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| Clark & Sheffield bourbon, $11.99/750 ml, 45% ABV. |
So, what does that have to do with a $12 bourbon I picked up yesterday? Are the Cubs making bourbon now?
I'll explain all that in a minute, but first, the whiskey.
Clark & Sheffield is the house brand for Binny's, the principal booze retailer in the Chicago region. On my visit yesterday, I also picked up a Clark & Sheffield Pinot Noir and a Clark & Sheffield Tawny Port. I've had good luck with the Clark & Sheffield brand. Good quality, good value.
This is my first time with the bourbon. It's good, a nice 90° proof and the lack of age statement means it is at least 4 years old. It's nothing special but is a perfectly good, standard bourbon. I was surprised, quite frankly. Not a thing wrong with it. For $12, it's a lot better than it needs to be. I could drink this all day.
Everybody these days seems to be chasing unicorns, bottles that sell for thousands on a shadowy secondary market. Or they want the latest "limited release," usually priced at $80 and up, if you can even find them at retail at the "suggested" retail price. Fine, if that's what you're into, but the Binny's I shopped yesterday (Portage Park, 4901 West Irving Park Road) had dozens of perfectly good bourbons and ryes for under $30, a few under $20, and at least one other tempter in the $12 range. The store was particularly well-stocked with Benchmark Bourbon, including the handle at $22.99.
Why pay more? If all you want to do is drink good bourbon, it's still an inexpensive pastime.
Binny's, of course, didn't make this whiskey. Who did? The label says "Distilled, aged, and bottled by the Founders Company, Louisville, KY." A quick trip to the web site of the Kentucky Secretary of State tells me the Founders Company is an assumed business name for Sazerac, whose two Kentucky distilleries are Buffalo Trace in Frankfort and Barton 1792 in Bardstown.
So, what's the story?
The founder of Binny's was Harold Binstein. He opened his first store in 1948, under the name Gold Standard Liquors, and the store's address was Clark & Sheffield. How is that possible? The ballpark, after all, has been there since 1914.
It's possible because Clark Street is a diagonal. Wrigley is bordered on the east and west by Clark & Sheffield, with Addison Street its southern border. Binstein's Gold Standard was at the intersection of Clark & Sheffield, one block south of the ballpark. The original store burned down in the late 1960s, but was rebuilt and was there until recently, still operating as Gold Standard. It was relocated to make way for public transit construction.
Turns out, the shadow of Wrigley Field was a good place for a liquor store. From that single location in 1948, Binstein grew a chain, still called Gold Standard. They were mostly small stores, in neighborhoods like Wrigleyville. About 30 years ago they opened a "superstore," wanted to give it a different name, and used Harold Binstein's nickname, "Binny." At about the same time, they acquired two local, independent "superstores," Sam's and Zimmerman's. Today, Binny's is run by Harold's son, Michael. The family still owns it. Binny's now has 46 locations. Their slogan is, "If you can’t find it at Binny’s, it’s probably not worth drinking."
They're not wrong.
Although the Chicago Cubs and their owners, the Ricketts family, have nothing to do with the booze business, there is another Chicago sports connection that does. The Wirtz family, which owns the Chicago Blackhawks hockey team, also owns a big chunk of Breakthru Beverage, a leading North American beverage wholesaler.
7 comments:
Chuck,
Interesting story about Clark & Sheffield bourbon and Binny’s! Thanks for the post! But the best point you make is that good bourbon is widely available at very reasonable prices. Despite the scarcity of certain bourbon brands on liquor store shelves, stores are stocked with a huge selection of widely available bottles. At least here in Kentucky. Sure, some of these bottles feature fancy labels and prices to match. So if you like to spend money, there is no end of opportunities. But, as you note, if you just like to drink good bourbon at very reasonable prices, there is also no end of opportunities. I doubt that there is any other liquor category that offers as much quality and flavor for the price as bourbon. But to enjoy this benefit, you must have the courage to spend less!
Tom Troland
Agreed. We might debate what number should fill in the blank in the following advisory to beginning bourbon drinkers:
Wild Turkey 101 possesses ____ % of all possible bourbon flavor goodness. Consider this in determining where for you the point of diminishing returns is reached when buying more expensive brands.
My vote: 80%
I’ll go 100%
I like this discussion. My personal fallback pours are widely available and affordable. My favorite tavern has Wild Turkey 101 shots for $4. Yes they have bitters and vermouth to mix. I donated a can of decent cherries to the cause. I’m fond of saying that while I’m not a religious man, a $14 bottle of Evan Williams Black label is god’s gift to Americans.
Back in the old days of Malt Advocate magazine, under John and Lew, we had what we called the "Evan Williams Test." For example, perhaps a new bourbon would be available at $80 (an awful lot back then), and the test was this: Would you rather have one bottle of the new whiskey, or (at the time) seven bottles of Evan Williams? I don't recall a time when Evan lost that proposition.
I'm pretty much saying that for Knob Creek 9 YO bourbon these days. At 100 proof, 9 years old and $30 retail, it's really the best value for quality in the market in my opinion.
That's a great choice and a great point. I don't know what these people paying $80 for crazy blends and finishes think they're getting.
Preach!
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