Buffalo Trace

Article by Paul Pacult

In addition to being one of North America’s premier distillers of handcrafted whiskey and vodka, Buffalo Trace is a distillery that is intrinsically identified with its bucolic north- central Kentucky location. It is a company sustained by deep hinterland roots, a company whose story begins the same year the guns of revolution first sounded at Concord and Lexington.

Legendary 18th century explorers of the North American continent such as Daniel Boone, George Rogers Clark and the Long Hunters opened new territories west of the original colonies, in part, by following the trails of the vast herds of migrating animals. Such well-worn paths of buffalo, deer and elk were known as “traces.” Just prior to the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, the pristine, raw but prime hunting place referred to by native Shawnee as Kentucke was settled by about 150 robust men who yearned for adventure and unspoiled spaces in which to hunt.

Among those intrepid folk were two brothers, Hancock and Willis Lee. In 1775, the Lees founded a camp that they dubbed Leestown at a junction that was part of the Great Buffalo Trace in what is now Franklin County, Kentucky. Word of Kentucke’s splendor spread fast through the eastern seaboard colonies. Remarkably, by 1790 the population of north-central Kentucky exploded to 73,000 people. (The spelling was changed to “Kentucky” when it became the fifteenth state in 1792.)

Agrarian communities were quickly established. As land was cleared, corn was planted. Whiskey, produced from corn mash, was widely distilled by farming settlers like Hancock Lee. Indeed, virtually all of Kentucky early settlers were farmer-distillers. Leestown was no different. Though this location’s first modern distillery was erected in 1857, it’s said that a distillery has occupied this site at Buffalo Trace since 1787, making this spot one of the oldest distilling locations in North America. A sense of place instills a sense of purpose.

POWER TO THE PEOPLE

Although place is important for a company’s identity, all landmark distilleries are guided and operated by the skills, dedication, hard work and vision of people. Buffalo Trace Distillery is particularly rich in “people pedigree,” according to the current chief operating officer, Mark Brown. “Our distillery culture is built around the whiskey pioneers that went before us: Hancock Lee, Harrison and Albert Blanton, E.H. Taylor, George Stagg, Orville Schupp,” says Brown. “They have given us a rich history and also have left a marked impression about the need to innovate and always seek to improve, just as they did in their time.”

Brown is quick to point out that while the achievements of past distillers form a solid foundation, it is the ability and daring of what he calls the present company’s “Magnificent Seven” that keep Buffalo Trace Distillery at the forefront of modern-day American distilling. Those people include Elmer T. Lee, master distiller emeritus, the plain-talking mentor of Buffalo Trace Distillery; Gary Gayheart, the retired master distiller whose whiskey creations are now in the marketplace; Harlan Wheatley, current master distiller and chief of the distillery’s state-of-the-art experimental whiskey program; Ronnie Eddins, warehouse master, whose job is to oversee the maintenance and care of close to 300,000 barrels of maturing whiskey; Leonard Riddle, assistant warehouse master; Drew Mayville, director of quality assurance; and Richard Wolf, vice president of operations. These are the contemporary Buffalo Trace Distillery staffers who will be talked about generations from now.

KNOWN FOR BEING #1

An acknowledged innovator, Buffalo Trace Distillery is famed for its lists of so-called “firsts” and “onlys.” First distillery to ship whiskey down the Mississippi River; first distillery to use steam power for distilling; first distillery to offer for sale a single barrel bourbon, Blanton’s, in 1984; the only distillery whose structures represent three centuries of American history; the only distillery using five distinct recipes for the creation of straight bourbons and straight rye whiskeys; the only distillery in Kentucky that produces vodka from 100% organic white corn.

These myriad accomplishments over two centuries have led to a dizzying array of superbly crafted distillates—almost twenty unique straight bourbon and straight rye whiskeys, including various expressions of Blanton’s, Eagle Rare, Elmer T. Lee, George T. Stagg, Pappy Van Winkle, W.L. Weller, Sazerac Rye, Old Charter, Hancock’s Reserve, and Rock Hill Farms, as well as a vodka, Rain, made from organic corn.

Today, Buffalo Trace Distillery is owned by the Sazerac Company of New Orleans, an independent, family-owned supplier of a wide variety of spirit and wine brands to both domestic and international markets. Particularly deserving of this award for its industry-rattling innovation, Buffalo Trace Distillery is acknowledged as being America’s most progressive distilling company. As evidenced by its critically acclaimed Experimental Collection of three stunningly delicious straight bourbons matured in entirely new ways, Buffalo Trace Distillery isn’t satisfied with merely pushing the envelope as much as it is with inventing a whole new kind of envelope to push.

BEYOND LAURELS

Mark Brown does not believe in basking in the glow of his company’s fifty-plus medals and awards garnered since 1990. Complacency has no place at the Trace. The team dynamic at Buffalo Trace, as skillfully fostered by Brown, is all about what’s lying around the next turn. “Experimentation is important if for no other reason than the need to continually strive to improve,” says Brown. “It’s especially important in a category that for a long time was focused on cost-cutting, mass production and ‘same-ness,’ where many consumers believed that all bourbons tasted alike; in a category that had lost its footing as the hand-crafted, high quality spirit that it is.

“We passionately believe,” continues Brown, inadvertently (or maybe not) articulating the Buffalo Trace credo, “that the best bourbon, rye and American whiskey is yet to be made and we would like to be the ones to make it!”

The editors of Wine Enthusiast congratulate Mark Brown and the distilling team at Buffalo Trace Distillery for continuing to tweak our interest, for producing stellar world-class spirits and for its honor as our Distiller of the Year.
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Glen Breton Rare Canadian Single Malt Whisky Rated as one of the Top 50 Spirits Worldwide

Glenora Distillery is pleased to announce that its flagship product, Glen Breton Rare, has been chosen as one of the Top 50 Spirits worldwide for 2006 by Wine Enthusiast Magazine of New York. It is one of only two spirits from Canada named to this prestigious list.

Wine Enthusiast magazine is one of the world’s most respected magazines in its field, with a readership of 650,000. Glen Breton is rated as “Superb”, “Highly Recommended,” and as “a world class single malt whisky.”

“The dream of Glenora has captured our land,” says Bob Scott, Vice President of Glenora Distillers.

Glenora Distillery is Canada’s only single malt whisky distillery and produces Glen Breton Rare 10 year old Single Malt Whisky and Glen Breton Ice 10 year old Single Malt Whisky, as well as specialty single cask offerings up to 15 years old.

Glen Breton Rare Canadian Single Malt Whisky is sold throughout North America and in selected countries around the world. Glen Breton Ice, the world’s first single malt whisky aged in ice wine barrels was launched only three weeks ago in Nova Scotia and seems to have hit a remarkable chord with consumers, with some liquor stores taking lists of dozens of customers on waiting lists for the product when it is in stock. Another bottling of Glen Breton Ice is expected to be released in time for Valentine’s Day, 2007

On December 12, 2006, Glenora appeared for the first time in front of the Canadian Trademark Commission. The Scotch Whisky Association of Glasgow, Scotland filed its opposition to the registration of “Glen Breton” as a registered trademark in 2001.

Glenora will to continue to vigorously respond to the Scotch Whisky Association’s objection. Glenora Distillery is geographically located in a glen. The small community, named Glenville, is located at the base of the Mabou Highlands in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. Cape Breton still has a strong and very practical use of the word “glen” in several dozen community names, meaning Glenora’s signature brands Glen Breton Rare and Glen Breton Ice are appropriately named.

“We will continue to stand up to the challenge of the Scotch Whisky Association and are proud to voice our strong belief that we should be allowed common use of the word “Glen” to describe our whisky, where it is distilled, aged, and matured.” says President Lauchie MacLean.

Glenora expects to know the results of the hearing some time in the next few months.
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The 376th Bottle

The latest addition to the famed whiskey collection at Delilah’s has a familiar name.

By Nicholas Day
December 15, 2006

THE LIQUOR STOCK at Delilah’s, a dark punk and country bar on North Lincoln Avenue, can make you think you’re seeing triple. Not only is there no room for more bottles behind the bar, there’s barely space for the bottles that are already there.

Owner Mike Miller likes to describe Delilah’s as his hobby bar. “I’m only really trying to cater to me,” says Miller, a gregarious 39-year-old who founded the bar 13 years ago while studying for a BFA in film at Columbia College. “What I saw when I opened was a real lack of product. Most bars didn’t have more than a bottle of Jim Beam and a bottle of Daniel’s.” Today Delilah’s is considered among the country’s best bars for drinking straight spirits: if you want whiskey, there are 375 from 11 countries on offer.

That number’s gone up: this week Miller launched his own line of whiskey. Delilah’s house whiskeys, exceptional single barrels of bourbon and scotch, were selected by Miller from a few undisclosed distilleries. Currently the bourbon is on sale only at the bar (which will host a tasting on January 4), but Miller plans to start selling it at a few other local bars and restaurants next year. Over time he hopes to expand the brand internationally. “I try to think pretty local,” he says. “In this case, I’m contemplating global.”

Miller’s been mulling this idea since Delilah’s tenth anniversary in 2003, which he celebrated by bottling and selling shots from a single barrel of decade-old wheat bourbon he’d sampled in Kentucky. This year, for Delilah’s 13th anniversary, he did the same thing with a 13-year-old rye bourbon, then worked to make more of it available. “The idea was to continue to produce it,” he says.

Miller has deep connections in the whiskey world—especially the Kentucky part of it, where he gets access to forgotten barrels in the back corners of warehouses. He claims to know every master distiller in the Kentucky bourbon business, and says that a well-known distiller in Scotland (whose name he agreed not to disclose) has promised to let him cherry-pick from its barrels once a year. The bottles for Delilah’s have arrived from France, the labels (an eye- catching monochromatic design) are finished, and Miller has a local distributor, Maxwell Street Trading. Larger distributors have expressed interest but Miller has turned them down, saying he doesn’t want to grow too fast.

The 13-year-old bourbon, samples of which were poured at the anniversary party in August, went on sale December 14. It’s spicy and powerful, with a rye zing. “I knew it would say Chicago on the label and I wanted it to be a big, bold, shouldered whiskey,” Miller says. You can take a bottle home, but it won’t come cheap: $75 (A shot at the bar goes for $6.50.)

Delilah’s house brand wouldn’t appear to present much of a force in the larger whiskey market. But the bar has a loyal clientele, and Miller is convinced that his customers will help spread the word. “If you go into the liquor store down the road and you see a bottle of Delilah’s and you’re part of Delilah’s long-term community, you’re buying that bottle of whiskey,” he says. “It doesn’t matter. You’re buying it because you have an association with it already.” Interest in high-quality, pricey bourbon is higher than it’s been in almost a century. But there’s not enough high-quality bourbon to go around. “Fifteen years ago, people weren’t sitting around thinking, ‘In 15 years, there’s going to be a lot of people interested in overaged bourbon,’” Miller says. Lew Bryson, the managing editor of Malt Advocate, a quarterly that covers whiskey and the distilling industry, confirms that “bourbon supplies are drying up.” (He adds that bourbon, which must contain at least 51 percent corn, isn’t as rare as aged rye whiskey, which he says “is almost impossible to find.” Delilah’s carries more than 20 brands of rye.)

Malt Advocate hosts an annual WhiskyFest at a downtown Chicago hotel, and Bryson notes that attendees routinely end up at Delilah’s. “Delilah’s is in the first tier [of whiskey bars], no question,” he says.

If American whiskey producers missed their own comeback, that’s not so surprising: they’ve had a tough century. Before Prohibition, whiskey was America’s drink, and it was produced in prodigious quantities. “As soon as Prohibition hit, you’ve got hundreds of thousands of barrels in dozens and dozens of distilleries,” Miller says. “All these family distilleries—what are they going to do with all this whiskey? They’re fucked. Some people had licenses where they could continue to bottle for medicinal purposes only—you could get a prescription for whiskey.” In fact, Delilah’s carries one brand, Old Mock, whose pre-Prohibition bottles came with a medicinal label on the back. It’s $40 a shot.

During the 13 years of Prohibition, people drank homemade beer and wine, as well as cocktails that masked the taste of black-market vodka and gin. When it came to whiskey, Miller says, people shifted from “drinking bold, brown spirits to drinking lighter whiskeys coming out of Canada and bootlegged over the border.” The national palate changed, and that change affected the whiskey industry when Prohibition ended. Before Prohibition, whiskey was taxed every year it was in the barrel, which meant producers rarely aged it longer than four years. The annual tax was rescinded after Prohibition, and whiskeys that had aged for at least 14 years during that time came on the market. “You not only have access again to American whiskey, but you have access to whiskeys that have been sitting in the barrel way longer than they ever would have before, creating a much, bigger, bolder, over-the-top product,” Miller says. The difference in taste, among other factors, made whiskey fall out of favor. “Nobody was drinking this stuff,” he says. “We went from 200 American whiskey distilleries to 40 that reopened after Prohibition. Now we have maybe 12.” Many distilleries began closing in the 80s, just before bourbon took off in America. Ironically, their excess inventory, bought by other labels, has supported the spirit’s resurgence. (The Delilah’s ten-year-old bourbon, for instance, came from the Stitzel-Weller Distillery, which closed in 1991.) As the stock of barrels diminishes, some distillers and independent distributors of rarer bourbons have started to behave like hard-core mushroom hunters, desperate to protect their secret spots. The origin of any previously unknown, seriously aged bourbon is treated as classified information. Miller won’t disclose where his 13-year-old whiskey comes from.

“In America, access to private barrels remains very limited,” Miller says. “No active whiskey-making distillery will sell me a barrel to put my label on.” That’s unlikely to change, he adds, because even if the market is strong, whiskey is a poor way to make a quick buck. “Why do you see so much investment in vodka?” he asks. “Because you make it today and you sell it tomorrow. And the margin on it is much higher. A $30 bottle of vodka? Are you kidding? As opposed to a $30 bottle of whiskey that took six, eight years to mature in an oak barrel. That’s why there’s a new vodka on the market every day and there aren’t new whiskey products.”

That’s partly why Miller is hesitant to grow a Delilah’s line too fast: “What if I came into the market big and then I couldn’t get any more? There’s not an endless supply.” But even Miller, who likes to say that his bar “is never going to be Delilah’s Martini Ranch,” admits that prestige whiskey isn’t what most Americans think of as whiskey. “The market will still continue to consume more young American whiskey than older whiskey,” he says, before uttering a statistic that must give him heartburn. “I mean, 75 percent of whiskey is mixed with Coke.”
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Moonshine Trends

Several different people who do not know each other have described a wonderful flavored moonshine called "Apple Pie".
One happened in Wisconsin and another in MO, so this could be a Mid-western thing. It is smooth and sweet and taste's just like apple pie.
It is used as "sippin' whiskey" on hunting trips in many a flask. Does anyone have a formula? Is this popular in other parts of the country?

I know in the Southlands it is popular to put a slice of local fruit in each bottle. The guys in Georga use peaches, the guys in Florida use oranges or lemons etc. That's local pride!

Let's publish a book of American Moonshine formulae, so the histroy is documented, "The joy of Moonshining". Let's start with a data bace anyway.

Happy Holidays!
Donald R. Outterson
beerwine@eos.net
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American Distiller is doing an article on distillery newsletters. If you produce a newsletter, email it to:
bill@distilling.com
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106 Days until the American Distilling Rum Conference. Conference registration infomation will be sent in the mail and posted on the website in January.
-Bill Owens
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Standards of Identity for the Craft Distiller

by Dave Bateman, Industry Analyst, Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB)

What Are the Standards of Identity for Distilled Spirits? The regulations in 27 CFR part 5 establish standards of identity for distilled spirits products and categorize these products according to various classes and types. As used in part 5, the term "class" refers to a general category of spirits, such as "whisky" or "brandy." There are 12 different classes of distilled spirits recognized in part 5 of the TTB regulations. The term "type" refers to a subcategory within a class of spirits.

Subpart C of 27 CFR part 5 outlines the requirements that must be met for the classes and types of distilled spirits in order for you to properly designate and label your product. Why Are the Standards Important to You?

If you intend to produce a specific class of distilled spirit, and want to be able to print that type of spirit on your label, you must meet the minimum standards described in section 5.22 of the TTB regulations, the standards of identity for distilled spirits. For instance, the Class 1 definition in section 5.22(a) explains that the type, vodka, must first be distilled at or above 190° proof as a neutral spirit. In example, here is the definition of a neutral spirit with two types for vodka and grain spirits: 27 CFR 5.22(a) Class 1; neutral spirits or alcohol. “Neutral spirits” or “alcohol” are distilled spirits produced from any material at or above 190° proof, and, if bottled, bottled at not less than 80° proof.

(1) Vodka is neutral spirits so distilled, or so treated after distillation with charcoal or other materials, as to be without distinctive character, aroma, taste, or color.
(2) “Grain spirits” are neutral spirits distilled from a fermented mash of grain and stored in oak containers. By this definition, a distilled spirit can be called neutral spirits or alcohol as long as 190° proof is achieved. The source of sugar or starch to produce this neutral spirit is not a factor in the definition. So, to place the term “vodka” on a label of beverage distilled spirits, it must come from a neutral spirit, which was produced at 190° proof or higher.

Further, whisky definitions are listed in 27 CFR 5.22 (b)(1) to (b)(9). These include whisky, straight whisky, bourbon, corn, light, blend, blend of straights, spirit, Scotch, Irish, and Canadian. By definition, if you want to distill and label a whisky as a bourbon, rye, wheat, malt, or rye malt whisky, you must produce a distilled spirit with at least 51 percent of the grain, respectively, that is named on the label. Bourbon is unique in that it must be distilled from a fermented mash of 51 percent corn.

The regulations further state that all whisky spirits must be distilled at not more than 160° proof, and bourbon, wheat, rye, malt, or rye malt whisky must be stored in new charred oak containers at not more than 125° proof. If these whiskies are named as a straight whisky on the label, they must have been stored for at least two years.

The remainder of classes are as follows:

(c) Class 3; gin.
(d) Class 4; brandy.
(e) Class 5; blended applejack.
(f) Class 6; rum.
(g) Class 7; Tequila.
(h) Class 8; cordials and liqueurs.
(i) Class 9; flavored brandy, flavored gin, flavored rum, flavored vodka, and flavored whisky.
(j) Class 10; imitations.
(k) Class 11; geographical designations.
(l) Class 12; products without geographical designations but distinctive of a particular place.

Where Can I Obtain More Information?

The statutory requirements for labeling distilled spirits are in 27 U.S.C. 205(e) and the standards of identity regulations are listed in 27 CFR 5.22. To access the standards of identity regulations on the TTB Web site, please visit the Distilled Spirits page of

www.TTB.gov.

Also, if you need to understand what a gauge is or if you want to identify what required information is necessary to document a bottling record, this information is found in 27 CFR part 19 and is also accessible through TTB.gov.
The Beverage Alcohol Manual is another excellent source of guidance on basic mandatory labeling requirements and other regulatory matters involving distilled spirits. You may contact TTB at any time if you have further questions or concerns.

The Bureau’s Distilled Spirits Industry Analyst is available at dave.bateman@ttb.gov
or by phone at 202-302-3859 and 816-623-9405.
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Back Issues of 2005 Newsletters

Making Pure Corn whiskey other distilling books, equipment, supplies and expertise.
http://www.home-distilling.com/ search.asp
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Touring Scottish Whisky Distilleries

The Virtual Absinthe Museum
An extensive reference collection of original artifacts documenting every aspect of the history of La Fee Verte, from its use as a medicinal elixir in ancient times, to its heyday as a fashionable aperitif in the 19th century and its prohibition at the beginning of the 20th.

http://www.ttb.gov/spirits/bam.shtml distilled spirits manual circular.
This is a must for any formula or label approval..
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"NEW DISTILLERS" Frequently Asked Questions

Posted near the 1st of each month, to the NEW_DISTILLERS newsgroup at

www.yahoogroups.com

Please email any additions, corrections, clarifications required, etc regarding the FAQ to Tony Ackland (Tony.Ackland@comalco.riotinto.com.au), however please direct any general questions to the newsgroup itself.
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