by bourbonv » Fri Oct 26, 2007 10:07 am
There was indeed a bottom shelf in the Schenley portfolio. You have to remember that Bernheim is just one of many distilleries owned by Schenley and they sent whiskey between the distilleries allo of the time. There is a good chance that the Old Charter or I W Harper from the 50's, 60's or 70's in the bottle was made at some other distillery such as the Geo.T Stagg/Albert Blanton/Ancient Age/Buffalo Trace distillery. The bottom shelf products were products like Echo Springs, Cream of Kentucky, Old Quaker and James E. Pepper - Brands that at one time were great but were slumping in sales due to neglect of advertising and quality control. You could throw in other brands that disappeared by the early 70's as well such as Green River, Old Piondexter, Pebbleford and Blur Ribbon.
Mike Veach
"Our people live almost exclusively on whiskey" - E H Taylor, Jr. 25 April 1873