Buffalo Trace Ups The Ante.

The new issue of Malt Advocate is out (Volume 18, Number 4) and it contains a story by me entitled "Buffalo Trace Ups The Ante," starting on page 52. You can go to the web site and read it online, but if you're a whiskey fan you really should subscribe.

I started to bug Angela Traver, who runs the PR shop at Buffalo Trace Distillery, about this months ago. Buffalo Trace was doing all sorts of bold things, big and small, from buying the Tom Moore Distillery and all of the Barton spirits brands from Constellation, to acquiring the Old Taylor brand from Beam Global. I speculated that there had to be some kind of master plan in place. She didn't tell me much but encouraged me to talk to her boss, Sazerac president Mark Brown.

The opportunity came when I was in Frankfort in August for Elmer T. Lee's 90th birthday. John Hansell and Lew Bryson of Malt Advocate were also there, with some other writers and Buffalo Trace folks, at lunch in the Clubhouse, when I started to pepper Brown with questions. After lunch, John and Lew came over and asked me to write it up for Malt Advocate.

So, what is the master plan? That would be telling. Read the article.