Wednesday, September 14, 2016

Making Shit Up: Weller Is Not the Original Wheated Bourbon



Sazerac today unveiled new packaging for the Weller bourbon line and doubled-down on the fictional claim that Weller is “The Original Wheated Bourbon,” which it debuted with the last packaging update a few years ago.

The distortion and misrepresentation gets even worse in the accompanying press release.

“Born in 1825, William Larue Weller was one of the early distilling pioneers in Kentucky. After serving with the Louisville Brigade in the 1840s, Weller returned to Louisville to join the family tradition of whiskey distilling.”

There is no evidence that William Larue Weller ever distilled a drop of whiskey, and plenty of evidence to the contrary. Nor is there any evidence that anyone in his family before him ever distilled. There is no recorded Weller family tradition of whiskey distilling.

Weller’s company did not make whiskey, it sold whiskey. Weller was a rectifier. That means he bought whiskey from distilleries; finished it through techniques such as blending, filtering and flavoring; packaged it for sale; and sold it to customers. After 1871, the Weller company had a still, which they used to re-distill poor grade whiskey into neutral spirits which they called ‘cologne spirits.’ The company even issued a statement that it did no original distilling, just this redistillation.

The press release continues with more fiction about Weller. “He developed his original bourbon recipe with wheat, rather than rye in the mash bill. Weller’s original wheated recipe bourbon became so popular he was forced to put a green thumbprint on barrels to ensure that customers were receiving the real deal.” Since Weller wasn’t distilling anything, he had no need for any recipes. The ‘green thumbprint’ is a new wrinkle and may have been a form of branding, which was just emerging at the time, but it merely would have identified Weller’s company as the product’s source. There is no reason to assume it indicated a wheated recipe.

“His namesake company eventually went on to merge with Pappy Van Winkle’s A. Ph. Stitzel Distillery to form the Stitzel-Weller Distillery, one of the most iconic and beloved distilleries in Kentucky.”

This may be the most distorted claim of the bunch. In 1893, ‘Pappy’ Van Winkle went to work for Weller as a whiskey salesman. When Weller retired in 1896, Pappy and another salesman, Alex Farnsley, bought his share and gained controlling interest in the company. When Prohibition came they obtained a medicinal whiskey license. Pappy also had an ownership interest in one of the Weller company’s primary suppliers, the A. Ph. Stitzel Distillery. In 1933, he merged the two companies to form Stitzel-Weller.

The source for most of this is And Always Fine Bourbon, Pappy Van Winkle and the Story of Old Fitzgerald, written by Pappy’s granddaughter, Sally Van Winkle Campbell, and published in 1999.

When Prohibition ended, Pappy built a new distillery and decided to make a wheated bourbon there. It was the only recipe that distillery made, which they sold as Old Fitzgerald, Old Weller, and several other brands. It is not recorded why they chose a wheated recipe, but the prevailing theory is that they believed a wheated bourbon would be palatable at a younger age, which was important in those early years when no one had very much aged whiskey.

Stitzel-Weller promoted its wheated recipe in advertising for both the Fitzgerald and Weller brands. (Yes, the 'century-old secret' claim was false then too.) Old Fitzgerald (now owned by Heaven Hill) was the company’s primary brand, but Weller was considered a premium bourbon too. The company’s other brands, all made from the same wheated recipe, were younger and cheaper.

Although recipes for wheated bourbon appear in some pre-Prohibition records, Stitzel-Weller was the first distillery to promote its wheated recipe. In earlier days, wheat was commonly substituted for rye in bourbon recipes based on availability, cost, and personal preference but rye was the dominant ‘flavor grain.’

No one ever claimed the ‘invention’ of wheated bourbon until Maker’s Mark came along. They, too, were indulging in fiction since their wheater followed Stitzel-Weller’s by at least 20 years. It may be that what Sazerac is really trying to say with this claim is that Weller was a wheater before Maker’s Mark. That is true.

As always, the problem for bourbon distilleries with these forays into fiction writing is that they diminish the real history of the people, companies, and brands. All of the major producers, and many of the small ones, are guilty of it in one way or another. Marketing will always be with us, but there is still such a thing as truth. Now you know Weller’s true story.

15 comments:

Sam Komlenic said...

Thank you, sir.

Unknown said...

Chuck, as a bourbon newbie, but 66 years of age, I love the taste of Weller. So the story is fun, Hey I live where Superman originated.
You being a purist, that I admire, are miffed by tall tales. But like they said in the old west, "when the legend becomes fact print the legend".

800+ Bourbons said...

According to what I was told by Peter Newberry, the owner of the world's largest bourbon bar in Newport, Kentucky, The first commercial wheated bourbon was invented by Milwaukean Charles Herbst in 1889 as Old Fitzgerald at Herbst's Old Judge distillery in Frankfort, Kentucky. Pappy Van Winkle bought the Old Fitz name, label and recipe from Herbst for $10,000 during Prohibition and produced Old Fitzgerald and other wheated bourbons such as Weller using Herbst's Old Fitz recipe at his new Stitzel-Weller distillery beginning in 1935.

Crown Point Marc said...

Those are some nice new bottles. Does that mean we might actually see Weller 12 on store shelves anytime soon?

Unknown said...

Chuck ,

First, thank you for calling BS when you see it.

In the 9th paragraph you start by saying, "The source for most of this is....". Are you saying that the source for most of the BS is from the book, or the source for the truth is the book?

Again, thanks!

Chuck Cowdery said...

The source for my information is Campbell's book. I have no idea what source Saz is using. (A Ouija board, perhaps.)

While it is true that Herbst created Old Fitzgerald and owned Old Judge, there is no evidence that the bourbon he made there was wheated.

Weller availability should be improving.

Unknown said...

Personally I'll be glad when Weller 12 is out for distribution again, I'm down to half a fifth of 12 Y/O now but finding quite a few half-Gs of Special Reserve here in Louisiana.

Anonymous said...

Should I kick myself for not picking up a bottle of the 12 when I saw it on a shelf in a Rhode Island liquor store last spring? Maybe, maybe not!! :-/

Erik Fish said...

Nice expose as always, Chuck.
That tale they're spinning in their press release is really over the top.
On the other hand, I've never minded the "original wheated bourbon" line on the bottle. If you're charitable and read it as giving credit to Stitzel-Weller for being the first to mass-market wheated bourbon, it's not all wrong.
And Maker's Mark deserves some pushback, in the face of everybody taking Bill Samuels' ludicrous bread-baking yarn about inventing wheated bourbon seriously. To add insult to injury, Makers' yeast and recipe actually appear to have originated from Stitzel-Weller, when Samuels went to get help and advice from his friends at the other established distilleries as he got started.

J said...

Hi Chuck,

Just curious - where(+when!) is the Whisper of Wheat ad from?

Thanks!

Chuck Cowdery said...

I'm not sure, probably the 1940s or 50s, definitely post-Prohibition. It's unusual because Stitzel-Weller used the 'Whisper of Wheat' terminology often in Old Fitzgerald ads, but rarely in ads for Weller.

Anonymous said...

Do these new labels mean I might actually be able to find the 12yo for less than $80 now, for the first time since 2013?

Unknown said...

You're at the mercy of your person at the liquor store counter. Right now they're pricing EH Taylor small batch for $70. That should help you figure it out.

Anonymous said...

I don't think (actually I'm pretty sure) that Maker's Mark ever claimed to have "invented" wheated bourbon, only that Bill, Sr. decided to use that as his flavor grain instead of the more common rye. The rest is actual history as opposed to the made-up variety you so amusingly debunk here. Have you done a similar takedown of Blanton's? If not it's high time.

Chuck Cowdery said...

It occurs to me that since no one seems to care if the claim is true, maybe no one cares about the claim at all.