Beam Completes Cooley Acquisition.

Beam Inc. announced yesterday that it has completed the acquisition of Cooley Distillery, the award-winning Irish whiskey producer.

The acquisition includes the Kilbeggan, Connemara, Tyrconnell and Greenore brands, as well as aging inventory and Cooley’s malt and grain distilleries in Dundalk and Kilbeggan, Ireland. Cooley is one of only three sources for Irish whiskey and was the category’s only remaining independent producer.

"As one of the world’s fastest-growing spirits companies, Beam is excited to enter one of the world’s fastest-growing spirits categories," said Matt Shattock, president and chief executive officer of Beam. "We look forward to combining our whiskey expertise, brand-building firepower and strong routes to market with the experience, talent and passion of the Teeling family and the Cooley team to help take these award-winning brands to the next level."

There was an excellent article by Dominic Roskrow in the Fall, 2011 issue of Whisky Advocate about everything Cooley has accomplished in its short history.

While one may understandably wish they were still the brash, independent upstart, shaking the staid foundations of the Irish whiskey industry, this sale is a sign of success, not failure. Perhaps their trajectory will inspire another, new upstart to follow Cooley's path.

As noted above, Ireland has but three whiskey producers, now owned by Beam, Diageo and Pernod. Kilbeggan is the company's main blend and Tyrconnell is its main single malt. Both were introduced to the United States market by Heaven Hill, which had the exclusive U.S. distribution contract in the early years. Heaven Hill deserves credit for launching the brands and building them to the point where Cooley became the prize it now is for Beam.

In addition to its own brands, Cooley has been the source for several brands owned and marketed by non-distiller producers, most prominently the Michael Collins line (a blend and a single) owned by the Sidney Frank Company.

New Michael Collins Irish Whiskey Gets It Right.

Sidney Frank was a genius. He created Grey Goose Vodka and sold it to Bacardi for $2.3 billion, the highest price ever paid for a single liquor brand. He also built Jägermeister into a 2-million-case brand.

Frank, who died in 2006, was the son of an orchard keeper who developed a taste for luxury during his one year at Brown University because his roommate’s father was president of RCA. He resolved then to marry rich. (These are all stories he told on himself.) He set his sights on Louise Rosenstiel, whose father Lewis owned Schenley, the largest distilled spirits company in the country.

After running his father-in-law’s business for a while Frank started his own in 1972. It still has Jägermeister and a portfolio of other products. He was preparing to launch Michael Collins Irish Whiskey when he died.

This month, Frank’s company re-launched the brand, named after one of the heroes of Irish independence. It’s still made at Cooley, Ireland’s only independent, Irish-owned distillery. And it still consists of two expressions, a blend and a single malt.

Promotion materials for the re-launch emphasize the new packaging, which is very nice and much more whiskey-like than the old one. The former package was beautiful but over designed and there was another, bigger problem: the whiskey inside wasn’t very good.

The re-launch materials say nothing about changing the whiskey but they clearly did. The former malt was hot, harsh and immature. The new one bears a 10-year-old age statement (the former was NAS) and tastes every bit of it. It is lightly peated, well balanced, and altogether pleasant. The blend has a similar profile. It is full-flavored, sweet, nutty and also very enjoyable. Together they make an excellent introduction to the high quality yet still mainstream Irish Whiskey segment, exactly where this brand should play.

The original was a product Sidney Frank himself approved, but even the great ones make mistakes. This new iteration is much improved. If you previously decided that Michael Collins is mediocre whiskey in a fancy bottle, give it another try. The bottle is not as fancy but the whiskey is much, much better.

American Malt Whiskey. It’s Not Scotch.

What is American malt whiskey? Is it, pardon the expression, American scotch?

No, it’s not.

Thanks to the Federal Government’s Standards of Identity for Distilled Spirits, which were written for rye and bourbon makers, American malt whiskey must be aged in new charred oak, just like bourbon and rye but unlike scotch, which typically is aged in used barrels.

Also unlike scotch, which is seldom sold at less than eight years old, most American malt whiskey is aged for less than three.

With those specifications it is hard to make something that tastes like scotch, which most American malt whiskey does not.

Historically, American distillers don’t make malt whiskey. Americans consume plenty of malt whiskey, imported from Scotland and Ireland, and we use malt to make beer, but we make whiskey mostly out of corn.

No major American distillery makes malt whiskey for sale, but it is very popular among American micro-distillers. If a micro-distillery makes whiskey at all, it probably makes malt whiskey.

Why? Because it’s easy, perfect for a little guy. In the early stages it is just like making beer. You can even have a micro-brewer make a wash for you, so all you have to do is distill it. That’s what the American Distilling Institute, the national association of small distillers, recommends.

Likewise selling the whiskey young isn’t an artistic decision, it’s a financial one. Aging is expensive. All of that money you invested in making the whiskey ages right along with it. In a sense you only have to pay that cost once, because after you have a steady supply of aging whiskey in the pipeline, sales of mature spirit can fund the new stuff, but that initial hump is a big one for most small producers to overcome.

That’s why most micro-distiller whiskey, malt or otherwise, is less than three years old. Some is aged for as little as three months, and some isn’t aged at all (so-called ‘white whiskey’).

I was one of twelve judges at the American Distilling Institute (ADI) 2010 American Craft Whiskey competition in May. Most of the products we tasted had a malt base. Because we tasted blind I can’t comment on any entrants specifically, but my impression of the field overall was clove notes over a sour apple base. The whiskeys didn’t have much character and lacked the complex balance of flavors that is whiskey’s primary appeal.

But they did possess some charms. Most micro-distiller whiskeys make a virtue of the raw, herbal, sometimes bitter, usually tart tastes that time softens. The new wood adds different but equally strong flavors. The spirit tends to be bold and aggressive, more like slivovitz than bourbon or scotch. It is like nothing you’ve ever tasted before.

Aging measured in years is a relatively recent phenomenon. It only became popular about 150 years ago. Before then, most people drank whiskey that was fresh from the still, innocent of oak, or only lightly aged, perhaps incidentally, such as during transport.

There may be a place for both styles in the modern whiskey universe but it would be a shame if craft distillers became pigeonholed as only making young whiskey, or only malt whiskey for that matter.

There are pleasant surprises out there, but American micro-distilling is a very young movement and its products are mostly works-in-progress. What we have now, at best, is evidence that the wait may be worth it.

Woodford Masters Collection Future Releases Revealed Exclusively To WHISKY Magazine (And Me).

The Woodford Reserve Masters Collection is an annual experimental whiskey release that began in 2005. Each release is different.

They are, of course, planned years ahead but Woodford has never revealed what it has in the pipeline until now, exclusively to me for WHISKY Magazine, Issue 89, available now.

Only the Maple Finish has been scheduled, for 2010, out this fall. The rest will roll out between 2011 and 2018 depending on what is ready in any given year. Get the current WHISKY Magazine for the full story.

• Maple Finish (2010). Mature Woodford Reserve bourbon finished in toasted sugar maple casks.
• Wine Finish. Mature Woodford Reserve bourbon finished in used wine casks (wine type to be announced).
• Tequila Finish. Mature Woodford Reserve bourbon finished in used Herradura Tequila casks.
• Rum Finish. Mature Woodford Reserve bourbon finished in used rum casks.
• Straight Rye Whiskey, Low BEP (Barrel Entry Proof). Whiskey made from a 100 percent rye mash with an 86° BEP (43% alcohol), aged in new charred barrels.
• Straight Rye Whiskey, Historic BEP. Whiskey made from a 100 percent rye mash with a 99.8° BEP (49.9% alcohol), aged in new charred barrels.
• Rye Mash Whiskey, Low BEP. Whiskey made from a 100 percent rye mash with an 86° BEP (43% alcohol), aged in used barrels.
• Rye Mash Whiskey, Historic BEP. Whiskey made from a 100 percent rye mash with a 99.8° BEP (49.9% alcohol), aged in used barrels.
• Straight Malt Whiskey. Whiskey made from a 100 percent barley malt mash with a 124.8° BEP (62.4% alcohol), aged in new charred barrels.
• Malt Mash Whiskey. Whiskey made from a 100 percent barley malt mash with an 86.6° BEP (43.3% alcohol), aged in used barrels.