I’ve been talking to some people that don’t get me. Easy to believe; I often don’t get myself. Apparently some in the biz think I have an agenda in some conspiracy theory. Some have me just right. So I’ll fess up with what the deal is: It’s really nothing. I love the whole package. I’m a bit of an American Whiskey groupie. I’m not in the BIZ. That’s it!

I’ve been to Bourbon Country a bunch of times. Try to visit other booze related places, talk, research, etc. I’ve met and spoken to a bunch of people that are making Whiskey, drinking and selling Whiskey, running things and have huge, deep respect for those doing it right, and the opposite for those going out of their way not to do it right.

I think the day that kicked off the urge to write this kind of blog and my tweets began a couple days after going on a personal/private distillery tour with a “very special guide,” and he confirmed some really cool things that legends HAVE been made (and written of) taking me to the actual spots of lore. I later found out they weren’t true after digging a bit.

Worse, I’d told others what he told me and what I saw, and it was like a friend after 30 years telling you they never really liked you and it was just a sham to use you. I only dug after being told to dig by a well known person in the BIZ.  It slowly becomes obvious that the deeper I dig and more I learn that I’m not some great Whiskey Indiana Jones, and that I haven’t discovered a damn thing. People do know. So I got pissed and decided to write about it.

I talk to people that run/make things that know. Many in the Whiskey media know. Let’s face it, it’s not an industry of choir boys with infallible integrity and never has been. This doesn’t mean there’s no one that is squeaky clean - there are plenty. So for the most part, the Bourbon and American Whiskey “press” hardly ever writes a bad word on what is obviously fraudulent and misleading marketing. People new to the craft have no clue. People assign themselves names that might even get ill-gotten recognition - like slick Willy Pratt of Michter’s - that have no distillery. Michter’s tried to renovate a building that needs a wrecking ball, and then bought a warehouse in an industrial building that has a DSP number, even though no one has been able to confirm they’re making whiskey there. Its widely thought they aren’t. They are media whores in the worst way so if they bought a plastic still in a child’s chemistry set they would have the media and press lined up outside and down the block to do stories and take pictures. If they were distilling we’d know it for sure.

They get a “Distillery of the Year” award and throw a big party but have no distillery. They keep claiming outwardly and in “clever speak” that they were making Whiskey for George Washington’s troop’s when its not true. They did nothing but assume an abandoned name and an excuse to lie their way onto your bar and glass. Another guy puts 8 or 9 whiskey barrels on a shark boat to age. Apparently neither the crew nor he realizes that the iron holding the barrel together will corrode and fall apart faster than a piñata filled with money at a kid’s birthday party, without blindfolds — AND large heavy sticks. This is a boat crew that knows full well what happens to metal when exposed to the ocean in a few days, let alone a few years. When the barrels all start falling apart and disappearing over the side of the boat, they have to stop the experiment to “rescue” the remaining precious barrels. Set the PR machine in motion to show the world they put Whiskey barrels on a cool TV show shark boat with a cool, cozy story that went viral. They send out barrel proof samples to the world only to cut the bottled stuff so far down with water that not only wasn’t it dark but watered down to the point of just sucking. The PR continues a year after the bottles are all sold but not one word about the duping taking place. People in the BIZ, people making their money from advertising stay silent. In the meantime plenty are laughing if what’s going on happens quietly.

It’s easy to pick loads of targets. New brands want instant credibility. Old brands want to stay cool, credible, profitable. I don’t think of myself as the Whiskey Sheriff and it looks odd when few stand up even with plenty of legit chatter on the boards. When Michter’s wins the award for Distillery of the Year, Whiskey geekdom erupts, but not a word beyond that. I’ve got no advertisers, no agenda, and I’ll pick and choose when I want to be a nice guy and when I want to be a prick. Before I started this blog (while on a bourbon pilgrimage), I’m at the Seelbach Bar meeting with some people and they tell me in confidence that something’s else more isn’t real. What’s going into a bottle and what it says is a plain old sham, and it’s proven to me. A month later I start the Bourbon Truth. I don’t want to be insulted or lied to. If you market to me that way, you’re saying I’m stupid enough not to notice I’m being ripped off. I consider people that love the craft my friends, so you’re doing it to my friends too. If you call yourself a master distiller, and you’ve never been one, then you’re insulting Parker, Craig, Harlen, Chris, Drew, Jim and Jim, Elmer, etc.

Is this story all hard to believe? I’m hoping not, as it’s the god’s honest truth. NO agenda - I don’t get a dime from any magazines, publications, distilleries. Anytime you want to talk to me, call. Send me a private message or e-mail bourbontruth at America Online. Give me your number. The reason I don’t use my name is simple: It’s still easy to get blacklisted in some form or fashion. If you sell this guy any Pappy, you won’t get any is one example. Don’t laugh, as it’s happened. Yes, I have my issues with the Van Winkles. I love the family, history, and park in front of the old SW plant, and get tingly the way a space geek gets tingly looking at NASA’s Launch Pads 39a and b in Florida (most or all Apollo’s and shuttles launched there).

I’ve visited the Old Hoffman Distillery, later to become Old Commonwealth, where some of the greatest whiskey of the modern era was hand bottled by Julian himself. I’m a groupie. I love that Julian got the family motto sign and it’s safely back where the visitors of Buffalo Trace can see and appreciate it. But DON’T tell the same visitors that that a building at BuffaloTrace is their office and the “secret family recipe” is made there when it’s not, just the regular Wheated recipe is. Not long ago, within a few months’ time, Julian appears in three interviews and complains that the phone never stops ringing and people won’t leave him alone and oh, by the way, my Whiskey is great and you can’t have any. It’s such a mixed message and he may as well be telling people that George Washington drank his Whiskey or that it was aged on a shark boat because it has that feel, while it shouldn’t and doesn’t need to. Revisit my past articles for more, but I don’t dislike the man. In fact, he is most likely the reason I’m in the hobby. Pappy was my first bourbon with the WOW factor.

I 100 percent realize that I can and do at times come off as a complete prick. I get that. People have told me to stop, to back off, to be nicer and try and get the message across softer. You’re all right and that would be a safer way to do it. Maybe a more civil approach. I’ll never be an ambassador and I don’t have much “yield or yellow traffic signal” in me when it comes to this stuff. I’m writing what I’m thinking. I’m not a good writer and my spelling sucks so people will read it or they won’t. It’s sort of my Whiskey diary publicly aired. I have my favorite brands that have earned that spot, so let me go there. A great movie is “Almost Famous,” where a kid goes on the road with a rock band. He keeps trying to get an interview with the group’s leader and to find out why he loves music. Well, why do I love this stuff? Here are my thoughts on what I think.

I love love love Buffalo Trace but that Experimental Collection Rice and Oats sucks, I’ll say it. I’ll call a skunk a skunk. So here goes:

Beam
I don’t have much opinion on Beam either way, oddly enough. I do wonder when they had the first and only Ultra Bourbon brands on the market for so long (Blanton’s, removed) with the members of their “Small Batch Bourbon Collection,” what happened? I think of Polaroid instant photos not recognizing, changing, and adapting fast. Polaroid should have been like Apple, not Orange. Beam certainly isn’t suffering and makes plenty of dough. Perhaps it’s nothing more than a simple business decision to have stayed out of the ultra enthusiast type stuff. Maybe it’s simply lack of supply. It’s good stuff but just doesn’t rock my boat, and I’ve never rushed off to get a new bottle (but the 12 Year Signature is very intriguing).

Buffalo Trace
Someone could make the same case for Blanton’s being like the Beam attempt at an ultra brand but can’t. Elmer T. Lee is asked by the old owners to come up with something special, and Blanton’s is born. No other distillery comes out with as many high-end ultra level brands. The Buffalo Trace-funded Nunn Center Oral Project of Bourbon and the Distillery covers it very nicely with the Elmer interview. Fascinating stuff for the Bourbon geek. Mark Brown, William Goldring and their teams have done more for the modern American Whiskey industry than any other company, in my opinion. Antique Collection, Single Oak, Experimental, and loads of other cool, great stuff. Perhaps an argument can be made that they saved the Van Winkles too. It’s endless what they have done and so many others would love to copy them but they would need to go back in time 10-20 years to make the whiskey first. Sadly, they are straying from the high road.

Heaven Hill
Heaven Hill was on the verge of going out of the business after their devastating fire that burned their only distillery to the ground. The Shapira family and their friends pull off magic that David Copperfield couldn’t. Not only do they keep HH alive, it’s thriving as one of the best of the best. They are smart enough to have the Beam legacy continue with Parker and Craig Beam heavily involved.

Four Roses
Four Roses is the most amazing to me. It’s a brand bought by a Japanese company (Kirin), because in Japan it’s a highly respected and great Whiskey. Here in the U.S. it had been relegated to bottom shelf stuff in paper bags, empty under park benches, in gutters. How in the world can one man (Jim Rutledge) bring this brand from the nasty laughing stock that Seagram’s left in a shit pile to where it is right now? It’s unimaginable, and if Kirin doesn’t get Fred Minnick to write a book on it, the whiskey world and MBA students all over the world will be the lesser for it. The whole story can be a blog post on its own but listen to Jim’s Interviews on K&L and Whiskycast

http://whiskycast.com/episode-419-april-6-2013/

http://spiritsjournal.klwines.com/klwinescom-spirits-blog/2012/10/1/kl-spirits-journal-podcast-22-jim-rutledge.html

I’m going to hate myself for saying this, as it’s going to make a bad problem worse in a badly kept secret: Four Roses Annual releases are a fraction of the annual Pappy release but year after year if they aren’t the best Whiskey you can drink you can certainly get a room full of true experts to argue it is. There’s no mystery to what it is: the names on the label, usually the recipe too.

Wild Turkey

Hmmm. I’m just not sure here what to write. Jimmy and Eddie Russell are real nice guys and know how to make great whiskey. Russell’s Reserve Bourbon and Rye, new Cask Strength, Rare Breed, Kentucky Spirit, special releases of things like Tribute, Tradition, American Spirit. Some good, and a few great things but they are the Danny Trejo of Whiskey. Danny who? Exactly!

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001803/

He’s a character actor with 254 appearances, according to Imdb, and is instantly recognizable, though practically no one knows his name. I had to look it up just now.

Wild Turkey has been around for a long time and every time I have it when it’s the best thing on a bad whiskey list I remember what a snob and fool I am for not giving it more respect and credit. Why? Is it me? Overwhelming selections? Marketing? Odd reputation—nothing negative, just foggy like that of an amnesia-afflicted person starting to get it back. Pernod Ricard buys it in 1980 and in 2009 the Campari Group buys it. There just doesn’t seem to be an identity, they made no dent in the current ultra Whiskey frenzy. I’m not a marketing guru but am a very astute and knowledge consumer of American Whiskey. I can’t help to think they have either chosen to miss the boat, don’t care or worse.

http://www.campariamerica.com/press-area/press-releases/2012-02-14-true-uncompromising-bourbon-for-true-bourbon-lovers-introducing-the-first-russells-reserve-single-barrel.shtml

Here’s an excerpt from the above link referring to Russell’s Reserve Single Barrel:

Every expression of Russell’s Reserve – both the Bourbon and rye Whiskey - is matured in only the deepest number 4 or “alligator” charred American white oak barrels to ensure the richest flavor and color. Jimmy and Eddie insist on this char level and are among only a handful of whiskey distillers who use it. The best aged whiskey barrels are hand selected by this legendary pair themselves and only from the center cut of the rick house – since that’s where the optimal maturation occurs. Adamant about quality, the Russell’s will only use the natural, weather-driven process for maturation – never air conditioned or heated “because it’s the right thing to do.”

As I said, the Russells know how to make some great Whiskey.

Maybe I’m over-reaching a bit, but an American company (or at least one with a great whiskey heritage in their native land) seems to “get it.” The Japanese and Scots can certainly play in any Whiskey sand box; the Italians, not so sure. I wonder what happens in my Fantasy Whiskey League if I trade Jim Rutledge for Eddie and Jimmy Russell, and they get to work at Four Roses where the ballpark is small, with the fences moved way in? How many home runs could they hit? Hmmm, I wonder.

Brown Forman aka Jack Daniels, Old Forester, Woodford Reserve, Early Times

The Brown Family runs the show and pretty much always has. When Jack Daniels is the bestselling Whiskey brand in the world with almost 11 million annual cases you just have to shut the eff up.

http://www.thespiritsbusiness.com/2013/06/the-10-largest-world-whisky-brands/11/

How does that affect Woodford Reserve? Well Woodford is expanding, huge and it’s positioned very nicely for what it is: a mid-aged, nice, sipping whiskey. It’s got classiness too, which helps. Now, I wouldn’t be ratting them out to say that a percentage of the Whiskey is made in a Louisville Distillery, not the one at the picturesque, beautiful Versailles, Ky., location. The company and its Master Distiller Chris Morris will admit this without hesitation. Old Forester has now started to position as a more upscale brand, leaving Early Times in the back. The only apparent major effort at a true collectors ultra market are the Master Distiller collections from Woodford that have essentially been their experiment in types of wood or wood finishes. The numbers of bottles being made available have been steadily rising but they aren’t setting the Whiskey world on fire with the recent results. A Woodford Rye is due out in the near future, so that will be interesting. I’m cool with Brown Forman. I’m a Woodford fan. Maybe BF’s lack of “coming over the top” is simply that they don’t need to with behemoth Jack Daniels out in front.

LDI/MGP

They are essentially the equivalent of a company that makes all the generic Corn Flakes for all the supermarkets not big enough to make their own. They supply a large number of brands with their Whiskey. Look at the list on one of my favorite great blogs by a whiskey mind I wish I could have—Sku’s Recent Eats.

http://recenteats.blogspot.com/p/the-complete-list-of-american-whiskey.html

Sku lists where it’s all being made including MGP stuff. MGP is a big place outside Cincinnati and they don’t have their own brands. This will give you an idea about their offerings to the industry but little about them is known beyond what’s public info:

http://www.mgpingredients.com/product-list/

A few others …

Balcones in Texas

Making some great stuff in my Top 3 non major. Pretty much a straight-forward place making it on a legit, earned reputation.

Willett/KBD

They have never made it a secret that they don’t bottle anything that they make. But what they do bottle of their own brands, and doing Private Labels, is a pretty cool story which I’ve already written about. When they start bottling the new stuff they have been distilling on their own it will be very interesting. They have quietly developed a cult following of big fans and many Whiskey geeks like myself. Very secretive, and the info I get on them is from reliable sources I trust. The mystery of it all just makes me want it more, and I’m not alone. The truth has always been in the bottle with them.

St. George Spirits

St. George, across the Bay from San Francisco, is making a name for itself and as their stuff ages and supply increases, I think it will be fun.

Old Potrero
Anchor Brewing’s super-small micro-distillery, hidden in a back corner of the place has been making Rye variations since the 1990s, but so little is being made and released that it’s hardly a blip worth mentioning. But I love the coolness and the continual effort, and what they do is great stuff.

Hillrock

Hillrock, which I’ve written on too, is interesting. Farm to glass, almost impossible to get outside New York. Owner Jeff Baker (Dr. Jekyll) meets Mr. Hyde—former Makers Master Distiller Dave Pickerell. Results so far have bested every micro/craft I’ve had.

I’m sure I’m leaving out some big and small ones but I figured I’d offer people a tour through my mind and explain some things. I wanna write what I want about whomever. If I choose to call someone a fraud, con man/woman, a joke,then I can if there is a valid reason. If I want to say that faced with the decision to try the firm’s product a second time or raw sewage a first time would give me a reason to pause and contemplate how sick the sewage would make me.

My thoughts are based on fact, research, an educated guess or absolutely nothing but an asshole’s opinion. I get nothing from anyone, and just asked for my first trade sample in order to do a blind tasting and don’t have something about to be released.

If I am wrong, if someone calls me on something so that I have to eat my words, I will. If the Jeffersons of the world ever want to defend themselves on the worst bottle seals in the industry, that pop out when a good gust hits them, or quiet my other criticism, bring it on rather than block me like a coward.

I recently did a Twitter tasting and sent out about 8 blind samples of really cool things like 23 Year Old Evan Williams, Ocean, 21 Year Jefferson, 20 Year Elijah Craig, Hillrock etc.

I’m going to do it again. Email me at bourbontruth at America Online. Tell me what you think of the blog and Twitter. I’ll post the responses anonymously (unless you want me using your info). Those chosen responses will make up the invitees of the next blind tasting that I’ll post somewhere. I’ll include the Bourbon Truth’s favorite Whiskeys. This will hurt, as it will kill some bottles I’ll never have more of unless I get them from the secondary market (which, by the way, will be the subject of my next post, I think). E-mail me and DON’T think I’m looking for sugar coated stuff. If you make some valid points and tell me I’m a douchebag, you’re still in. I’m thinking there will be about 3-5 people picked, with a few hand-selected ringers because they know their stuff.