Whiskey Feature - BourbonSphere

Choosing A Good Starter Rye

By Richard Thomas Having spent a good deal of time asking people with what bottle they were first introduced to whiskey, I have only heard a rye whiskey mentioned once. Various bourbons, Scotch and Irish whiskies have been cited dozens upon dozens of times, and even Canadian whiskies appear in the recollections of Boomers, but …

By Richard Thomas

Old Overholt Bonded Rye
*(Credit: Richard Thomas)*

Having spent a good deal of time asking people with what bottle they were first introduced to whiskey, I have only heard a rye whiskey mentioned once. Various bourbons, Scotch and Irish whiskies have been cited dozens upon dozens of times, and even Canadian whiskies appear in the recollections of Boomers, but only once for rye whiskey.

My suspicion is the last time one would find many Americans who got started with whiskey by sipping a rye would have been before Prohibition. Many factors go into explaining how that came about, but nowadays rye is just not how most people get started with whiskey, excepting possibly using rye in a cocktail. Compounding that is how some folks are genetically predisposed to dislike bitter and spicy flavors. Yet since the Rye Crunch of 2011-12, rye whiskey has been the fastest growing and most vibrant of the many long disused sectors of American whiskey. Some would say that momentum has reached maturity and slowed down, but it was only this year when Suntory Global Spirits began to give its disued Old Overholt, the classic brand of rye whiskey, the attention it deserves.

So, rye whiskey remains a branch of American whiskeydom that many drinkers are unfamiliar with, and how to introduce friends and family to it is not obvious. Indeed, just as smoky Scotch has the potential to permanently turn off some folks, boldly spicy rye could do the same for neophytes. Thankfully, the dominant branch of rye whiskey today is well-suited to the job of providing a starter bottle: Kentucky style rye whiskey.

Rye Done Bluegrass Style

The old style label of Wild Turkey 101 Rye Whiskey
*(Credit: S.D. Peters)*

In keeping with American whiskey law, the major stipulation for a rye whiskey is that it be fermented from a mash of 51% rye grain or greater. Rye was originally associated most closely with Pennsylvania and Maryland, not Kentucky, but three trends that dominated the industry in the mid-20th Century consolidated rye whiskey production in the Bluegrass. First, many whiskey brands were traded between liquor conglomerates as if they were Cracker Jack toys. This detached brands that had been started in the Keystone or the Old Line State from the distillery that originally made them. Second was the prevailing era of industrial consolidation, which was widespread in the US during the post-war period. Third was that the distilling industry of Pennsylvania and Maryland never really recovered from the tribulations of the early 20th Century, such as Prohibition, so each decade saw fewer and fewer active distillers in those states.

Eventually, these factors consolidated rye production into Kentucky distilleries, all of which had excess production capacity as the Great Whiskey Bust of the 1970s settled upon and smothered the industry. For example, when Jimmy Russell became a Master Distiller in 1964, his factory was not called the Wild Turkey Distillery or even the Austin Nichols Distillery. Those names would not come to the facility until 1971, and they brought with them rye whiskey. Rye had not been made there before, and Jimmy Russell supposedly did not like it and did not want to make it, but he had his marching orders. The result is the Wild Turkey 101 so beloved by rye fans today.

Similarly, Jim Beam acquired Old Overholt as part of a deal with National Distillers in 1987, along with Old Crow and Old Granddad. Heaven Hill picked up the Rittenhouse brand in 1993, after its ownership went bankrupt.

Some Kentucky distillers were already making rye when they acquired these brands and some only started because of it, but they all followed a similar approach, which has become the Kentucky style rye. This is defined by having a minimal amount of rye in the mash, usually between 51 and 55%. The style could also be called “high corn” rye, because the relatively low rye content opens the door for much more corn than, say, a Maryland distiller would have used.

In the Bluegrass, bourbon makers and had well-defined production processes for making bourbon. Some bourbons are known for having a high-rye content, so that served as a model for making a rye whiskey with Moreover, rye is a notoriously sticky grain in the mash, and their existing equipment was not well-suited to making high. So, they all chose to make a rye whiskey that was as close to bourbon as possible. There are exceptions, such as the Old Maysville Club made by Old Pogue, but these are recent products of the 21st Century.

Pikesville Straight Rye — Despite the labeling, Pikesville isn’t a Maryland-style rye.
*(Credit: John Rayls)*

That style is a huge boon for a starter rye, since it is only one step removed from the bourbon your novice is likely familiar with. That becomes doubly true if they are familiar with high rye bourbons, such as Basil Hayden. Even if the novice is not already familiar with bourbon, that the style leans heavily towards the sweet, corn- and new oak-derived of bourbon helps work around the potential a boldly spicy rye has to permanently turn people off. Kentucky style rye is drier and spicier than most bourbon whiskeys, but not nearly so much so as Pennsylvania ryes.

Starter Ryes For Every Budget

Mass Market Whiskeys

Old Forester Rye
Old Overholt Bottled in Bond
Rittenhouse Bottled in Bond Rye
Sazerac 6 Year Old Rye

Middle Market, Premium Whiskeys

Knob Creek 7 Year Old Rye
Pikesville Rye
Wild Turkey 101 Rye
Woodford Reserve Rye

Company Distilling: Tennessee’s Best Kept Secret

By Richard Thomas When I first started writing professionally about whiskey, Tennessee had just four distilleries making whiskey that wasn’t classed legal moonshine and it didn’t have a whiskey trail. Now it does have an official trail with over two dozen distilleries listed. Yet despite the growth, the fixtures remain the same: some 60 miles …

By Richard Thomas

The old H. Clark still, now part of Company Distilling
*(Credit: Company Distilling)*

When I first started writing professionally about whiskey, Tennessee had just four distilleries making whiskey that wasn’t classed legal moonshine and it didn’t have a whiskey trail. Now it does have an official trail with over two dozen distilleries listed. Yet despite the growth, the fixtures remain the same: some 60 miles southeast of Nashville, Jack Daniel’s and George Dickel sit as giants, like the state’s twin pillars of Heracles. As the legacy and by far the largest distilleries in the Volunteer State, and sitting not 15 miles apart, they command attention in proportion to their footprint. Folks on holiday in Gatlinburg might visit Ole Smoky or one of the other legal moonshiners, while hardcore whiskey enthusiasts may seek out Corsair Distillery on the basis of its well-earned reputation.

Arguably the best kept secret on the trail is Company Distilling, and that starts with the name. Even whiskey enthusiasts could be forgiven for thinking the name refers to an enterprise or maybe a company town, that is if they hadn’t heard the tagline “Whiskey as good as the company you keep.” Yet despite having their own destination entry on the Whiskey Trail website, the company still enjoys that status of being like the awesome dive bar that, if you know it, hope nobody else finds out about. Despite having an interesting backstory and two worthy locations, it’s not as chattered about as it should be. That will change, so take advantage while you still can.

Jeff Arnett in Townsend
*(Credit: Company Distilling)*

Bringing Good Company Together
The origins of Company Distilling go back to the foundations of the modern Tennessee distilling scene, which is to say the early days of the American craft distilling movement and the overhaul of Tennessee law that opened the door to the Volunteer State joining that movement. Kris Tatum and Jeff Arnett were the president and vice president of the Tennessee Distillers Guild, which lobbied for those necessary changes. In those days, Tatum was the founder and distillery manager at Old Forge Distillery, one of the legal moonshine makers in Gatlinburg; Arnett was the Master Distiller at Jack Daniel’s, America’s biggest whiskey-maker.

Fast forward to the eve of the Pandemic and the pieces for a merger of people, expertise and resources were all in place. Tatum was no longer with Old Forge, while Arnett was looking to make a change. The idea of starting his own company appealed to Arnett, offering the opportunity to go “from being an employee–a respected employee, but still–to an owner.” He felt, after two decades working in Lynchburg, he had earned his laurels there, was ready for new challenges and to establish a more personal legacy.

Next came Kevin Clayton, he of Clayton Homes, one of the nation’s largest pre-fabricated housing companies. Finally, with this trio brought together and intent on starting a distilling enterprise, they acquired the H. Clark Distillery in Thompson’s Station in 2020. That acquisition brought with it more than just the obvious assets of H. Clark; as Arnett and Tatum well-understood from their years of work with the Distillers Guild, there were many legal and regulatory advantages to absorbing a distillery that had been up and running for three years versus starting entirely from scratch. Furthermore, the H. Clark gin became the basis for the current Company Distilling gin.

Getting Past The Pandemic
The buyout of H. Clark Distillery was announced on the very eve of lockdowns sweeping the nation, which turned out to be one of the most disadvantageous times to start a new spirits venture as could be imagined. For one thing, the materials and labor shortages of the construction and housing boom that accompanied the steep interest rate cuts of the Pandemic severely hampered the start and completion of their Townsend location, which did not become functional until December 2022. Prices spikes during that period forced the price tag on the Townsend facility up by $1 million, and all that is keeping in mind the involvement of the folks from Clayton Homes in the project!

The Townsend Brewstillery, in the foothills of the Smokies
*(Credit: Company Distilling)*

But there were some upsides. As Master Distiller, Arnett spent approximately one-fifth of the year on the road, serving as Jack Daniel’s rock star brand ambassador. From March to September 2020, he was grounded, and he resigned as Master Distiller in September 2020.

Despite the Pandemic speed bump, Company Distilling is now moving forward. In 2021, they bought a 31 acre property in Alcoa, better known for smelting aluminum than making spirits. After disputes with local property owners, they are now set on a course to build a new production facility to join the 10,000 barrel storage house they currently have set up in an existing building. The plan is to use the Thomson’s Station distillery to make gin, the new Townsend distillery to make vodka, and use the Alcoa facility both to store sourced whiskey and then make it in the future.

Bringing Good Company To Company’s Destinations
The combination of personalities and talents at Company Distilling should make it a much higher profile curiosity for whiskey enthusiasts than it is at present, especially for its sourced whiskeys blended under Arnett’s stewardship, but it’s pair of locations are what should be of interest to drinkers and travelers generally. With its location in the exurbs of Nashville, it is both convenient to that metropolis yet far enough removed to offer the kind of idyllic outdoor patio setting usually associated with wineries.

Inside the Townsend Distillery
*(Credit: Company Distilling)*

Not quite as convenient, but even more outdoors-oriented, is the Townsend location, and that part is truly the best kept secret in Tennessee. Townsend itself is the “peaceful side of the Smokies,” being the least touristy of the three major entrances to Great Smoky Mountain National Park. In fact, it is hardly touristy at all, at least by comparison to Gatlinburg and thereabouts, with just the right balance of outdoor activities, infrastructure and being off the beaten track. Close enough to Knoxville or Chattanooga to be inside day trip range for those two cities, taking in a pleasant and relaxing drink at Company Distilling in Townsend after a day hike or tubing trip in the Little River is more of an overnight trip from Nashville. The allure of Townsend as a drinks-meets-outdoors destination will only grow alongside Alcoa facility, since the latter is just 15 miles away.

Autumn is around the bend, and with it the truly spectacular sight of the Smokies sporting their fall colors. This might be the last autumn that Company Distilling could truly be called Tennessee’s best kept secret, so for those who crave that type of destination, now is the time.

Wilderness Trail’s Coming Of Age

By Richard Thomas The first time I called on Wilderness Trail was early summer 2016. Located in picturesque Danville, a college town on the southern boundary of the Bluegrass that is an example of “ye can’t get thar from here!” (whatever direction you come from, it seems you must go somewhere else first to get …

By Richard Thomas

Wilderness Trail's new Vendome still — Wilderness Trail’s 18-inch column still.
*(Credit: Richard Thomas)*

The first time I called on Wilderness Trail was early summer 2016. Located in picturesque Danville, a college town on the southern boundary of the Bluegrass that is an example of “ye can’t get thar from here!” (whatever direction you come from, it seems you must go somewhere else first to get to Danville), it required special effort on my part to get there. Yet the timing was excellent: founders Shane Baker and Pat Heist had just made the move from a micro-distillery in a storage unit in Danville to an old cattle farm on the outskirts of town, complete with 19th Century farmhouse. That move included the transition from a pot still to a Vendome 18-inch column still, which had been in operation for just a year.

Wilderness Trail differed from so many craft distilleries around America in its founders. Shane Baker and Pat Heist were not newcomers to distilling, having co-founded Ferm Solutions in 2006. The pair had met playing for a rock band in Pikeville, Kentucky. Baker was an engineer who had moved over to working for venture capitalists, consulting on how to revive or break up acquired companies. Heist was a micro-biologist who had been teaching at medical schools. Together they got together and began consulting on commercial distilling, although that meant working in the American ethanol fuel industry for the most part. Your car had been sipping on the handiwork of Heist and Baker long before anything they made had even the slightest chance of passing your lips. The pair didn’t start Wilderness Trail and distill their first barrel of whiskey until 2013.

Shane Baker (left) and Pat Heist (right)
*(Credit: Campari)*

So I met the pair three years into their new booze-making enterprise, and it was still very much early days for the company. They had, in fact, only recently changed the company name from Wilderness Trace, after a certain company with a distillery in Frankfort objected to the use of the word “Trace.” The property had the two original farm buildings, a barn and the red brick farmhouse, plus the distillery building, bottling plant and a small 2,200-barrel rickhouse. The latter was so small as to be unique in Kentucky; Rob Samuels is said to have labeled it “cute.”

I was aware of how Wilderness Trail had grown in the eight years since in a statistical sense. I knew about how they preferred to wait four or five years for their own production to be ready for release as bottled in bond whiskeys, and how those initial releases had since come out. In 2017, they bought the property across the road; later that same year, the company announced an almost $10 million expansion plan.

Knowing all that is very different from seeing it, however. Approximately a dozen medium-sized rickhouses have been erected; a visitor center built; and a 36-inch column still added, effectively tripling output over what they had in 2016. That meant Wilderness Trail was filling approximately 70,000 barrels per year before their first expression had been released. The crown on all that growth came on Halloween Day 2022, when Campari announced they were buying a 70% stake in Wilderness Trail.

The central part of the Wilderness Trail campus as it is today. An entire second cluster of rickhouses are in the adjacent property, across the road.
*(Credit: Wilderness Trail)*

It’s a truly meteoric rise. As described, Wilderness Trail rose from operating a very crafty scale to having a truly medium-sized distillery in just a few years, and then to what I’d say pushes the boundaries separating medium-sized from large distilling just a few years later. Kentucky has seen some newcomers in the middle and large scale sectors in recent years, but Bardstown Bourbon Company, Rabbit Hole and New Riff all started out as mid-sized producers. Bardstown Bourbon Company had quadruple expansion baked into its DNA/building plans from the beginning. What Wilderness Trail did was very different indeed, and it begs the question of how Baker and Heist accomplished it all.

First, it has to be said that Wilderness Trail completed its first expansion at a very good time in the middle 2010s. Much like New Riff Distilling in Northern Kentucky, they had ample production capacity at a time when numerous sourced brands were either coming into being or else looking for someone to contract produce their whiskey at a time when all the Kentucky Majors (the state’s big distillers) were all exiting the business of contract distilling and/or quietly trading in aged stock whiskey.

Wilderness Trail farmhouse — The old farmhouse at Wilderness Trail as it looked in 2016; it is now stained with whiskey fungus
*(Credit: Richard Thomas)*

That contract production became the engine for the company’s rapid growth. Wilderness Trail has over a quarter million barrels of whiskey stored in their rickhouses, but the overwhelming majority of those barrels belong to their contract customers. Equally important in that picture were Shane and Pat themselves: hiring Wilderness Trail as your contract producer also meant employing the expertise of two men who were fast becoming known as “the Science Guys of Bourbon.”

The other side is the buzz that surrounded Wilderness Trail and what they were doing. By committing to bonded whiskeys, and thereby deciding to sit on it for four or five years before releasing it, Baker and Heist earned their brand as much credit for authenticity a newcomer could possibly get, and authenticity is valuable currency with bourbon nerds.

Yet they also veered off in their own distinct direction from the rest of the Kentucky bourbon industry. In a state known for sour mash whiskey-making, Wilderness Trail is a sweet mash shop. Sour mash refers to the practice codified by Dr. James Crow in the early 19th Century of using backset (leftovers from the previous batch) in starting a new mash for whiskey. In an era when germ theory was either unknown (and later not yet widely accepted), sour mash was a preventative step against contamination and helped achieve consistency. Today, sour mash is more traditional, but not necessary more efficient. Also, as the terms sour and sweet mash imply, sour mashes are more acidic, which has its influence on the flavors coming out of that mash.

Another feature that set them apart from everyone else in Kentucky is their low corn style of bourbon-making. Both the wheat and rye bourbons use 64% corn, with 24% wheat or rye respectively. That is about 10% lower than the norm for corn, with the flavoring grain being a little higher than normal and the difference made up by more barley. They also favor Cooper’s Select barrels from Independent Stave Company, which utilize staves that have been air seasoned for 1 1/2 to 2 years.

This is not to say everything at Wilderness Trail is running against the grain of Kentucky norms. Their rye fits very much in the Kentucky rye style; they use #4 alligator char on those very seasoned barrels; and their entry proof of 134 is typical. Still, the distillery does its own thing in just enough ways to set itself apart from the neighbors, and that is something that tends to excite nerds as well. Moreover, it suits their somewhat isolated location in Danville, which is quite off the beaten track of the Kentucky Bourbon Trail.

The last element is Baker and Heist themselves. They brought a potent combination of business, chemical and engineering expertise to their start-up; it’s hard to imagine anyone except John Teeling who knew more about how to start a whiskey-making company than these two before embarking on that very project. But beyond that is Pat Heist, who is a natural evangelist for his process and product. In an era when Master Distillers have taken on some of the glamour of a rock star and are counted upon to be ambassadors, Heist’s enthusiasm is infectious and anyone who hears him speak about how he makes Wilderness Trail should want to have some.

Ardbeg’s Master Of Smoke As A Gateway To Peaty Scotch

By Richard Thomas Being something of a whiskey generalist, one of the problems I grapple with regularly is how to overcome preconceived notions and deeply ingrained preferences. Enthusiasts have a tendency to be nerdy about whiskey, and nerds have a tendency towards blinkerdom. So, even though Scotch whisky present a wide, deep palate of flavors …

By Richard Thomas

Being something of a whiskey generalist, one of the problems I grapple with regularly is how to overcome preconceived notions and deeply ingrained preferences. Enthusiasts have a tendency to be nerdy about whiskey, and nerds have a tendency towards blinkerdom. So, even though Scotch whisky present a wide, deep palate of flavors to its drinkers, getting a bourbon fan to explore even the most approachable corner Scotch is sometimes an uphill effort.

The steepest hill to climb is the one with peaty Scotch sitting at the top. In my experience, most people have their first experience with Scotch whisky in a youthful encounter with a bottom shelf blended whisky, and those often draw on small quantities of peated malt in their blends. That smoke stands out and becomes a signature of a negative experience. Many, many times I have met someone who is turned off by a cheap blended whisky with a bitter flavor profile whose two main notes were wood and creosote, and that person declares they don’t like whisky. I find American and Irish whiskeys are the best route for undoing that damage, but then bringing them back around to Scotch can be a tricky thing. One route is to avoid the smoke altogether and steer for Sherried whiskies instead.

The odd thing about avoiding smoke is a bourbon fan ought to appreciate a peated whisky from the start, because one of the flavor notes most appreciated by bourbon fans is that of barrel char. The two don’t taste the same, but people reach for similar terms to describe them, so the mental pathway is open.

So, when I heard about Ardbeg’s Masters of Smoke tour, I thought “that is just the thing.” Ardbeg is renowned among Scotch enthusiasts for offering some of the smokiest, and yet still complex single malts the famously peated island of Islay has to offer. Traveling around the country in an Airstream trailer, Ardbeg is taking the divisive question of peat head on.

At the core of Masters of Smoke is a guided sensory experience to just what lies behind Ardbeg’s smoky character. I suspect the flavor note that turns off so many when it appears in a cheap blended whisky is dubbed by Ardbeg as “coal,” but there are four others as well: medicinal, herbal, wood and savory. In a brief session, the Masters of Smoke ambassador works with a guest through all five smoke scent notes to generate a flavor profile that works for that individual, and then steers them towards the Ardbeg expression that presents that profile.

I’ve found the voice of authority counts for a lot in overcoming preconceived notions, and I’m willing to bet more than a few skeptics have become converts via the Masters of Smoke tour. And if the curated sensory experience doesn’t open minds regarding the virtues of peaty whisky, then the cocktail program should finish the job. When it comes to programs like Masters of Smoke, I’ve found only two types of people aren’t shifted in their preferences at least some what: folks who just plain don’t drink and those so set in their ways you had to drag them there.

The Masters of Smoke has already swung through the Mid-West and South, and is finishing off the Eastern United States through the remainder of Spring 2024 in New York and Massachusetts. After that, the tour will spend the summer in the Western half of the US. Destinations and dates can be found on the Masters of Smoke website.

Busting The Biggest Myth Of Tennessee Whiskey

By Richard Thomas One of the ugly little secrets of sensory science is just how much the senses of taste and smell can be influenced by preconceptions. Ideally, this reality can be guarded against, and it’s what makes the notion of the blind taste test so interesting. The Paris Wine Tasting of 1976 was the …

By Richard Thomas

Making maple wood charcoal at Jack Daniel’s in the 1930s.
(Credit: Public Domain)

One of the ugly little secrets of sensory science is just how much the senses of taste and smell can be influenced by preconceptions. Ideally, this reality can be guarded against, and it’s what makes the notion of the blind taste test so interesting. The Paris Wine Tasting of 1976 was the earliest lesson of just how snobbery and closure to new concepts can condition and blinker people who are supposed to be expert and rational in a given field, opening the door to biases. That wine tasting has been immortalized in film, and did more than any single event to give us a world where wines not from France are actually taken seriously, precisely because it proved that wines from not-France could compete.

A narrower example of this psychsomatic effect on taste has infested writing about American whiskey: the perception of a maple syrup note in Tennessee Whiskey. The processing of the chemical signals our olfactory senses send to our brains is interpretive and based on experience, so different experiences can lead two different people to label a particular note differently. But knowing the maple flavor is as close to universal as it gets in the United States, so that isn’t the reason so many of my colleagues consistently find a maple note in Jack Daniel’s and George Dickel whiskeys. Some have even found it in the in-house Greenbrier White Label.

That maple note is not there, period, and the reason some see it isn’t because a neurological signal connects that sensation to the closest memory. This connection is made because of a preconception of the Lincoln County Process, a preconception that hilariously means they’ve wholly misunderstood what the process is for. In other words, when you read “this Dickel has a maple note,” that should be translated as “I never learned why George Dickel does what it does, but I’m writing about them anyway.”

The Lincoln County Shortcut
Tennessee’s signature contribution to whiskey-making is the institutionalization of charcoal leaching, better known as the Lincoln County Process. Distillers in the state didn’t invent the charcoal filtration of new make whiskey, but it just so happens that Jack Daniel’s is from the state, and that company has always utilized this method. Since Jack Daniel’s is America’s biggest whiskey brand, and second only to Johnnie Walker worldwide, that means charcoal leaching has become synonymous with the company and its region of origin: Lincoln County.

Tennessee whiskey-makers have traditionally relied upon sugar maples to supply the hardwood for making that charcoal. This tradition is now enshrined in law, so the wood source for the charcoal used in making Tennessee Whiskey can only be sugar maple. That choice of wood, however, is entirely about availability and has nothing to do with imparting flavor. The use of any charcoal will, in a sense, actually subtract flavor from a new make whiskey, and sugar maple is no exception.

Sugar maple charcoal filtration done on a craft scale at Nelson’s Greenbrieer
(Credit: Richard Thomas)

The Lincoln County Process serves the same purpose as a Brita filter. Charcoal has a very high carbon content and a porous, high-volume surface. Carbon is chemically sticky. So, filtering a liquid through charcoal removes certain reactive compounds from the liquid. If that is what you want, the liquid is purified.

This information is available in most supermarkets and on countless survivalist TV shows, but somehow these facts have failed to penetrate the brains of some of my colleagues. This is especially the case of those who (apparently) have never asked the folks from Jack Daniel’s, George Dickel or others just what the Lincoln County Process is supposed to do. By subtracting volatile compounds from it, the new make gets a head start on some aspects of maturation, because those volatile compounds would have otherwise broken down after several years of maturation.

In the 2010s, many newcomers to whiskey-making were touting gimmicky methods involving pressure cooking and sonic treatments to accelerate the maturation process. All of them overlooked a time-tested, proven method for producing a smooth, mellow whiskey in half the time: the Lincoln County Process.

The process has its drawbacks. Recall that the eliminated compounds break down during the maturation process. Without getting into a lengthy chemistry lesson, what they break down into is useful in producing what people like about middle aged and old whiskeys. Still, the point is charcoal filtration is exactly that: a filter, not an infusion.

Why Sugar Maple?
To explain why a Tennessean would choose sugar maple for his filtration charcoal, first answer this question: why isn’t there a substantial maple syrup industry anywhere in the United States south of, say, Massachusetts? The trees thrive across North America, so what is it about very northern sugar maples that make them viable for making syrup, but not those growing south of New England?

First, did you know you can make syrup from trees other than sugar maples? The reason sugar maples have their name is because they produce twice the amount of sugar of other sugar-bearing trees. You can make syrup from other maples, birch and even walnuts, but its more efficient to rely on sugar maples if you have them.

It’s also more efficient to rely on those northern sugar maples for industrial purposes. The colder climate makes for a more productive and more reliable sugaring cycle. That is vital for building an industry around maple syrup.

The Lincoln County Process, JD style
(Credit: Brown-Forman)

In Tennessee, the climate is lousy for making maple syrup, but there are still a great many sugar maples thriving in the forests. All other hardwoods had and still have a plethora of uses other than making charcoal. Sugar maple is abundant, but not much used for making furniture, musical instruments, barrels, boats or in construction. I’ve raised this topic with Chris Fletcher (current Jack Daniel’s Master Distiller), Jeff Arnett (former Jack Daniel’s Master Distiller) and John Lunn (former George Dickel Master Distiller, now deceased). All three were adamant that charcoal filtration doesn’t actually put anything into the new make whiskey; two of the three said the reason they’ve used sugar maple is because it’s a cheap and abundant source of charcoal, nothing more.

Still not persuaded? Consider this. The ignition point of dry sugar is 350F. To make charcoal, the temperature must be above 750F. Furthermore, making charcoal isn’t anything like charring the inside of a barrel. The latter process scorches the surface and carmelizes the interior of the wood, while charcoal-making carbonizes the entire material. The stuff maple syrup is made of is absolutely burned off by the process of making charcoal.

Lessons Learned
It’s important in this business to guard against your conceits and preconceived notions in any exercise that contains a fundamentally subjective element, and the best way to do that when a blind tasting is inconvenient is education. Brown-Forman whiskeys often have a banana note because their house yeast family produces it; that is science and the company confirms it. Filtration through sugar maple charcoal doesn’t introduce maple flavors to a whiskey, because that isn’t the purpose, besides which the maple-tinged sugars in question have long since been scorched into ash.

The maple note isn’t there. As for why some would perceive it, the maple flavor is so familiar in this country that I cannot credit the misidentification is due to a shallow palate. The only reasons left are dual failures in industry education and a failure of sensory evaluation. Keep that in mind the next time you read about Jack Daniel’s Old No. 7 and its “trademark maple syrup note.”

Is Kentucky’s Bourbon Business Really That Rosy?

New Economic Numbers And Tax Breaks Leave More Questions Than Answers By Richard Thomas February saw the release of a key economic report from the Kentucky Distillers Association (KDA), the trade group that represents the Commonwealth’s bourbon industry. The statistics presented in the report were held up as a cause for celebration, billed as a …

New Economic Numbers And Tax Breaks Leave More Questions Than Answers

By Richard Thomas

Heaven Hill rickhouse near Bardstown, Kentucky
(Credit: Richard Thomas)

February saw the release of a key economic report from the Kentucky Distillers Association (KDA), the trade group that represents the Commonwealth’s bourbon industry. The statistics presented in the report were held up as a cause for celebration, billed as a picture of the Kentucky bourbon industry going from triumph to triumph, and its release was attended by leaders from both the state government and the bourbon industry.

“Kentucky’s economy is booming, and the Bourbon industry is helping us build a strong economy for generations to come,” said Gov. Andy Beshear. “Today, this signature industry is generating $9 billion in total economic impact, with more on the way. We thank our distilleries for working hard to create more good jobs and boosting our tourism industry across the Commonwealth.”

I’m loathe to disagree with Andy Beshear, especially as both he and his father before him are/were outstanding governors for the bourbon industry. That said, I command a long memory and have some graduate-level economics courses under my belt, two characteristics that led me to some questions over the report that occasioned those remarks. Chief among those questions is “is this data as good as it seems” and “what about the salient issues for Kentuckians not discussed by the KDA?”

Old Forester’s signature is its in-house cooperage
(Credit: Brown-Forman)

Kentucky Bourbon As A $9 Billion Industry
The headline statistic in the new data is that Kentucky bourbon is now a $9 billion industry. Mind you, that does not mean it generates $9 billion in sales or profits; it means the industry has a $9 billion economic footprint. This is keeping it in tandem with Scotch Whisky, the other leading whiskey industry in the world (Scotch was estimated to have a £7.1 billion footprint in 2022), and makes bourbon one of the state’s most important industries. That number also represents the growth of Kentucky bourbon, but how much growth?

When I first started The Whiskey Reviewer twelve years ago, that KDA figure for the bourbon industry was $8 billion. For the last several years, that figure has been $8.5 billion. Now it has reached $9 billion, and over that time the industry has grown from having fewer than twenty active distilleries in the state to “100 distilling locations operated by around 84 companies in Kentucky,” representing a fivefold increase since 2009. Most of those new distilleries are craft-scale, but some are medium-sized enterprises (New Riff, Rabbit Hole, Wilderness Trail) and at least one is large (Bardstown Bourbon Company).

Another factor, one that shouldn’t require a long memory to recall, is the recent inflationary cycle. That spike of inflation ran from 2020 to 2023, with an overall rate of 6.7% during that period. Roughly speaking, for three years inflation ran triple to what it had been for the whole of the 21st Century, and those three years cover the majority of the time since the previous report on the scope of the Kentucky bourbon industry. Some simple math indicates that the half billion dollar growth tracked by the KDA (more or less) corresponds with inflation.

The old farmhouse at Wilderness Trail
(Credit: Richard Thomas)

Knowing that, I was surprised the new figure wasn’t higher, but that is as far as this exercise in being informed enough to exercise a little critical thinking go. Whether that is because inflation ate up the value of the industry’s growth or because growth has been slowing, I can’t say, but it certainly does not represent an inflation-adjusted surge of strong growth that one might have expected.

Bourbon, Taxes And The Bluegrass
As part of the new report, the KDA touted the 2023 passage of House Bill 5 (HB5), Kentucky’s infamous barrel tax. That is a 0.05% property tax on whiskey aging in warehouses (1/9 of the 0.45% tax on other forms of tangible property), and is the only tax of its kind in the US. The tax will now be gradually phased out between 2026 and 2043. In 2022, the Kentucky bourbon industry paid over $40 million in barrel taxes, and the industry has long claimed the tax is an anti-competitive hindrance to their industry.

The industry may be right, in that they are paying a tax that no one else in the United States must pay, but on a global level the truth of that statement is less clear. Every country has its own unique tax and regulatory quirks, and comparing them is often a matter of apples and oranges, or apples and pears at best. Certainly few have considered paying the tax so strong an impediment as to prevent them from a whiskey-making business in Kentucky, as witnessed by the boom in new distillery starts this last decade and the absence of any whiskey company picking up and moving out of the state.

The reason why only Kentucky has this tax is two-fold: the tax was enacted in the 1940s and ever since Kentucky has the nation’s largest whiskey industry, and its largest by a huge margin. Also, the state is home to large and influential groups of Protestant teetotallers. An old axiom in the state is those folks don’t want liquor sold in their counties, but they are more than happy to collect taxes from the whiskey business.

Barrel taxes are used to fund the schools, police, fire and other services in the counties they are collected from, and rural counties in particular are heavily dependent to fund their essential functions. In the run-up to the passage of HB5, this issue was often simplified into counties that were home to distilleries and those that hosted only bourbon warehouses. It was presumed the former would be fine, since the distilleries provided dozens or hundreds of permanent jobs. The latter would suffer upon losing the barrel tax because it was the only revenue they derived from the industry, because warehouses create fewer jobs and those are often not permanently assigned to a given storage property in any case. Indeed, many county officials from these warehouse-only counties said losing the barrel tax would make the bourbon industry a fiscal parasite on their communities, since they would still be stuck holding the bill for the wear and tear on their roads caused by barrel-hauling trucks and the additional fire protection the warehouses require.

Maker’s Mark, still one of the prettiest distilleries in Kentucky
(Credit: Richard Thomas)

The reality, however, is worse than that. Marion County is home to Maker’s Mark, Limestone Branch and the cooperage Independent Stave Company, so the bourbon industry creates plenty of permanent jobs there. Yet the barrel tax represents 70% of the budget for the county seat of Loretto. Leaders like Marion County Judge Executive David Daugherty question why the industry needs tax relief when it has been experiencing record growth and investment for the last several years, and he has a point. Again, those of us with long memories can fairly posit that a better time for tax relief might have been during the Whiskey Bust of the 1970s and 1980s.

Besides, HB5 is that this is only the latest tax break received by the bourbon industry during the modern Bourbon Boom. A previous measure was passed in 2014. Since that measure was passed, most Kentucky distillers haven’t even been paying the full barrel tax each year.

I think the real divide is between rural and urban or suburban counties. Places like Woodford, Jefferson and Boone counties have a far larger and more diversified tax base than Anderson, Bullit or Marion counties. I suspect in the long run, something will be done to bail out the counties losing their barrel money, if for no other reason than the statehouse is dominated by Republicans, and those rural counties are where the Republican voters live. Yet what that means in practice is that barrel tax will de facto be paid by other taxpayers in the state.

Kentucky corn farming
(Credit: CraneStation/Wikimedia Commons/CC By 2.0)

Asking Questions
One of the problems with looking at these issues is just how many variables contribute to them. For example, those same rural counties that complain about losing the barrel tax are home to farms that grow the corn that is ravenously consumed by the bourbon industry or feed their cattle for free off the spent grain waste of the distilling process. Kentucky Agriculture Commissioner Shell said, “Kentucky farmers sold nearly 19 million bushels of corn and 2.6 million bushels of other grains to Kentucky distillers last year. The economic effects on our industry are building a stronger agricultural community for years to come.”

I don’t pretend to have all the data, let alone all the answers. But as I wrote at the beginning, I have sufficient insight to look at all this and be left scratching my head. Some years ago, the Bourbon Boom was attended by the constant question of “yes, it’s all very well and good, but when and how will the good times end?” I don’t hear that worry much anymore, but looking at these numbers, perhaps I should be. It looks more like a relative (emphasis on that word “relative”) slowdown than a continued surge. And as a Kentuckian, I can’t help but wonder if there won’t be a sales hike tax coming in the 2030s to offset the loss of barrel tax revenue for those bourbon industry counties that find they can’t pay to fix their roads anymore.

Top Picks of 2023

At The Whiskey Reviewer, we have a more informal way of dealing with the question of annual awards. Instead of handing out medals or drawing up a conglomerated list, every member of the team who wishes to opine on the subject keeps her or his own voice, naming their personal choice in three categories. Best …

Best New Whiskey
Best Whiskey To Pass My Lips (the absolute best, new or not)
Biggest Disappointment

Below are the picks for those three categories, drawn up person by person and starting with the chief:

King of Kentucky Bourbon 2023
(Credit: Brown Forman)

Richard Thomas, Owner-Editor

Best New Whiskey, King of Kentucky Bourbon 2023: Of the whiskeys released last year, the best I got hold of was the most recent installment in the King of Kentucky series. I’ve taken to calling this series Brown-Forman’s answer to Buffalo Trace’s George T. Stagg, but generally speaking I prefer King of Kentucky, and for 2023 I don’t think the issue should even be debatable. This wasn’t just the best new whiskey of last year, but also the best new bourbon release.

Master Distiller Chris Morris set aside a lot of 51 barrels filled in 2007, making it a 16 year old bourbon bottled as single barrel allotments. The barrel my sample came from rated 125.8 proof, and the total yield was roughly 3,900 bottles. It was very well-rounded, with aspects of brown sugar and vanilla sweetness; wood-driven spiciness; and berry fruitiness.

Best To Pass My Lips, Glenglassaugh 46 Year Old: This one is new to 2023 and the United States, but I’ll cite the technicality that it’s not entirely new to the rest of the world. Luscious in its fruitiness and luxurious in its accents, I can’t quite call it ambrosia, but only because it makes me think that maybe I filched the sample from some lesser immortals like elves rather than the actual gods. The only downside to this single malt, in fact, is a price tag so steep ($4,600 MSRP) that I can’t imagine that either myself or anyone I know would ever be in a position to buy it.

Glyph Spice
(Credit: Richard Thomas)

Biggest Disappointment, Glyph Spice Spirit Whiskey Review: I try to keep an open mind when it comes to new technologies that are touted as solutions to traditional maturation, and also to attempts to revive or make use to moribund categories, such as light whiskey or spirit whiskey. As a consequence, I sometimes sample things that leave me underwhelmed, unimpressed or flat out disappointed. For 2023, that slot is filled by Glyph Spice Spirit Whiskey. ‘Nuff said.

Kurt Maitland, Deputy Editor

Best New Whiskey, Michter’s 25 Year Old Bourbon: Always a pleasure to have this dram and it is always a contender for this pick, on those years it comes out.

Best Whiskey To Pass My Lips, Tomatin Single Malt Whisky 15 Year Old (distilled in 1963 and bottled in 1981): So fruity and just a joy to drink. I had this at the 2023 Whisky Show in London, where it won best in show and best of the year.

The 2017 Michter’s 25 Year Old Bourbon
(Credit: Richard Thomas)

Biggest Disappointment, Clermont Steep American Single Malt Whiskey: It’s not a horrible whiskey, it is just that I expected more from Beam Suntory’s first entry into this space. I’m sure with time it will improve and I’m curious to see how it stands up to the more established American Single Malt.

Randall H. Borkus, Senior Contributing Writer

Best New Whiskey, WhistlePig The Béhôlden 21 Year Old Single Malt Whiskey
WhistlePig Farm brought us a new whiskey called “The Béhôlden,” their first ultra-aged single malt. WhistlePig sourced the whiskey from Glenora Distillery in Nova Scotia, and finished in WhistlePig’s own used rye barrels. All the bottles are single barrel offerings, numbered and presented in an ultra-deluxe wooden box holding a 750ml bottle at 92 proof. I thoroughly enjoyed “The Béhôlden,” as it surprised all of my senses and is truly a spectacular whiskey.

Best to Pass my Lips, Longrow Red 11 Years Old Tawny Port Cask Single Malt
The Longrow Red is released annually and bottled at cask strength. In 2023 they unleashed 8,400 bottles of Longrow Red 11 Years Tawny Port Cask bottled at 57.5% ABV. At cask strength, it drank delightfully smooth and a few drops of water only further enhanced the multitude of flavors. This is a must have for anyone who digs Scotch finished in Port barrels.

Biggest Disappointment, Glenmorangie A Tale of the Forest Whisky
This is a first for me and The Glenmorangie, because I simply could not finish the dram. The botanicals killed the flavor experience for me. I am sure there are a few who love botanicals, but for me it was overwhelming, off putting and undrinkable. The true tale is told on the shelves, as I see it available all over Chicago. That fact speaks for itself, suggesting as it does that it is both mass market and not moving. The malt was truly a disappointment for me, especially coming from one of my favorite distilleries.

Elizabeth Emmons, Contributing Writer

Best New Whiskey, Simply Whiskey: Fabuuulous
I stumbled upon this one thanks our Deputy Editor, Kurt Maitland, who had brought a sample to me. I had never had anything from this independent bottler before, but this was truly excellent. This release is from a cask from Israeli distillery Milk & Honey and the price, especially considering the quality and depth, is amazing. I also recommend (right behind Fabuuulous) trying another release called Friday Night, which is a 9 year old Mortlach. I was impressed!

Best Whiskey to Pass My Lips, Benriach 1997 Cask – 24 Year Old Oloroso Sherry Puncheon
I tried this one in a 200ml sample. The nose is currants/raisin with strong sherry presence. On the palate, those nose notes carry over plus fruitcake, baking spices, a grainy satisfying mouthfeel and a tannic finish. I love Benriach in general and expected this to be excellent, but this release, which has one of my favorite flavor profiles and a complementary ABV, was memorable.

Biggest Disappointment of 2023, Blanton’s La Maison du Whisky (2010 Limited Edition)
This was an impulse buy when I was in Kentucky, and was my first drink of the evening in a 1 or 2 oz pour – I can’t remember. It was not worth the price ($225… in retrospect, I hope it was a 2 oz pour!). I love Blanton’s Single Barrel, but this did not leave a lasting impression.

More News of Whiskey Misconduct In 2023

By Richard Thomas Earlier this year, bourbon fans on both sides of the United States were rocked by news of alleged corruption, in what was the biggest news of its kind since Pappygate. In February, it was revealed that managers of the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission (OLCC) had been under investigation for several years …

By Richard Thomas

Justins’ House of Bourbon in Lexington
(Credit: Richard Thomas)

Earlier this year, bourbon fans on both sides of the United States were rocked by news of alleged corruption, in what was the biggest news of its kind since Pappygate. In February, it was revealed that managers of the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission (OLCC) had been under investigation for several years for abusing their authority. The month before, Justins’ House of Bourbon, one of the leaders in the field of dealing in collectable bourbon, saw its facilities in Kentucky and Washington, DC raided by local authorities, amid rumors of selling fakes and illegally re-importing Blanton’s Bourbon. After the passing of several months, it is time to revisit these cases and review developments.

Corruption At The OLCC?
An Oregon state investigation unveiled in February 2023 alleged that top managers at the OLCC had been using their authority in what is an alcohol control state to divert bottles of rare liquor, most infamously Pappy Van Winkle, to themselves. Oregon is one of America’s 17 liquor control states, where the state government serves as distributor and store retailer. Therefore, in Oregon it is the state that receives the allocation of scarce whiskeys available to the state as a whole, and the OLCC directs where those bottles go. OLCC leadership, including Executive Director Steve Marks, are alleged to have diverted the rare bottles to particular stores at times they could go in and pick them up, easily acquiring them and paying regular retail prices instead of inflated market values. Although definitely not theft, it is clearly the kind of abuse of authority that should make an Oregon bourbon enthusiast’s blood boil.

Marks and other managers at OLCC resigned, with Marks being replaced just eight days later. Also coming to issue in February 2023 was the new OLCC headquarters and warehouse construction project, which had reportedly ballooned over its projected cost by 133%. That could be explained by the rapid escalation in the costs for materials and labor in the construction industry during the Pandemic, but the story added another layer to the existing tale of corruption at the OLCC.

(Credit: Kurt Maitland)

In July, Marks filed a lawsuit against Oregon Governor Tina Kotek, alleging that he was wrongfully forced to resign due to the influence of local cannabis business interests. In August, the state cancelled the plans to build the new headquarters that Marks was overseeing as head of the OLCC, and will instead move the organization to vacant office space it has in Salem. The warehouse project will go ahead. There is no news on if criminal charges are being pursued against the OLCC’s managers, and Oregon authorities would not comment on that investigation.

House of Bourbon Partly Cleared, But Only Partly
Justins’ House of Bourbon is a popular destination for travelers on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail, with their stores in Lexington and Louisville being the best known area retailers for collectable bottles of American whiskey. They also run an online retailer from Washington, DC called Bourbon Outfitter. In a shocking development, they were simultaneously raided in Kentucky and Washington, DC in January.

One of the Justins of Justins’ House of Bourbon is Justin Thompson, who in addition to co-ownership of that company is owner of Bourbon Review magazine and co-owner Belle’s Cocktail House in Lexington.

In May, the Washington, DC end of the case was seemingly closed. Although the company had been re-importing Blanton’s Bourbon from Europe for sale (at a considerable mark-up from MSRP) in the U.S., they had not been doing so illegally. According to reports, the matter ultimately boiled down to some fines for improper record keeping.

Some news coverage of events on the Washington, DC end of the case wrongly implied that Justins’ House of Bourbon had been fully cleared of all serious wrong-doing, which was not the case. In August, the Kentucky end of the story took a step forward, lodging a complaint against the company alleging multiple violations of the law regulating the sale of vintage spirits and liquor regulations generally. The former law legalizes the resale of liquor in private hands to retail vendors, since it is normally illegal for a private person to sell liquor to anyone. Those violations include failure to label vintage spirits as required, purchasing non-vintage spirits, purchasing excessive amounts of vintage spirits from single sellers, and illegal transport of spirits across state lines (between Kentucky and their Washington, DC branches). The latter was to enable the shipping of spirits, contrary to Kentucky state law.

Justins’ House of Bourbon was offered a settlement, whereby they would admit to their violations and pay a $60,000 fine, but retain their licenses and continue to do business in the state. However, it seems they didn’t take the settlement, and now the Kentucky Department of Alcohol Beverage Control is seeking to revoke the company’s liquor licenses. The case is widely seen as the groundbreaking first test of Kentucky’s vintage spirits law, passed in 2017.

Blade & Bow Helps With Putting Swank In Your Bourbon And Ponies

The Collaboration of Blade & Bow and Garden & Gun Has Given Bourbon Fans Ways to Raise Their Bluegrass Experience A Notch By Richard Thomas When Blade & Bow Bourbon first started their collaboration with Garden & Gun magazine, that authoritative guide to all things tasteful, upscale and Southern, it was in a standard exercise …

The Collaboration of Blade & Bow and Garden & Gun Has Given Bourbon Fans Ways to Raise Their Bluegrass Experience A Notch

By Richard Thomas

(Credit: Calstanhope/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 4.0)

When Blade & Bow Bourbon first started their collaboration with Garden & Gun magazine, that authoritative guide to all things tasteful, upscale and Southern, it was in a standard exercise in cross-branding: the lounge at the Stitzel-Weller Distillery was named the Garden & Gun Club. Stitzel-Weller is indeed the seat of much bourbon history, but it hasn’t been an active distillery in three decades, so it functions as a barrel warehousing center for parent company Diageo and a tourist destination. As far as the latter is concerned, having one of only two Garden & Gun Clubs (the other is in Atlanta) offering exclusive pours of Blade & Bow 22 Year Old and a luxurious menu of bar snacks is a major plus, but again it’s what one would expect from these kinds of partnerships.

Then came the events schedule. Garden & Gun has had a strong, classy events program running in the Southern US for years, and sometimes those events have been co-sponsored by bourbon brands. Several years ago, I was able to attend Garden & Gun’s 225th Anniversary of Kentucky Gala, a very barn chic event catered by local celebrity chef Ouita Michel, and one that yielded stories I tell to this day. That was co-sponsored by Woodford Reserve, and that singular event underscores how different the Blade & Bow collaboration with Garden & Gun has been and what that means for those looking to drink deep in the larger Bluegrass experience.

Blade and Bow 22 Year Old Bourbon
(Credit: Diageo)

Woodford Reserve is a sponsor of the Kentucky Derby, and therefore the official bourbon. Maker’s Mark is a sponsor of Keeneland. One sees these bourbons at events, and they are the center of the cocktail program, but it’s not like one sees Maker’s Mark getting involved in a select, ticketed party for the annual Keeneland Fall Meet. But that is exactly the kind of thing Blade & Bow has been doing with Garden & Gun, and as such it is giving people a chance to combine the two things the Bluegrass is best known for: the sport of kings and America’s spirit. Bourbon and horse racing.

For several years now, the pairing has hosted a swanky dinner at the Stitzel-Weller Distillery for the Kentucky Oaks, the major stakes race held the day before the Kentucky Derby. When I attended, the food was delightful, the drink satisfying, and the company interesting: I was seated next to the then-mayor of “Lively” Shively. It’s exactly what anyone should want from a Derby-adjacent event, and while some may blanche at the ticket price, the event still costs a seventh of what it takes to attend the famous Barnstable Brown Party.

The Kentucky Derby inevitably comes first to mind when Kentucky horse racing is raised, and that is understandable, because it is the richest stakes race in the world. But for those of us who know the thoroughbred business, the center of Kentucky horse racing isn’t the Derby. It’s Keeneland. Blade & Bow and Garden & Gun are over at Keeneland too. I attended their recent Keeneland Cocktail Brunch, tying onto the aforementioned Fall Meet. This year’s was the 11th such event, and it was staged in the rooftop bar of the brand new Manchester Hotel in Lexington, Kentucky, arguably the swankiest joint of its kind in town. And as at the Kentucky Oaks event in Louisville, there were plenty of colorful hats on display.

These two joint events grant access to the kind of horsey blue blood experience that I brushed up against repeatedly as a child. Back in the Reagan years, the horses were the major source of glamor in the state, and bourbon this neglected, sometimes even scorned blue collar drink. Things have changed quite a bit, but the two have always been an intrinsic part of the Bluegrass experience and should be viewed as inseparable. The first time I met Jimmy Russell was at Keeneland, and one should wonder what Henry Clay would have thought about not tying bourbon and horses together.

So, keep in mind that every May and October, the bourbon brand and the magazine get together and offer folks an opportunity to get fancy while getting their drink and ponies on. For residents and visitors alike, it is well worth doing.

Not Every Sourced Brand Comes From MGP These Days

By Richard Thomas Some ideas die slow, hard deaths, and as recently as last year I found myself reading yet another magazine article warning consumers that their bottle of supposedly craft whiskey really came from the big distillery in Indiana, MGP. Moreover, I continue to hear this notion virtually every time I engage with enthusiasts, …

By Richard Thomas

James E. Pepper 1776 Rye
(Credit: Richard Thomas)

Some ideas die slow, hard deaths, and as recently as last year I found myself reading yet another magazine article warning consumers that their bottle of supposedly craft whiskey really came from the big distillery in Indiana, MGP. Moreover, I continue to hear this notion virtually every time I engage with enthusiasts, and read it fairly regularly from bloggers.

This notion is so pervasive and embedded that it leads to some seriously mistaken conclusions. James E. Pepper Distillery, located just a mile from my home, recently launched a bottled in bond rye whiskey. Some have claimed that rye is made with the same stock as the their flagship 1776 rye whiskey. While that 1776 Rye has always been sourced through MGP, the bonded rye is entirely in-house, so this claim is quite erroneous. Slightly more understandable, but just as ill-informed, is the belief that every 95% rye, 5% malted barley mash bill rye whiskey is made at MGP; these days, an increasing number of such whiskeys are made by other distillers, either as follow ons for their previously MGP-sourced brands or chasing the flavor profile of what is a ubiquitous style of rye whiskey.

Admittedly, there was a good reason for believing this generality, even if it was never entirely true. As the Bourbon Boom gained breakneck momentum during the 2010s, one Kentucky Major after another withdrew from the business of trading stock whiskey (i.e. aged and held in stock). Excepting Heaven Hill, the big distillers in Kentucky were often reticent about dealing in stock whiskey, so who provided what to whom was always a guessing game. Nonetheless, demand pressures on their own brands meant they stopped selling stocks and let existing contracts come to a close. That left MGP, a major distillery with a large stock of aging and aged whiskey, but no brands of its own to feed, as the one of the very few games in town… although, as shall be detailed below, never the sole game. Yet by the end of the decade, some major competitors were already entering the scene, as well as several dozen minor ones.

James E. Pepper Bottled in Bond Rye is NOT from MGP
(Credit: Richard Thomas)

Moreover, MGP themselves decided to get fully into the game as a brand-holder, not merely as a supplier. The company renamed the Lawrenceburg, Indiana distillery Ross & Squibb, and began acquiring brands that were sourced through their distillery. The single largest example of this was the buy-out of Luxco (which brought with it the Lux Row Distillery in Kentucky), and just two months ago they announced the acquisition of Penelope Bourbon.

This development of MGP’s status has led to two major changes in the business of sourced whiskey in America. First, it’s not accurate to describe brands that were once made with MGP’s whiskeys, but now belong to the company (such as Rebel Yell and Minor Case) as being “sourced.” Also, brands relying on MGP contracts must now contend with their supplier also being a competitor.

Alberta Distillers
Underlining how ignorant it is to assume that any sourced rye must come from MGP is that a handful of the most established brands in rye whiskey are based on 100% rye sourced from Canada. Alberta Distillers were the source behind the original 10 Year Old iteration of Whistlepig. Also coming out of Alberta are Masterson’s, 35 Maple Street, Jefferson’s 10 Year Old, Lock Stock and Barrel and Pendleton, and that isn’t including the distillery’s in-house brands. Alberta Distillers are clearly secondary to MGP as a supplier of rye whiskey to sourced brands in terms of number of brands served, but a lot of those expressions have age statements of 10 to 16 years, so their presence in the mature and middle aged end of the spectrum is quite outsized.

Bardstown Bourbon Company (BBCo)

Bardstown Bourbon Company
(Credit: Richard Thomas)

The most important development in the business of sourcing whiskey in America was the start of production at Bardstown Bourbon Company in 2016. Although the company has its own brand, the core of its business model is to provide contract production and maturation services for other brands, with a secondary role as offering a “home” visitor center for those brands. It seems like there is at least one new rickhouse under construction whenever I even so much as drive past the distillery, located outside Bardstown on the Martha Lane Collins Parkway; repeated expansions has raised the distillery’s output to the point where I place it among the ten largest distillers in Kentucky; and last year the company was making over four dozen distinct whiskeys for more than three dozen customers.

New Riff Distillery And Others
Compared to BBCo, New Riff is less a challenger to MGP than an example of just how many minor market challenges could be out there, because once upon a time they were engaged in contract production for Rabbit Hole Bourbon. Moreover, the whiskey New Riff was making for Rabbit Hole was one of those not-MGP 95% ryes I referred to earlier. Now that Rabbit Hole is operational and making its own products since 2018, that makes two medium-sized distillers that are making their own 95% rye. Somewhat ironic is that New Riff got started with OKI, a bourbon brand sourced through MGP.

Rabbit Hole’s old rye
(Credit: Rabbit Hole Distilling)

It’s unknown whether New Riff is still engaged in contract production today, and their attitude towards their work for Rabbit Hole is best described as “neither confirm or deny.” This is an important consideration for industry watchers, since we know many distillers in the small and medium-sized classes probably have “time” available on their production equipment, and want customers to fill that time until demand for their in-house products catches up with their capacities. Most of these contracts aren’t secrets, but they aren’t publicized either.

For example, I know that Fresh Bourbon made at least their initial product through a contract with Hartfield & Company, a small distillery in Paris, Kentucky, but only because I was there for the launch of Fresh Bourbon and spoke with all concerned. It’s an example of both how some contract production is done on a small scale and not widely announced, so not necessarily every “made in Indiana” whiskey comes from MGP.

Those Folks In Tullahoma
Like Alberta Distillers, an unnamed distillery in Tullahoma, Tennessee has been providing a steady supply of aged bourbon for many brands. Fans of Barrell Bourbon have long been familiar with this unnamed Tullahoma distillery, which could only possibly be Cascade Hollow (home of George Dickel), as it has been one of the company’s two principal suppliers.

The only difference between George Dickel Tennessee Whiskey and a Tennessee bourbon made at the same place is the Lincoln County Process. Presumably, parent company Diageo ordered Dickel to begin producing and laying up bourbon in stock for use in other products, and some of that stock has since appeared in sourced, independent brands.