When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Therefore, none of these brands should taste anything like the 100+ brands already using MGP products. Even the Mother Yeast it uses to ferment with was inherited from Seagrams. Beginning in 2023, the entire family of Daviess County Bourbon variants will be designated as Proud Partner of Ducks Unlimited. Its clearly an industrial site you wont find much in the way of landscaping but its also not as factory-like as I imagined. They also sell a barrel-proof Rossville Union rye, and it's my favorite of their products. The scientists at Seagrams were always testing and tinkering to produce the best tasting spirits that they could make and tailor them to the locations that would distill them the best. Some of the in house whiskey labels at MGP (image via Prairie Rose/The Whiskey Wash). During this timeframe when the American sourced-whiskey industry was in its infancy, rules werent clearly established and improper labeling was commonplace among smaller bottlers. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. It was hard to wrap my head around the numbers, which MGP wouldnt disclose, at every stage of the process. Even though their many rickhouses are slightly different from each other, all of them are designed so barrels age the same regardless of location within them. Experience is limited to 21 and above.Ten Unique Recipes- limitless possibilities! The Federal government wanted the companys assets split instead of being sold to one beverage producer to avoid creating a monopoly. But with two satellite storage locations around 20-40 miles away from the main campus at MGPI, how will this different geography affect the final product? Labelled a blended bourbon, its a blend of high rye bourbon, rye, light whiskey, and corn whiskey. Carefully crafted at the historic Ross & Squibb Distillery in Lawrenceburg, Indiana - just miles from Cincinnati where Remus ran his Prohibition empire - each bourbon is made to meet the uncompromising standards Remus' bourbon was famous for during his reign. There are approximately 1,600 vodka distilleries in the United States. Most guests can visit about three bourbon distilleries per day. There seems to be a widely held rumor that the distillate has changed from what was being produced during the LDI days compared to what is being produced today under MGPI ownership. MGP Sourced Stuff; Alliance Series - Independent Bottles; Special Releases; We're Sorry It's Not Whiskey; . We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. The historic distillery is not open to the publicbut I was given a rare look inside. "Eight and Sand" refers to a train going full-throttle (the eight) with added traction (sand on the tracks). Questions surround every barrel at MGPI. We began the tour in the barrel-filling building where MGP can fill an impressive five barrels every 30 seconds. | These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads. Through much research, the exact year that these iconic whiskey mashbills were first developed is unknown, but we do know that as far back as 1966, when Jim Rutledge first began working for Seagrams, that these recipes existed. This process results in a bold yet balanced profile dominated by fruit and nut notes. After some sporadic ownership changes in the early 2000s, the distillery was purchased by Midwest Grain Products (MGP) in 2011. We visited one warehouse - there are seven on-site and I think 5 more elsewhere (though I'm not confident in those numbers). It was my favorite of the day. What is this place and why does it exist right here? The facility is a bunch of brick buildings located on one site, like a campus with no student lawns or a really big depressing orphanage. It is believed that modern day MGPI bourbon and rye whiskey recipes have been around since the beginning of Seagrams two iconic brands. And each rickhouse holds different barrels of all different mash bills of whiskey for risk management. "MGP" stands for "Midwest Grain Products," one of the largest distillery operations in the United States, located in Lawrenceburg, Indiana. No ownership change is complete without a headache or two. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other. Though not as sexy as barrels stored in a rickhouse, palletizing barrels makes more sense in term of volume able to be stored. Both were a blended whiskey product, which meant that the whiskey inside was produced at more than one distillery and was made up of more than one mashbill before being blended together and bottled. Mashbill: 75% Corn 21% Rye, 4% Malted Barley. As the curtain is drawn back on MGP Ingredients, and the shift of awareness moves towards its direction, I look forward to watching it step into the spotlight that it has avoided for so long. The saying is an old railroad phrase meaning smooth sailing., Oh yeah, MGP Distillery makes vodka, too. Executive Leadership; Board of Directors; Our Alcohol Experts; . Lots of oak, with cherry and caramel notes, with a little char, chocolate, and baking spice. All Coupons ( 18) Coupon Codes ( 4) Coupon Sales ( 14) Coupons You May Like. Master Blender David Whitmer described the George Remus Straight Bourbon as high alcohol content with a lot of flavor.. Company: Old Fourth Distillery. Basically it removes iron and sulphur (two things that will taint fermented products) and has a high calcium content that results in a higher pH. Distillery Tours | Four Roses Bourbon | Lawrenceburg, Kentucky Welcome, Bourbon Lover Please confirm you're over 21 years old. Red brick industrial buildings, some outside tanks, a street called Shipping Street, and the Old Seagrams name on the side of a building. Theres a reason why everyone from Bulleit and Templeton to WhistlePig and High West sources from MGP. The water for the distillery comes from an aquifer, and it remains a constant 56 degrees Fahrenheit year-round. 2021 Null Media LLC All Rights Reserved. Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. Metzes Select was a limited release (6,000 bottles) of 3 different bourbons of various ages and mashbills that was bottled at a rather mild 93 proof. Great whiskey can never be rushed, but thankfully with the expansions taking place today, many bottles will be guaranteed to wear a Produced in Lawrenceburg, IN on their label long into the future. So launching its own line of brands makes sense. The truth is that these can fluctuate slightly with the amount of malted barley used (somewhere between 4% and 5% depending on beer density shifts). It was determined through much testing that a specific type of rye grown in Germany was producing the best mash for their yeast that would eventually lead to the best tasting distillate. And the Eight & Sand whiskey has a story all its own. This one is a blend of 83 barrels and a combination of different mash bills. For years it has focused on producing quality spirits for other brands and have enjoyed sitting just out of the glow of the intense spotlight that has been shining on the flourishing spirits industry in recent years. Lets take a look at their similarities and differences in a broad scope: With all of this talk of rye, it is important to note that the most commonly used rye for whiskey products made at the Lawrenceburg, Indiana Distillery come from Germany while Polish, Swedish and Canadian rye are also used if it matches the profile that theyre looking for. Thanks to large online communities, there is not much that escapes their attention as they frequently call out companies to the TTB that are improperly labeling their products. Head on over to Local Kitchens in Huntington Beach for a Lunar New Year Celebration and a FREE FOOD GIVEAWAY from the restaurant concept Great Taste Magazine | Orange County Restaurants and Pros, Condiments-Salsas, Jams, Preserves & Pickles, Orange County Restaurants Events Calendar, Best Orange County Restaurants for Happy Hour, Best Orange County Restaurants for Brunch, Great Taste Magazine 2016 May | June Issue. Like the standard Remus, the nose is oak-forward, but thats tempered some with a sweet chocolate note. MGP is the leading U.S. producer of rye and gin, referring to itself as "Masters of Rye," and "do a pretty good job" in bourbon and vodka, Mansinne told the small group of writers assembled . He ended up selecting the 5th profile variety and the 7th profile variety as the ones that Seagrams would produce. GNS are primarily used for blending or to make vodka and gins (Fun Fact #2: MGPI is the largest distiller of gin on the continent). Green Bourbon and Rye (Shadow Beverage Group), James E. Pepper 1776 Bourbon & Rye (James E. Pepper/Strong Spirits), J.R. Revelry Bourbon (La Bodega Internacional/Speakeasy Spirits), Joint Bourbon (Temperance Distilling Co.), Joseph Magnus Bourbon (Jos. At the same time, they began pulling the curtain back on their distilling operations at the former Seagrams Distillery, inviting media to tour the facility and introducing the world to the first MGP products the company can actually talk about. HOURS & TOURS Tuesday-Saturday: 11 a.m. - 5 p.m. Sunday: 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. . He murdered his wife but was acquitted for 'temporary insanity.' In 2000, newly formed beverage conglomerate Diageo and French spirits company Pernod Ricard finalized agreements to divvy up the assets of the former spirits giant. Having also tasted the first, 94 proof release, I have to say I preferred its softer, more nuanced quality a little more. Especially compared to the other distilleries Ive visited in Scotland, which are making whiskey on a minuscule scale in comparison. Ive always put vodka on the bottom of my list of drinkable spirits, but I admit being surprised by Till. The other warehouse appears to be metal clad. Wherever on that savory, sweet, and spicy scale you want to be, Rossville has a bottle for it, Andrew said. Due to their strict quality requirements, any distillate that is considered low-quality or off-profile is ran through the still again to create a GNS out of it. Therefore each level of the warehouse would remain more or less the same temperature. The Kentucky rickhouses lose more water, as opposed to the humid ones here. So what exactly was the makeup of 7 Crown? For the first time ever, MGPI would now have their bourbon bottled from barrels that the customers would hand-pick. While theyre pretty tight-lipped on the subject, its a safe estimate that their whiskey has been labeled under more than 120 different brands, all of which should have the tell-tale Distilled in Lawrenceburg, Indiana on the label. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics". But the simple fact remains that many brands built their fanbase on MGPI products and many more have struggled with releasing their own products that arent up to the level their customers experienced with MGPI products. At some point in the early 70s, Seagrams along with the other distillers, approached the TTB about officially creating the category of Light Whiskey along with its production standards and received an approval for it. Small batches of 10+ year aged bourbon and rye still pop up from time to time, but the truth of the matter was that every 10+ year old MGP bourbon that is released today has already been purchased years ago. Something went wrong. It makes quality products that make brands money and consumers happy. CL Financial Group (also affiliated with Angostura Limited) reached an agreement with them and bought the LDI plant and the Charles Medley Distillery in Owensboro, KY towards the end of 2007. Posted by: Seagrams began to invest large amounts of money into building up a modern-day distillery with enough capacity to satisfy the demands of not only a country coming out of Prohibition, but the world as well. American, Bourbon, Distillery Profiles | January 16, 2018. All of it is aged 6-7 years, with the light whiskey being up in the eights., At 88 proof, its made for cocktails, but David confessed its great for cooking. In a podcast from a couple years ago, Jim Rutledge, the former master distiller of Four Roses, elaborated on the fact that quality control teams between both Seagrams and Four Roses would test each others yeast strains to verify that no genetic drift was occurring. We visited just the one warehouse that was racked. I got lots of burnt sugar, caramel, and hints of dill, with cinnamon and chocolate. Lawrenceburg Distillers Indiana (LDI) is the former Seagrams distiller which was acquired by MGP in late 2011 forming MGPI. Master Blender David Whitmer explained it as a way to put everything we have together at a nice, reasonable price point. Oh, and the name? An advantage to MGP now out of hiding is that it can release its own spirits, like its George Remus Repeal Reserve bourbon that launched last November. Barrel Craft Spirits recently announced Floridas Bluebird Hardwater recently launched Something went wrong. March 14, 2021 at 06:52 PM, Posted by: In 2015, Greg Metze was given the green light to blend up the first bottling of bourbon that MGPI would distill, age and bottle on their own grounds since Seagrams last owned the company. This release is a blend of 159 barrels, all aged five to seven years and bottled at 94 proof (47% ABV). But officially George Ross opened the Rossville Distillery in 1847. We began the tour in the barrel-filling building where MGP can fill an impressive five barrels every 30 seconds. Tram Tour Rates: Adults (13-61) for $25 & Seniors (62+) for . I am trying to get George Remus bourbon. It does not store any personal data. Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. As the rest of the industry became more transparent over the last decade, MGP started to look more and more like Willy Wonka. In the 1960s, Seagrams began to tinker with production of a new kind of distillate called Light Whiskey. They were not the only ones though, as Schenley Industries, National Distillers, American Distilling and Publicker Industries also began to experiment with light whiskey as well. Drinkhacker was invited to one of these media days recently, so I got a chance to experience this proverbial Chocolate Factory first hand. These products are fermented and distilled on site, aged on site or elsewhere, and bottled up as a zillion different brands on the marketplace. Bourbon: 51% corn, 45% wheat, 4% malted barley, S (Strain 1Y, primarily used in Light Whiskey production). Details: Heaven Hill's wheated mash bill (68% corn, 20% Wheat, and 12% malted barley). I live in Naples Florida I need help getting this, Posted by: Everything from industrial alcohol to vodka is produced there, but lately it's become best known for its bourbon and rye. Fermentation takes about 3 days. Its like the Willy Wonka of whiskies! Nose: This is a caramel bomb on notes of oak, vanilla . NDPs like Smooth Ambler, Mayor Pingree, Traverse City and others had purchased large amounts of MGP barrels only to return to MGP as they began to run out and were informed that there were no more left. The rebranding efforts were announced with much fanfare to employees, suppliers, partners and the public. When it comes to the vodka, theirs is made from wheat, when most of their clients' vodka is made from corn. July 29, 2021 at 01:00 PM. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. Request a Sample or Technical Information. La Casa del Caminos Comedor & the Rooftop Lounge Offer California-Inspired Citrus City Grille Reveals 2022 Christmas Eve Menu. And of course they added a blended bourbon to MGP Distillerys whiskey brands: Eight & Sand. Enjoy a Coastal New Years Eve Celebration at Fly N Fish Latin Jazz Gala A New Years Celebration, Cozy Up with Old Brea Chop Houses New Fall/Winter Cocktails. Most consumers believed that this product was distilled in Iowa. First of all, although many pictures of the warehouses at Lawrenceburg, Indiana facility show barrels being stored on their side (aka, in ricks), the large majority are actually stored on palates (upright). This website uses cookies to improve your experience. The tour concluded with a peek inside one of the barrel warehouses. Common complaints seem to stem from whiskey fans saying that MGPI prices their barrels out of reach or that they have to buy millions of dollars of products before they have access to the best aged barrels. More about his life here. E. Seagram Lawrenceburg Plant in Indiana began churning out various distillates including whiskey, clear spirits and other malted beverages for the Seagrams portfolio right away. That is, until recently. To many buyers, MGP bourbon (or any sourced/non-distiller produced bourbon) is an abomination to the art, craft, handmade, or small-batch bourbons and whiskeys. And same with Indiana: as the whiskey ages, the alcohol percentage goes down since alcohol evaporates faster than water. The difference between GNS and Light Whiskey is that Light Whiskey has a lower proof coming off the still (as was already mentioned, it cant be more than 189.9 proof). Additionally, will whiskey that is distilled in Indiana but aged in Kentucky be able to have the designation Straight Whiskey on a future label? Everything after that part, however, was pretty familiar. A large majority of the stock that remained were purchased through contract agreements with other smaller NDPs until no more unclaimed barrels remained in the warehouses. They actually own two distilleries though we only hear about this one. On the long walk back to the tasting room, I talked to David and Andy Mansinne, MGPs VP of Brands and the man in charge of their new products portfolio. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. Hi, I'm Kelli Nakagama, the whiskey-obsessed travel fanatic behind Whiskied Wanderlust, a whiskey and travel site based in Chicago. Touring MGP Distillery is often compared to seeing inside Willy Wonkas Chocolate Factory. MGP is the country's largest producer of rye whiskey and is known for producing some of the best. Actually, I lied. And the Eight & Sand story? About Our Company; Branded Spirits; Facilities & Certifications; News Releases; Social Responsibility; Our People. I inquired if their others might be palletized and the person I spoke to was evasive enough about answering that we can assume some are. The headlines from January 2020 were awash with the news that MGPs stock had plummeted 24% after a report came out of the shortfall in the sales department of whiskey to customers. Old railroad phrase meaning smooth sailing., Oh yeah, MGP Distillery makes vodka theirs! A blended bourbon to MGP Distillerys whiskey brands: Eight & Sand whiskey has a bottle for,. Was racked vodka, theirs is made from corn consent plugin every 30.! ; s largest producer of rye whiskey and is known for producing some of the warehouse would more... So what mgp distillery tour was the makeup of 7 Crown MGP in late 2011 forming MGPI Company. 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