Sneak peak at bourbon maker's rye

The Knob Creek brand is well-known among consumer of premium bourbons. But, how about Knob Creek Rye Whiskey?

That's a new whiskey, scheduled to be released nationwide in July by the Clermont, KY, distiller.

I received a pre-release bottle of the 100-proof spirit to sample. If you're curious about my review, just go here.

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Diageo buys Brazilian cachaça maker

• Financial Times of London

With the World Cup and Olympics heading for Brazil in the next four years, it looks an opportune time to buy into Brazil’s national spirit.

Diageo, the globe’s biggest spirits company, has bought Ypióca and some production sites from Ypióca Agroindustrial Limitada for US$453 million, giving it a foothold into the world of the caipirinha.

Ypióca is a premium version of cachaça, which is distilled from fermented sugar cane juice and forms the base of Brazil’s national cocktail.

Ypióca has around 8% market share of the total cachaça market, ranking second by value and third by volume in the category. So is it a good deal? At around five times pro-forma net sales, it’s at a similar multiple to the company’s dramatic purchase of Turkish spirit Mey Içki in February 2011. And although the sales of Ypióca have declined slightly recently, the brand fits with Diageo’s general “premiumisation” strategy.

Ypióca leads the premium cachaça segment with a 62% share, and sells at 1½ times the usual cachaça price.

[Go here for the full story.]

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Irish whiskey big profit center for Pernod Ricard

• From Irish Central

Irish whiskey sales are thriving, so much so that the country’s biggest producer has paid over $100 million in recent dividends to its French parent.

The Irish Distillers Group, producers of big name brands Jameson, Paddy and Powers, made the dividend payment to Pernod Ricard on 2010 and 2011 sales figures.

The Irish Times reports that the payment was made through an Irish-registered company called Comrie Ltd. which owns 92.89% of IDG. The payment ... was made by the company in 2010 and 2011, according to the paper which says the figure reflects the highly profitable nature of IDG, a private unlimited company which does not publish any financial information about its business activities in Ireland.

According to the Irish Times, Comrie’s latest accounts appear to value IDG and related entities at over $5 billion, making it the company’s main financial asset.  

[The full article can be accessed here.]

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Shame on Sears!

I interrupt this blog to vent.

On this day put aside to honor the memory and the service of our military men and women, some idiot from a Sears call center telephoned me to (a) delay the start of her blather by giggling with her co-workers after I said hello, (b) mispronounce my name twice, then (c) try to give me a sales pitch about appliance warranty protection.

On this day dedicated to the likes of my father, a GI who died on a French battlefield in World War II; my stepfather, who served in the Navy in both WWII and the Korean War; my son, who spent four years in the Marines serving on three continents; my son-in-law, who spent eight years in the Marines …. all the way back to my great-great-great-great grandfather Colonel Samuel Miles who fought in the French and Indian War then commanded troops in the Revolutionary War, I couldn’t put up with such crass, unthinking commercialism.

As I said to her “You have the nerve to call me on this holiday when we are remembering the sacrifices and sometimes the deaths of people protecting our country? Shame on your company, and shame on you.”

And, as far as I, a decades-long customer of Sears, am concerned, that chain has gotten the last penny out of me. Sears, go to hell.

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A good sell for whisk(e)y

Craig Ferguson

Fettercairn is a Scottish whisky distiller.

OK, so who said it isn't?

Regrettably, "The Late, Late Show With Craig Ferguson" on Friday night called it a "whiskey" distillery, throwing in the " e" eschewed by the Scots.

Also regrettably, the show that featured a heavily edited and only mildly diverting account of the late-night show's visit to Ferguson's native land (his trip to Paris last year was much more entertaining on all levels) had very little mention, besides joking comments, of Scotland's No. 2 industry that trails only North Sea oil drilling.

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Irish prison to become distillery

The former prison.

Distilling is coming back to the capital of Northern Ireland.

Peter Lavery, a lottery millionaire who last year launched two whiskies being distilled in the Republic of Ireland, is heading a group putting up £5 million ($7.9 million US) to create a distillery in the notorious Victorian-era Crumlin Road Gaol that has been closed since 1996.

Lavery, a former bus driver who won US$16 million in 1996, heads a local consortium called Belfast Distillery Company. Once created, their distillery will produce the Titanic and Danny Boy brands now being made at the Cooley Distillery in County Louth.

Jim Beam, the U.S. bourbon maker that recently bought the Cooley distillery, will provide the technical support for the new project, which will produce 5- and 10-year-old malt whiskey.

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A cocktail shaker for the ages

Norpro cocktail shaker

It's excusable when people mix up events that happen close to each other. But, when they're a dozen years apart ...

Example: In the current issued of Chilled, a pretty good magazine about all things having to do with spirits and their trappings, its "Cool Products" page features a Norpro Penguin Cocktail Shaker.

As a collector of cocktail shakers, my eye was drawn to this one. However, as an avid reader of history, I was take aback by the text accompanying the picture:

" ... looks like it's straight out of the 1930's when post-war party-goers were flooding speakeasies excited to get their flap on and order a trendy mixed drink."

Grammatical goof aside ("as if," not "like"), it was the use of the phrase "post-war" that threw me. World War I ended in 1918, so the 1930s can hardly be referred to as post-war, a phrase that usually designates no more than 5 or 10 years. As to getting "their flap on," one must presume that is a reference to the flapper era, which actually was the Roaring '20s, not the '30s.

Now that I've gotten that out of my system, a few details on the shaker itself: Made of stainless steel, has a built-in strainer, holds 24 ounces and is dishwasher safe. Price: $39.95. You can get details here.

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American Spirit 'white whiskey' expands market

A new craft white whiskey.

Just last fall, partners Jim Chasteen and Charlie Thompson created a white whiskey they called American Spirit Whiskey. Now, they've opened a new whiskey blending and bottling operation in North Charleston, SC, to support the growing distribution of the craft brand in the Southeast.

American Spirit Whiskey label is being introduced to several markets in South Carolina this week. It already had been distributed to more than 250 restaurants and stores in Georgia, where the company was founded.

“We look forward to showing South Carolina residents that our product is one that can be sipped on its own as well as easily pulled out of the liquor cabinet at home or local restaurant to make a quick mixed drink,” Thompson said in a news release.

Chasteen said the company, which is headquartered in Atlanta, hopes the label can change the perception of whiskey as a quality drink.

“Southern culture and nostalgia for classic Americana are at the root of our whiskey, which makes it appealing to a broad range of spirits drinkers,” he said in the news release.

Unaged white whiskies form a fast-growing market niche that in my experience vary greatly in quality and character. Chastee and Thompson say their small-batch product is ASW is made in using bourbon-quality, un-aged whiskey -- 95% grain neutral spirits, 5% spirits from corn, rye and barley, bottled at 80 proof. They use a "specialized" filtering system that removes the bite typical of unaged whiskey.

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'The Imbiber' debuts new satellite radio show

Dunn behind the mike.

Dan Dunn, who writes about adult beverages under the title of "The Imbiber," will debut his new SiriusXM Satellite Radio show this evening.

"Dan Dunn's Happy Hour" will be heard from 7 to 8 p.m. (Eastern Time) on SiriusXM Stars Too (channel 104) every Thursday, then rebroadcast on Friday at 10 p.m. and Saturday at 5.

Dunn, an unrepentant wise guy and darned entertaining at it, notes, "Over the years, people have often told me that I have a face for radio. I, in turn, have kicked those people in the junk as hard as I could. But now that I'm going to be on SiriusXM ... the company's lawyers have advised me to let that clichéd, yet inexplicably irresistible insult slide. Such restraint is a small price to pay, I guess, for a shot at the BIG TIME! After all, anyone who's paying attention knows that radio is the up-and-coming new medium."

The debut show tonight will be broadcast from inside the 10 Pound Bar at the Montage Hotel in Beverly Hills, CA.

"We're going to do the show remotely from different locations every week: bars, lounges, wineries, distilleries, festivals... anywhere, really, where the management insists you show a valid ID to gain entry," Dunn said.

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