut and Arran distilleries.

Episode 1014: July 23, 2023

Photo courtesy Ian Macleod Distillers

Kentucky Barrel Inventory Reaches New High

September 27, 2022 – Kentucky distillers set a new production record in 2021, according to state revenue department data released today by the Kentucky Distillers Association. Distillers filled more than 2 million barrels for the fourth consecutive year, and had a total of nearly 12 million barrels of Bourbon and other spirits aging in the state’s rickhouses as of January 1, when they’re required to file an inventory report with the state. The inventory generated a total of $40 million in “barrel taxes,” the property tax leveled on every barrel of maturing spirits in a distiller’s inventory. That money goes Read More »

September 27, 2022 – Kentucky distillers set a new production record in 2021, according to state revenue department data released today by the Kentucky Distillers Association. Distillers filled more than 2 million barrels for the fourth consecutive year, and had a total of nearly 12 million barrels of Bourbon and other spirits aging in the state’s rickhouses as of January 1, when they’re required to file an inventory report with the state.

The inventory generated a total of $40 million in “barrel taxes,” the property tax leveled on every barrel of maturing spirits in a distiller’s inventory. That money goes to local governments to fund public education and other services, but distillers have long claimed it to be “discriminatory” because Kentucky is the only place that has a barrel tax.

“We’re thrilled that our homegrown and historic industry continues to flourish, but these numbers could have been much higher if Kentucky didn’t have a major barrier to entry for new distilleries in the form of this barrel tax,” KDA President Eric Gregory said in a news release. The KDA has successfully lobbied in previous years to get legislation passed allowing distillers to take a credit for their barrel tax payments against their state income tax bills each year, but a move by state lawmakers several years ago to reduce corporate income taxes now means some larger distillers have more credits than they pay in income taxes in some years, forcing them to carry over excess credits to future years. The total number of outstanding tax credits could exceed $100 million, according to Gregory.

“We’ve got to find a solution to this, because the numbers are just soaring and the state can’t afford that, the locals can’t afford for it to just go away off the books, and we can’t afford to continue this because it’s such a disincentive to locate here and a barrier to entry for distillers,” Gregory said in a telephone interview.

The KDA has proposed making the credits either refundable or transferrable, which would allow a distiller to pass along excess credits to pay a contractor for construction work as an example.

The barrel tax is politically sensitive because it is earmarked specifically for local and county governments, which build their annual budgets expecting a certain level of revenue from the property tax. Distillers have been walking a tightrope trying to get tax relief at the state level while not hurting the local communities in which they operate.

The legislature has a task force looking at the issue and taking testimony from local governments as well as the industry, and will be spending the time between now and the start of the next legislative session in January trying to craft a solution.

Editor’s note: This story was updated with additional information following an interview with Eric Gregory.

Links: Kentucky Distillers Association

Kentucky Bourbon Hall of Fame Announces Class of 2022

August 17, 2022 – Six inductees will join the Kentucky Bourbon Hall of Fame next month in the first induction ceremony since 2019. The honorees were announced today, including the late Stephen Thompson of Kentucky Artisan Distillery, this year’s recipient of the Parker Beam Lifetime Achievement Award. Thompson passed away last year at the age of 79 following an accident. “He’s another one that everyone misses,” said Kentucky Distillers Association president Eric Gregory. “He was such a resource and an advocate for the craft distilleries…he had almost an encyclopedic knowledge of production facilities and what to do, and if you Read More »

August 17, 2022 – Six inductees will join the Kentucky Bourbon Hall of Fame next month in the first induction ceremony since 2019. The honorees were announced today, including the late Stephen Thompson of Kentucky Artisan Distillery, this year’s recipient of the Parker Beam Lifetime Achievement Award. Thompson passed away last year at the age of 79 following an accident.

“He’s another one that everyone misses,” said Kentucky Distillers Association president Eric Gregory. “He was such a resource and an advocate for the craft distilleries…he had almost an encyclopedic knowledge of production facilities and what to do, and if you knew Steve, man, he was a straight shooter. He told you what was on his mind and he was very candid and that was a breath of fresh air in meetings that could sometimes get a bit stodgy.” Thompson will be presented for induction by another Hall of Fame member, longtime master distiller Jim Rutledge, during the invitation-only luncheon in Bardstown on September 13.

The rest of the Class of 2022 includes Andrea Wilson of Michter’s in Louisville. In addition to being the distillery’s longtime master of maturation, she was the first woman to serve as the KDA’s chairperson in 2009. Julian P. Van Winkle III joins his legendary grandfather, “Pappy” Van Winkle, in the Hall of Fame, along with Rabbit Hole Distilling founder Kaveh Zamanian and two retiring Kentucky political leaders, U.S. Representative John Yarmuth and Kentucky State Representative Chad McCoy. Both men were cited for their legislative work to help the Bourbon industry, with Gregory describing Yarmuth as a global ambassador for Kentucky Bourbon and McCoy as one of the most effective state lawmakers in recent years for his work on spirits legislation at the state level.

This year’s class will be the first since 2019, with no classes inducted in 2020 and 2021 because of the pandemic. The hiatus gave KDA leaders the chance to take a new look at how Hall of Fame members are selected, with an eye toward giving previous inductees more of a say in the process. As in the past, nominees were proposed by the KDA board and member distilleries, but instead of the board also voting on inductees, a new selection panel was given the final say. That panel included all four living recipients of the Parker Beam Lifetime Achievement Award: Jimmy Russell, Bill Samuels, Jr., Max Shapira, and Even Kulsveen. In addition, KDA chair Kevin Smith, KDA board member and Hall of Fame inductee Chris Morris, and Dixie Hicks, the former Bardstown mayor and also a Hall of Fame inductee, served on the panel.

“Once they started looking at all the nominees to the Hall of Fame, they went in depth and talked about the person and the personalities, and what it means to be in the Hall of Fame and what an honor it is,” Gregory said. “It was a three or four hour meeting…the process worked great, and I’m looking forward to continuing that in the future,” he said.

Links: Kentucky Bourbon Hall of Fame