Sunday, August 16, 2009

Old Taylor to be Rye Van Winkle.

There was a lot going on during my short visit to Buffalo Trace Friday. One thing we talked about was Old Taylor. They continue to be very excited about the acquisition and have big plans. They want to make it the equivalent in the rye-recipe bourbon arena of what Van Winkle is in the wheated bourbon segment. No guess yet when the first bottles will be rolling out. They're still figuring out what they have and what they can do with it, but the talk (directly from Mark Brown) is of a portfolio of offerings similar in some ways to the Antique Collection, but not quite so scarce and not with an annual release but with a steady, full time availability of a consistent, ongoing but high end product, like Van Winkle.

3 comments:

Tim said...

Even though I will probably never see any of the new offerings in my state, this sounds like a great idea. I hope they decide to keep using the Old Taylot name.

Tim

Chuck Cowdery said...

You may not see them right away, but I believe they're aiming for wide distribution. Old Taylor only sells well now in a couple of markets but it's distributed everywhere.

As for the name, it definitely stays. E. H. Taylor was one of the key figures in the 19th century history of the distillery now called Buffalo Trace.

beer guru, jr. said...

i'm sure they'll get rid of that goofy label the 80 proof stuff has now. i only wish that they go back to the old-timey yellow labels of many years ago- and make sure that OT has a long-aged BIB.