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Re: Rye Tasting Today

Unread postPosted: Mon Aug 25, 2008 12:13 pm
by bunghole
barturtle wrote:
mozilla wrote:here is how I understand things...

Julians rye is now a blend of two ryes. The original made by Medley and Cream of Ky made at either Bernheim or BT(when it was AA).

Rittenhouse is made for HH by Brown Foreman.



I'm quite sure Julian has never revealed the source of his rye.


That may well be true, but Julian has been known to tell different folks differing stories. It all depends upon who you are. As we all know, Kentuckians never tell lies. As silly as Jeff Mo' may think me, I will stick to my thesis that Julian knows!

:arrow: ima :smilebox:

Re: Rye Tasting Today

Unread postPosted: Wed Aug 27, 2008 5:43 pm
by angelshare
bourbonv wrote:Julian tanked all of his rye a few years ago and is rationing it until he can get some rye from BT. There are about 6 more years to go.


Thanks, Mike, just so I understand - until it's 12-13 years old?

Re: Rye Tasting Today

Unread postPosted: Wed Aug 27, 2008 7:41 pm
by bourbonv
The story as I understand it is the whiskey that started as the 13yo but by the time it was put into the tank it was about 18 or 19years old. The original whiskey was some 13yo Medley rye. Julian purchased enough to do a bottling one year just to see if he could sell a rye whiskey. He was doubtful that it would sell, but he really liked the whiskey and decided to take a gamble. It paid off and was a hit. He purchased some more with the option to get the rest of it later. The brand continued to grow and rye whiskey was beginning to take off big time. He went to purchase the rest of the whiskey and Diageo renegged on the deal. Julian added some pressure and they Diageo said they would sell him some Cream of Kentucky to fill the amount of the order and Julian agreed. He stored the rye in his warehouses and bottled from that stock but it continued to get older until he decided to tank it and ration the rye until he could get some aged rye on line from BT. The whiskey was like 18 or 19 years in the barrel, but he did not want to change the label every year, so it is the 13yo Family Reserve Rye on the label. By not changing the label, he also does not have to wait as long for new stocks to age.

I will not guarantee that this is 100% accurate as to how it went down, but it is what I have heard from various people and about as accurate as you will probably get in this industry.

Re: Rye Tasting Today

Unread postPosted: Wed Aug 27, 2008 8:02 pm
by bunghole
Ah-Ha!

Diageo! :angryfire: "Sloooooowly I turned......."

Re: Rye Tasting Today

Unread postPosted: Wed Aug 27, 2008 10:34 pm
by Bourbon Joe
The Cream of Kentucky rye was some pretty good whiskey, as also evidenced by the two Willett bottlings from Doug Philips and all of LeNell's "Red Hook" bottlings.
Joe

Re: Rye Tasting Today

Unread postPosted: Thu Aug 28, 2008 8:34 am
by barturtle
Mike,

That's pretty much the story as I understand it as well, though the names have never been put in to fill those blanks.

There is one statement I have read by Julian which leaves me a bit confused though. He has stated that he tanked a 13 year supply to wait for the BT distilled stock to age. This was at a point where the BT stocks had already reached 8-9 years old. I don't really think he would be waiting for stocks to age to 21+ years old to bottle a 13yo label.

Re: Rye Tasting Today

Unread postPosted: Thu Aug 28, 2008 10:14 am
by bourbonv
Timothy,
I am confused. I have never heard that he would be waiting that long as well. I was told it would be about 6 or 7 years for the rye, not 20+ years. Now he has said he signed the deal with Buffalo Trace to insure Preston would have whiskey because that will be 20+ years on the Pappy 23. Maybe that is what you are thinking.