by cowdery » Sat Apr 22, 2006 5:28 pm
The story I heard is only slightly different from John's and comes from the last master distiller at Crow prior to the "merger" in 1987. Supposedly in the 1960s, the distillery went through an expansion and mistakes were made in "scaling up" the recipe for the new capacity. The significant error was in the percentage of backset used. According to my source, he and the distillery tasting panel protested that the new whiskey they were producing "wasn't right," but the owners only cared about maximizing production volume. They supposedly fixed it in the early 1980s, shortly before the distillery was closed following the "merger."
I agree that every taste of Old Crow I have had from that period has been acceptable, although it has also invariably been aged 8 to 10 years, which standard Old Crow was not.
I too have felt that Beam's debasement of Crow has to do with an old grudge, since the two brands had long battled each other for category leadership. On the other hand, the people in Deerfield (Beam's headquarters) have never shown much interest in the history of any of their brands, except as they could make a little hay from it.
From direct personal experience, I can tell you that the decision to maintain the Old Grand-Dad formula and to provide some minimal support for the brand, at least initially, was solely due to the fact that it still supported a premium price, which Crow did not. The issue with Taylor was that, by the time Beam got it, it was simply very small, although they did keep it a 6-year-old.
At the time of the "merger" (I use quotes because it was, in fact, an acquisition), Beam was essentially a one-brand company while National had a huge portfolio, including a lot of cats and dogs. They discontinued about half of the brands and still had a lot of them that only sold in one or two markets, but sold enough to be profitable. They didn't give much support to any of the acquired bourbons (they bought the company primarily to get the DeKuyper line, which was very hot at the time) and just let them seek their own level.
The current Old Crow is so bad I'm surprised by it. I can tell you that it is made at the recently renamed Booker Noe distillery, which Beam insiders regard as inferior to Clermont and is the source of all of their bottom shelf products.