BourbonEnthusiast.com

Rooting around a bit, I found this:

http://digital.library.louisville.edu/c ... 328/rec/14

Given the photo's date, maybe we are looking at an infant distillation of Ezra Brooks.

Gary

Yikes! I didn't want to hijack a perfectly good forum topic. Maybe this thread can be exported to its own location?

Landrum, Don't let any of this discourage you from trying Town Branch and letting us know what you think of it. Despite not being (IMO) as good as Old Ezra, at pretty much the same price point as Buffalo Trace (a favorite of mine) it's worth trying.

Now, as to the subject that poor Landrum never brought up, but Squire did without knowing what a splash it would cause, let me add just this, and then I'm not gonna add any more to this thread until (1) it gets moved somewhere else, and (2) someone else gives Landrum an answer that he deserves....

What I know about "21 Brands" is that it was incorporated in New York at Repeal and, like many others (Austin Nichols, S.S. Pierce, Mr. Boston, Heublein, etc) the company marketed brands that were produced by various distilleries on contract. And, like some of those (Austin Nichols, for example) they did actually purchase a distillery dedicated to producing their whiskey products. According to the Miami News (June 12, 1956), 21 Brands purchased what had been the Rocky Ford Distillery in Frankfort that year. That may have been the distillery shown in Gary's photo. "21 Brands" was a division of the legendary "21 Club" in New York City. According to Mike Veach, the Medley Brothers purchased the brand (along with other "21 Brands" assets) the following year. He doesn't say whether the Rocky Ford distillery was part of the purchase, but here's a photo of a Shop'n'Bag Market advertisement from May 12, 1955, listing both Medley and Rocky Ford products. Ezra Brooks was always marketed as an ersatz Jack Daniel's for folks who were unaware that J.D. wasn't bourbon (as were Evan Williams, Virgin, Jim Beam Black, and God-only-knows how many others), and I don't know for sure whether Medley already was marketing their 90-proof 4-year-old as Ezra Brooks before that, or if they inherited it with the other "21 Brands" assets.

Good work John and further probing discloses that Rocky Ford was originally the John Fitzgerald Distillery. Yes, he of the brand bought by the Van Winkles in the 1930's. Ezra Brooks though was never wheated (not sure even ole John's make was).

Gary

Interesting how that Czarina is marketed, a spirit "with a liquor character" but without a liquor taste or aroma. Only sophisticated admen could come up with that one, but one sees what they meant: a hard liquor full of alcohol that didn't taste like most liquor around.

Gary

Then as now, bodka benefits from several old wives tales, namely that you can drink it and no one can smell it on your breath (drinking + driving, drinking + working=OK). 2nd is that it has fewer calories, while true, is negligble. 97 calories per shot of vodka vs 100 per shot of bourbon (80 proofers). That digital library is a GOLD MINE btw, thanks again for the link(s).

Gary I was going to say an imaginary distillery for an imaginary distiller.

John, yes, thread drift, the heart of conversation. Were we not revising and extending our remarks then we would all be standing around with our hands in our pockets.

Squire, I had thought so too, but it is not, an old distillery in Frankfort, owned at the time by 21 Brands Inc., introduced this brand in the late 1950's which was evidently intended as something new and potentially significant for the market. And it was in a sense, given the good taste and lengthy ages associated with the brand (12 and even 15 years, with its regular line seeming 7 years old). But as often happened in the distillery business especially from the 50's onwards, both plant and brand name were sold seemingly a number of times. Certainly today it is a NDP's brand, but it didn't start that way clearly.

Gary

P.S. I agree about thread drift but many people feel it is best to keep within the confines of the original question. I can see it both ways, especially from the viewpoint of doing archival research on the board, but when pressed would agree with your own view since ideas germinate like a batch of malting grain and you can't contain them really nor is it advisable from an intellectual standpoint.

And when I brought up that point, it was mostly me that I was "scolding". I, too have a tendency to pipe up about whatever the last poster had to say, and I was just trying to be a good guy (for a change)

In this situation, I am wont to say that these discussions are beholding to no one but themselves......... let them drift as the winds of the interested minds dictate........... to all, I say, say what you will when you will........ there is no devil hereabouts to take the hindmost.

I'm not sure where their bourbon is sourced from, but I would suspect Buffalo Trace. It tastes like rather good Buffalo Trace whiskey to me. And that's what I would have compared it to.

I'm pretty certain that Lexington was not distilled or aged at Buffalo Trace. While I don't think it's a bad bourbon, I wouldn't put it in the ranks of Buffalo Trace or Eagle Rare (rather good Buffalo Trace whiskeys). My guess would be that it is a Heaven Hill product.

Not everything that ages at Buffalo Trace meets the profiles for brands they're bottling. Like any good distillery, they have a pretty wide range of aged product, and I have no reason to believe that profiles that don't correspond to existing brands are made available to other bottlers.

That said, one needs to take into consideration that there is a certain "friction" (I don't want to say "animosity") between distillers in the eastern part of Bourbon country (i.e., Franklin, Woodford, Anderson, Fayette, Clark counties) and the western part (Nelson, Bullitt, Jefferson, Davies). If *I* were a bottler in Lexington, I think I would choose anywhere else -- even LDI if necessary -- over a Bardstown or Louisville distillery.

Just my highly-opinionated-and-totally-unconfirmable opinion.