The New Bourbon Country Reader Is On Its Way

Well, it's at the printer now, but should be in the mail in a couple of days. I'm calling it June, rather than July, because it's already a month late (should have been out in May) and that will push me to get the next one out in August.

I've always promised that The Bourbon Country Reader comes out every-other month 'or thereabouts.' Whiskey writing, like whiskey itself, can't be rushed. We refuse to chop it up and put it into a pressure cooker. The Reader contains no advertising and no reprinted press releases or other filler. No pretty pictures either, just original information about American whiskey that you won't find anywhere else.

The Bourbon Country Reader lets me go into more depth on subjects I may touch on here on the blog. The lead story this time is a good example of that. It is headlined, "Who Makes All That Non-Distiller Producer (NDP) Whiskey?" It's a story that asks something from you, the reader, too. Nobody wants to talk about this subject, especially on the record, but when you consider the whole body of available evidence, you can reach some interesting conclusions. You just have to think about it.

I suggest you do so over a good bourbon or rye.

If you care about what you're drinking and believe 'who made this' is just about the most fundamental question you can ask, you'll want to read this article.

In this issue, we also compare and contrast the two American Whiskey giants, Brown-Forman and Beam.

If you're keeping score, the last issue of The Bourbon Country Reader came out at the end of March. As I wrote then, there is so much going on in American whiskey these days, it's hard to make deadlines. 

The simple pitch is this. If you're into bourbon, you really should subscribe to The Bourbon Country Reader. It is produced and delivered the old-fashioned way; ink on paper, in an envelope, delivered personally to your home or office by a uniformed representative of the United States government.

The Bourbon Country Reader is always independent and idiosyncratic and has no distillery affiliation. It makes a great gift. Subscriptions to The Bourbon Country Reader are $20/year for U.S. addresses and $25 (a new lower price!) for everybody else. It is published six times a year. Well, maybe not, but your subscription always includes six issues.

Click here or on any of the copious hyperlinks above to subscribe with PayPal or any major credit card, or for more information. Click here for a free sample issue (in PDF format). Click here to open or download the free PDF document, "The Bourbon Country Reader Issue Contents in Chronological Order." (It's like an index.)

If you prefer to pay by check, make it payable to Made and Bottled in Kentucky, and mail it to Made and Bottled in Kentucky, 3712 N. Broadway, PMB 298, Chicago, IL 60613-4198. Checks drawn on U.S. banks only, please.

MGP of Indiana May Be Sold...Again

Steve Watkins, in the Cincinnati Business Courier, reports that "a battle is brewing involving the whiskey distillery in Lawrenceburg." He's referring to MGP of Indiana, the former Seagram's distillery that distills and ages the whiskey for Templeton rye, Old Scout bourbon and rye, Redemption bourbon and rye, Bulleit rye, George Dickel rye, and other bourbon and rye brands too numerous to mention.

The facility is actually two distilleries. The larger one makes neutral spirits and gin, the smaller one makes whiskey.

Seems that last week the parent company, MGP Ingredients, based in Atchison, Kansas, announced that its 2013 Annual Meeting has been postponed indefinitely because of a proxy fight initiated by a voting trust that controls 75 percent of the company's voting shares.

The dissident shareholders have filed a proxy statement with a competing slate of directors. They want a new CEO too. In late May, the MGP board appointed a committee of six independent directors to "review strategic alternatives," including sale of the Lawrenceburg distillery the company acquired in October of 2011.

The dissidents are led by members of the Cray family, who own a lot of MGP stock through various family-run entities. They are all descendants of Cloud L. Cray, who founded MGP in 1941. In their proxy statement, they expressed "growing concern with the lack of profitable growth, deterioration in the corporate culture, efforts to sell certain parts of the Company’s business, efforts to amend the bylaws that would limit accountability to shareholders and increase the power of the Chief Executive Officer (“CEO”), and the level of compensation paid to the Chairman of the board of directors and the CEO of the Company."

None of this appears to be directly aimed at MGP of Indiana, except that Lawrenceburg has been positioned by the current regime as the cornerstone of its effort to get the company back on track, a course which the dissidents oppose.

The distillery has 19th century roots but was acquired by Seagram's near the end of Prohibition and completely rebuilt thereafter. About ten years ago, when Seagram's was acquired and dismantled by the tag team of Diageo and Pernod-Ricard, Lawrenceburg went to Pernod. A few years later, Pernod announced it would sell the plant if it could or close it if no buyer was found. Angostura bought it. When the worldwide economy went into crisis in 2008, Angostura's parent company, CL Financial, collapsed and had to be rescued by the government of Trinidad and Tobago, where it is based. In the restructuring that followed, ownership of Lawrenceburg, as well as the mothballed Charles Medley Distillery in Owensboro, Kentucky, was transferred away from Angostura to another arm of CL, which found a buyer for Lawrenceburg in MGP. The sale price was $15 million.

MGP mostly makes neutral spirits, starch, protein, and other products from corn and other grains. It hoped to move into a higher value commodity business with the Lawrenceburg acquisition, a strategy the dissidents apparently oppose.

Since Lawrenceburg is the only major distillery that exclusively makes whiskey for non-distiller producers (NDPs), it is highly valued by that segment of the whiskey industry. It recently expanded its portfolio of whiskey recipes from five to eleven and has ramped up production.

Woodford Reserve Announces $35 Million Distillery Expansion

Kentucky's taxpayers are kicking in $3 million of the announced $35 million expansion at the Woodford Reserve Distillery near Versailles. One great thing about these state-financed incentives is that they get the company on the public record about exactly what they plan to do, making it easier to report that information to the bourbonially-curious.

This expansion will increase distilling and warehouse capacity at the historic distillery, established in 1780. The plan was announced today by Governor Steve Beshear. Details remain to be confirmed but Woodford has in the past talked about adding a second set of three Forsyths stills and the necessary fermenters, cookers, and other ancillaries to support them, which would essentially double capacity. Today's announcement also mentioned a new barrel aging warehouse and bottling line expansion.

In the currency of state government, the 15 full-time jobs it will add is the key metric, bringing Woodford's staff count from 30 to 45.

As you might imagine, whiskey making is big business in Kentucky. The Kentucky Distillers' Association estimates that more than 8,600 jobs in Kentucky are connected to distillery-related enterprises, generating approximately $413 million in payroll.

In Praise of Consistency

Emerson famously wrote, "a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds." He was talking about liberating yourself from conformity or, said more prosaically, advising you to "think for yourself."

The quote is often repeated without the word "foolish," which changes its meaning completely. Consistency is not always bad. It is often very good, in whiskey-making for example.

Many people today are talking about Reid Mitenbuler's Slate article "Craft Whiskey Isn't Necessarily Better." It's a familiar litany of the young movement's sins, with a caution to consumers. Just because that bottle of whiskey you've never seen before has a cool name and bottle, and a local address, doesn't necessarily mean it's worth your $40. Not only might it not taste good, it might not even be what it appears to be.

One of the people talking about Mitenbuler's piece today is Scott Spolverino, who blogs as 'In With Bacchus.'

Here he explains why, to the chagrin of his friends, he likes Budweiser. "I like Bud because...no matter where you go in the country, in the continent, hell, in the world...you order a Bud and you get a Bud. You don't get something that tastes sorta like Bud. You get a Bud. It may not be the best out there but it is consistent. And being consistent is much, much, MUCH harder than anyone gives it credit for. To be able to reach for a bottle of Booker's or Old Granddad or Redbreast and have it taste exactly the same is not only impressive from a distillers point of view...but it's comforting from a consumer's point of view. Sometimes I want to try something new, different, exciting and I'm willing to pay for it. But I don't want to try something new, different, and exciting EVERY time. The craft distilling movement has major troubles with consistency." (Emphasis mine.)

The major whiskey producers go to great lengths to ensure consistency. They take samples from every stage of production, up to and including the product as it is released. They do this every day and keep those samples for years. The sample archives are an amazing sight, row upon row of identical bottles with plain white labels on the front. Want to know what Jim Beam white label tasted like on March 6, 1973? There's a bottle for that.

Every master distiller at every major distillery has a story wherein his predecessor gives him a simple piece of advice: "Don't change a damn thing."

They do change things, of course. Parts wear out, production needs to increase, costs need to be controlled, governmental regulations (environmental and the like) need to be conformed to, new technology needs to be applied, but unlike with most businesses the quest isn't to constantly improve the product. It is to make the necessary changes without altering the product itself in any material way.

People often are surprised to learn that most major whiskey producers make very few different products. They may have many different labels, but only a couple of different distillates. Buffalo Trace, for instance, which makes dozens of different labels, uses just four whiskey recipes. Same with Heaven Hill. Jim Beam makes three. And so on.

The reason for this is because in each case, that company believes they are making the best whiskey it is possible for them to make. Wild Turkey makes one bourbon and one rye. The only reason some make more is because they acquired a company that was making the best whiskey it knew how to make and they kept it going. This is even more common in Scotland than here.

Today's new, small distilleries don't necessarily have to do everything the way the majors do. There would be no fun in that. But if they ignore the lessons the majors have learned they do so at their peril. The worst hubris to come from this young movement has been its claims that, on day one, they were beating the majors at their own game. They weren't. And they still have a long way to go.

Visit Louisville -- Next Year

With the summer travel season in full swing, many will head for America's whiskey country. If you're coming south from just about anywhere in the Midwest, you'll likely enter through Louisville, Kentucky's largest city, long known as the Gateway to the South.

Should you stop, or keep going?

Unfortunately, when it comes to whiskey tourism, Louisville right now is all coming attractions.

• The Evan Williams Experience is still under construction. 
• Michter's is stalled because their building is unstable. 
• The most likely site of the Angel's Envy distillery is known but not confirmed. 
• The Bulleit Experience at Stitzel-Weller has been ready for two years, but is still closed to the public. (They do industry stuff there.) 
• Another major welcome center is widely rumored but not yet announced. 

Louisville is still a great place to stay, eat, and drink, and it has many other attractions and amenities the rest of the state lacks (except Lexington), but most of its whiskey attractions are still pending.

Maybe next year.

The Power of a Salacious Name and Well-Timed Heist

The internet is a content pig and, like the animal itself, not particular about what it eats. Its taste for news runs more to the now-defunct News of the World than CNN. To be blunt, most of what passes for news on the internet is garbage.

This past weekend, especially if you favor talk about whiskey, you heard about Chicken Cock Whiskey, probably for the first time. This is not Fighting Cock Bourbon, a fine Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey made by Heaven Hill. Chicken Cock is a brand new flavored whiskey product from serial distilled spirits entrepreneur Matti Antilla (Cabana Cachaca), whose business (Abb Partners, LLC) appears to be based in Florida although Chicken Cock has a Charleston, South Carolina address, perhaps because the University of South Carolina's sports mascot is the gamecock.

Chicken Cock comes in an aluminum bottle, in three flavors: Cinnamon, Southern Spiced, and Root Beer.

For readers who prefer whiskey-flavored whiskey, you might want to know that 'flavored whiskey' was a moribund classification until recently. Because whiskey is hot right now every trendy, new youth-oriented spirits product wants to be called 'whiskey.' According to the regs, 'flavored whiskey' is whiskey to which natural flavors have been added. Invariably, the whiskey part just barely meets the minimum requirements for use of that term.

Flavored whiskey can be bottled as low as 30% ABV (60° proof) but Chicken Cock is 43% ABV (86° proof).

On Friday, it was reported that on June 10, a truck carrying 10,000 bottles of Chicken Cock on their way to a Texas distributor was stolen from a truck stop in Florence. No reports of this robbery appeared in the media until after Antilla dropped his press release, publicizing the theft and offering a $10,000 reward for the return of his whiskey.

Most outlets just re-printed the press release or paraphrased it, questioning nothing. No one, for instance, seems to have looked at a map. Charleston to Florence is a funny way to get to Texas.

Some of our friends did good work. Davin de Kergommeaux explored the brand's legitimate history, which Antilla has been clever enough to appropriate. He researched the term 'chicken cock,' a regional synonym for 'rooster,' and also found a Canadian connection. Fred Minnick talked to Antilla and determined that, although Antilla's press release says the truck was coming from his Charleston "distillery," Chicken Cock is a non-distiller producer. Minnick also called the Florence County sheriff, but they haven't returned his calls.

Stories like this often disappear. What catches the content-hungry eye is the vaguely salacious name, the sensational crime, and the plea to the public for help. The resolution, when it comes, probably will only be reported if Antilla publicizes it. That is what the news business has become.

Realistically, the loss to Antilla is about $60,000, less whatever he can recover from insurance; or $10,000 if he gets the shipment back and pays the reward, but he got a million dollars worth of publicity. That, boys and girls, is how it's done.

Some 'Right Now' Solutions to the NDP Whiskey Problem

Who made me?

When brands are created using bulk whiskey from a major distiller but the producer tries to convince you they're a craft distiller, that hurts real craft distillers. It also hurts consumers, who pay for something they aren't getting. 

Here are some easy steps craft distillers can take to protect consumers and themselves and separate the makers from the fakers.

First, create a very simple statement, one a Potemkin distillery can't make. If craft distillers can informally agree on a standard wording, all the better. Then put it on everything, certainly on your product labels, web site, Facebook page, etc.

Here's what Balcones uses: "100% of Balcones whisky is mashed, fermented and distilled at our distillery. We never resell whisky from other distilleries or source aged whisky barrels for blending under the Balcones label. This is authentic craft whisky. It has not been chill-filtered, colored or otherwise unnecessarily tampered with to ensure that its full aroma and flavor are preserved. As a result, you may notice a slight haze or sediment in the bottle - signs of the rich oils and esters that we have not removed so that your whisky can be enjoyed at its best."

The last two sentences are probably superfluous, but the rest is right on target.

Second, start putting 'distilled by' on your label. Stick your DSP number in there too. Although it's usually not required, it's something the feds regulate so if someone falsifies a 'distilled by' statement, they could lose their license.

Third, whatever you do, keep it simple and keep it standardized. Do it exactly the same way every time. Then publicize it. Send every whiskey blogger the press release. Encourage your distiller friends to do it too. Everyone can tell consumers that all you have to do when you see a new 'craft' product is look for that statement. If you can't find it you should be very, very suspicious.

Who knows, that might be all it takes.