The lies, half-truths, and guarded secrets fueling bourbon's boom
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- Опубликовано: 7 июн 2018
- The bourbon industry is booming in America. But as one distiller describes it, "it's just a shady business." Much of the industry's growth comes from secretive production practices, and many brands take creative liberties, or more, with the marketing of their whiskey.
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The Lies, Half-Truths And Guarded Secrets Fueling Bourbon’s Boom | NBC News
MGP make some great whiskey and make places add extra process to change the whiskey to be unique to them. That said keep it honest. I don't care if a brand sources as long as they are honest.
And what's in the bottle tastes good.
Their 9-year redemption rye barrel proof is absolutely bonkers.
Rye whiskey isn't bourbon whisky. Kentuckians started making bourbon precisely because rye doesn't grow well in Kentucky. Rye need a cooler climate, so Kentuckians used what grew well. Corn. That's why bourbon legally has to be mostly made with corn.
sorry to be off topic but does anyone know of a way to log back into an Instagram account?
I stupidly forgot my login password. I would love any tips you can give me
The key I picked up: find a price point and a flavor I like and go with it. Believe what you’re mouth tells you and not the story on the label.
Yup. Well said.
Do your homework before you buy,Whiskey Vault is a good place to learn.I also listen to the Best over all whiskey lists and budget lists and mid shelf lists and find sometimes the same bottles on different lists,those are the ones you want to zero in on.The ones that really perform just on taste.Youll find Buffalo Trace and Eagle Rare come up alot.
I read about this some years ago and I'll admit that it burst my bubble. But an easy fix it to buy Bottled-in-Bond bourbon that have to abide to stringent rules. All the BiB I've seen are on the lower end of the price scale and hold up well against more expensive bourbons whether you are making cocktails or sipping straight, Old Granddad & Evan Williams in particular.
I want to second the part about Evan Williams BiB, punches WAY beyond its pricepoint.
Lies again? Bang Bros Bukit Batok
Read up on the history of Irish and Scotch whisk(e)y. Sourcing has been common practice for hundreds of years. Local pubs..technically blending houses like Johnnie Walker..etc. Just be transparent. Done.
And we have a winner. As long as you are honest only "snobs" care more about lore than taste. Frankly, whiskey (I drink Irish preferred) is to be enjoyed as you determine not some snob on the side unless of course you simply follow fads.
They just have to label it as a scotch blend. Which is fine. Some blended scotch is fantastic. Companies spend a lot of time perfecting the best blend and label it blended. Works well for everyone.
"It´s not the crime, it´s the coverup" RIGHT on the money.
How about the guy who said consumer's are a little more astute than we give them credit for.....
Complete nonsense exactly what you get from NBC. By law every bottle has to state where the whiskey was distilled, so you can tell all the MGP sourced whiskey. There is no cover up. Also MGP make great whiskey, every client they have has a specific mash bill and age that they purchase from MGP.
@@madabawi8879 yeah you didnt get it: First of all the whiskey doesnt have to say "destilled by" but can be labled "destilled in (eg Lawrenceburg, Indiana)" so you would have to know that and/or looking for it.
Now if the company marketing/aging/botteling the whiskey makes a big spiel about their "clear water from an old well" or the receipt "for generations in the family" on their website or their bottle and "sourced from" is nowhere to be found, thats a problem. If they call themself distillers, now thats a flat out lie. And there is never been a problem with MGP making the whiskey, they are very good at it. Personally: Whistle Pig, Bulleit Rye,... nothing wrong with that.
If you buy your whiskey and just bottle it, that isnt a crime. But if you do everything to make it look like you produced it yourself, thats dishonesty, thats the cover up.
With the tops open on the fermentors, how does the yeast start anaerobic respiration?
100% agree. A good blended is better than a bad grain to glass. A good product is a good product.
Never seen anything so magical.
The tone of this piece was that the batch distiller was somehow at fault. This seems to be an excuse to let the New York company off the hook for what is a common thing. Lots of grapes grown in Nebraska find their way into snazzy labeled wines from other places.
without watching, i'm gonna guess the topic is about MGP and UltraPure USA. ...and how they make most brands of whiskey, vodka, and gin's that consumers see on the shelf, bottled under their favorite "brand"
Is MGP the new name for LDI? I remember bulleit used to say LDI on their bottles. It was a lot cheaper back then.
2:58 “Corn pudding“?? Oh mercy.
Can't understand why they can't be honest and say it's a blend. This works great for scotch and some blends are highly regarded.
My uncle ran the Jim Beam ,and Four Roses part of the Bourbon trail in Bullit county ........I did get to taste many samples .........it is about taste and proof ....PERIOD ...
Reading a comment below...bourbon in KY is NO LESS shady than any other place BUT the big brands do distill their own BUT they also sell to others. A few corrections to the story- High West initially DID NOT follow the law and were not transparent! The law for whiskey states that if it is distilled on one state (Indiana) and bottled in another (Utah) the state of distillation MUST be on the label. So the Widow Jane says "Distilled in Kentucky' and "Bottled by Widow Jane" which is legal. High West initially did not put the state of distillation and it was MGP product. By the time they got sued they had a major market share. As the editor of Whiskey Advocate said you need to look for "Distilled by" and a name. If it does not say that then it is guarantee that the name on the label did not distill it. There are some companies in KY that have multiple distilleries and they "share" product back and forth BUT they can't put the receiving distillery as the distiller so the bottles say "Produced by" and a name. We source products from MGP and they are good. We also distill. For us the reason was price point. We can't make it that inexpensively. And the flavor is more traditional and some people like it more. We did buy it unaged so it was not to get a product to market quickly. MGP just recently started selling their own products, but they comingle them in a way that they will not be like any they are selling to others (such as a mix of their 21% rye and 36% rye bourbons).
By the way...the "story" on the back label is called "puffery" (aka BS) by the Federal government. Don't believe the story just look for the words "Distilled by" if you do not see that exact wording the name on the label did not distill it. That does not make it bad, just makes the story BS and if you are a smart shopper you can find something that is essentially the same for less money.
And for the record the growth is not really from "shady" practices. If the product is good people buy it. The shady practices were in the 1800's. But people are violating the law to market products. Not following the labeling rules. The government does not confirm that you are following the rules. They only look at what is submitted and assume you are following the rules.
I don't care about the story, I just care about whether or not the whiskey is good. Just tell the truth.
Credit should also be given to what some companies actually do with sourced whiskey, such as finishing and extra aging etc - so not all sourced whiskey from the same company ends up the same, but that is not something the media wants to let you know either.
Comes to Bourbon country of the world to say that NY makes some of the best bourbon in the world and gifts a bottle of it LOL
Just another delusional and out of touch shitlib, nothing to see here
How ripped is the guy in the blue sweater?
lol consumer more astute then we give them credit lol
Y'all just don't understand, it takes years to have your own whiskey you can sell, you have to do something in the mean time to keep your head above water
You can do Rum, you can do Vodka, .... or you can source Whiskey and be honest about it.
Sure. Just don’t lie.
Rum, also has to be aged in barrels, as does tequila.
White rum doesen’t get aged right?
9:18 music?
Darude-Sandstorm
Other than the snippets they show about Kentucky bourbon, I think it is funny, there are no interviews with anyone related to Kentucky bourbon. Kentucky made bourbon famous and have been making it for over 200 years. In other words, we do it right.
That explains why he does such a "bang up" job in congress, he's drunk all the time :'D
Whiskey so good I don't hold it against him.
Haha true hes a schmuk
I went digging on Tin Cup Colorado Whiskey site and read that it's made with Indiana rye and a small amount of Colorado bourbon and rocky Mountain water... hmmmm. Not the Colorado whiskey I thought it was.
Супер
never purchased a widow jane before and definitely wont now
Im honestly so sick of the bourbon marketing, I just want to find something that I think tastes superior compared to the price point, not wade through a swamp of marketing and ploys.
Balcones !
As a New Yorker, if my bourbon ain’t Kentucky, it ain’t bourbon and I need bourbon in my Old Fashioned or Manhattan.
Chuck Schumer...wrong again.
I’ve got one question, How’s it taste? After that, it really doesn’t matter
✊
Micro beer breweries went thru the same growing pains 20+ years ago. Does it matter that Samuel Adams beer is made in Wisconsin or Missouri or Upstate New York and not in Boston? No. What matters is how it tastes.
Good bourbon is good bourbon regardless of whether it’s made in Frankfort, KY, New York City, someplace in Texas, or Woodinville, WA. The only way to tell if it’s a good bourbon (or a good beer) is to pour it into a glass and drink it. The label on the bottle is irrelevant.
MGP baby!!!
There is a finite number of spirits, and each has a "renaissance" every now and again. It was Bacardi....then vodka......now whisky. It won't last, whiskey is rough on a man.
This film could be dangerous: It could make people believe, that marketing is just a gentle word for scam. But, we all know better.
How can they get away with calling it Kentucky Straight Bourbon and be distilled in Indiana ???
The laws dictate the label and the US is more strict in that regard than anyone else.
I live in the Indiana town that makes whiskey. It's literally directly across the river from Kentucky. Move the distillery one mile and it will be in Kentucky.
How come there’s not a bunch of local vodka brands if vodka is so much cheaper to make?
There is in Texas.
Tito's, dripping springs, deep eddy, enchanted rock. All superb vodkas
We have a good one made here in TN~~Volunteer Vodka
What are talking about? There are literally hundreds of vodka brands all over where ever you go it is not as noticeable as it once was only because the bourbon industry has had a tremendous boom happening so
Much more attention paid to it.in the 80's bourbon was struggling because at the time vodka was hugely popular.
Be like Mexico. Every distillery has a number assigned. EACH bottle must have a correlating number to show which distillery it comes from. Easy peasy..
The reporting has been really awful on this. Anyone who knows whiskey knows that sourced whiskey is also done with a mash that the company selects. And finishings or extra aging is done by the bottler. If you think you’re getting the same thing just different label you don’t drink whiskey straight or have taste buds.
great point here. They may come from the same distillery, but the finish done by the bottler can and often will make a difference.
I think it's great. These companies can get started by buying from someone else for a few years, then if they want to, or are able, they can roll out their own in house distilled product later.
they mentioned high west. They put out great stuff. Largely made possible by this model. I love it.
Joseph Quillen yeah to say that it’s all the same is ludicrous. I wouldn’t be buying from any craft distillery then. By mischaracterizing it, you turn people who might explore new and interesting whisk(e)y away. It’s a good way to keep people buying jack and never experiencing some really great and unique whisk(e)y.
I hate when people buy expensive whiskey or whisky then mix it with coke and say “it’s a good whisk(e)y”
Yeah it's not that it's shady, it's that the consumer is a moron and not bothering to research what they're buying.
Its capitalism and most people hate capitalism when it doesn't favor them. I work for a cookie company that sells cookies that we buy from another company who also sells their cookies just not in a retail setting. Are we deceitful lying people for not telling the consumer they can get the same thing for cheaper somewhere else or are we providing convenience or name for a higher price?
Bullet Bourbon is the best!
I enjoy Bulleit as well. Have you ever tried Buffalo Trace by chance? It's my current favorite. Cheers!
Bulleit bourbon is from Four Roses.
True history be hide the whisky is very important read the back for the story. Then test it. Does it match?
How about scotch?or us it only in America?
Scotch is the same. Plenty of bulk distilleries that don't label their own product. Johnny Walker buys whiskeys and blends them.
If you have $250,000 you can order your spirits from MGP, choose the recipie you want, select the aging casks, and fill the bottles and your labels, boxing, to your warehouse for distribution. lets assume it costs 10$/bottle to produce and sell for 20$ with a nice bottle and BS marketing about Uncle Joe blend and aging.. well you can see its very very profitable without ever having much to do but count the money.
Wow. I did not know. I dont dislike what mgp is doing. What they are doing is cool. But it's still rebranding of a generic and dishonest. I'd like to buy MGP whiskey for 10$ a bottle.
"it takes two wings for a bird to fly"
Does the product taste/smell good , is it safe to drink & is it at a price you are willing to buy it at.
I would buy "French" Vodka that is made in NewZealand if it met the criteria.
Well if the bourbon tastes like bourbon what does it matter unless it has a brand like Stilton cheese which can only be made in the town named Stilton but a mere blue cheese.
"Without marketing, there wouldn't be as much consumer demand"? So you're saying people only want something because they've been told to want it? I guess that's advertising 101, but I would hope most of us want something cause it's good, not cause we want to want it.
kentucky straight from indiana
I wouldn't say bourbon is a shady industry, but there are definitely shady players.
Marketing is the game...(Suckers are Born Daily)
Leave it to the Hoosiers to screw it all up.
Basically then these brands "sourcing" are acting as bottlers. What bothers me is if they're doing it whilst they're waiting for their actual product to age, you could get a totally different whisky when they release it.
That means whisky "connoisseurs " might be faking all of the different "notes and flavors " lol just like wine " connoisseurs " have been caught saying more expensive wine is better than cheap one's even though they are drinking boxed wines. Its a shame people can't just be honest! People are literally getting the same product just with fictional back stories!
Here's a tip: buy Kentucky bourbon. Go see where it's distilled, aged, not to mention where bourbon was invented.
Bourbon was created by Virginians, in Virginia. Even at the time they set up distilleries in Kentucky... Kentucky was just a county in Virginia.
@@BobPapadopoulos Good nuance.
Good for you. It’s in KY now.
@@BobPapadopoulos and Bourbon is just a county in Kentucky....
There are some perfectly good MGP products out there... but there’s also some not so great ones...
"If anybody said it's shady industry, I would take great offence to that." says the guy from the shady part of the industry.
He runs a business that makes some great stuff and supply the stuff to other businesses. He keeps information of clients confidential as he supposed to. I don't think he runs the shady part, it's the marketing people who think they can get away with lying that's shady.
I think of sourced American whiskey as having a lot in common with Scottish blending. Johnnie Walker doesn't actually make any whisky, but it does make sourced whisky unique through the process of blending. Same is true for sourced Bourbon and rye. MGP offers a pretty wide range of mashbills to choose from, and that combined with varied rickhouse location and time spent aging can yield a pretty wide variety of flavors for their customers to choose from. The skill then is not only in the marketing like the video insists, but also in the way the independent bottler blends those flavors together. In a perfect world sourced whiskey could be as good (or even superior) because the blender could be pulling from a wider pantry of flavor profiles than if he or she had simply made the whiskey from scratch. This is essentially how almost all good Cognac is made. Asking every whiskey company to also distill their own product is like expecting every chef to also be a farmer. It can be a truly great thing to simply get good at manipulating the last step, rather than mastering the entire process.
All that said, blend away. Just don't lie about it.
"It's not the crime, it's the cover up"
Whistle pig is sourced from Canada. Still good stuff. They're proud of "rescuing" the whiskey from their northern neighbors. The art of finishing is big, not so much the bourbon boom. Stay woke. Lol.
If you like the taste and are ok with the price. Drink up and dont worry about the when and where's.
Its called independent bottling, and it's necessary, demand is high, and the market is very wide, with many channels for a distillery to sell it's product.
Uh, no. When you're independent bottling comes with claims you know to be false with the intent of generating more revenue, it's called fraud.
@@BobPapadopoulos you're*
PS: Your entire original comment is a run-on sentence full of unnecessary commas.
@@BobPapadopoulos thanks!
Which is why I only respect and drink Kentucky bourbon.
Beam has the barrels as does Jimmy , heaven hill, et al
Dirt 117 nah, I’m good.
Because you're dumb? Bourbon was invented by Virginians... in Virginia.
Bourbon county was part of Virginia when it was "invented" so draw compass lines , genius.
Bob Papadopoulos nah because I like Kentucky bourbon.
Stick with Scotch single malt. Even though Diageo is just as big a player in that market, European rules make it much easier to know exactly what you're getting and where it comes from. And it's a way more interesting and complex drink than bourbon.
Bulleit for sure is sourced
Problem is young people need to stick to vodka, gin or rum leave the whis(e)y to us old folks. That really Appreciate it. Produced by or bottled by yes they didn’t distill it but that companies master blender picks the barrels an blends the barrels. This isn’t news Johnny Walkers an many other brands have been doing this since whisky has been around. This how there is so many whisky brands. Please people start using common sense again.
certainly nobody over 50 is ever fooled by this 'faux-rustic' marketing. and everyone under 50 should keep their mouths off whisky. great advice gramps.
Us old folks and you watch PewDiePie. Stfu
As long as my Jack Daniels tastes as good as ever, I don't care where it is distilled.
Each to his own! Question though: would you mind if they arrived at that taste by cutting corners? AB InBev (The world's largest Beer company which owns amongst others Budweiser) have bought famous Belgian beer-brands and in the name of profit, "dumbed down" the production (cheaper ingredients, amongst other things) to arrive at a taste so similar that most people taste no difference; would that make you feel unhappy if it was done to Jack? Or is the taste the bottom line? In food, chemicals have taken the place of "real" ingredients; wouldn't surprise me if that happens more and more in other types of food/drink production as well.
Only real bourbon is made is Kentucky lol
They can call any of it Whiskey but if it's not made in Kentucky it's not Bourbon. IMHO
Steve, per federal standards, Bourbon may be produced anywhere in the United States. There is no requirement that it must come from KY. or Bourbon County, as some people try to say.
@@heinz-haraldfrentzen1261 he didn't say it was required to be made inKY. That's your overeducated self feeling the need to educate people.
Then you're stupid anyway, as bourbon was A: Invented by Virginians, B: Popularized by Virginians, and C: First made in Kentucky... when Kentucky was still part of Virginia.
@@BobPapadopoulos Kentucky became a state in 1792. Bourbon was first distilled in the 1820's. Your argument is both pedantic and wrong
+Enkindu Shamesh "Bourbon was first distilled in the 1820's. Your argument is both pedantic and wrong."
Ironic retort coming from someone who clearly doesn't know Elijah Craig's backstory... as he was documented making it as early as 1789, and that's only as far back as they have indisputable evidence for.
1:54 seconds in, I'm bored, thanks to cheap bourbon. Shutting computer down. Time to sleep.
Bourbon is going to be like the Sunglasses industry: All made in one facility, but with different brand names.
Look up the 60 min story about the sunglasses industry.
It can't be Bourbon if it isn't made in Kentucky.
The reason is I invented Sweet Tea. & Bourbon.
i only care if it tastes good and gets ya drunk.
Doesn't matter as long as it is Made in USA. The rest of the world knows Jack Daniel's as the fantastic American Whiskey that doesn't get you a hangover next morning
uhhh if you insist lol
Jack Daniel's is not a bourbon, it's a Tennessee whisky. Made like bourbon, but before going into the barrel, the whisky is filtered through vats of charcoal (sugar maple trees). JD tells you its to add a smoke character. The reality is that back in the 1800's you didn't wait 4-6 years to sell your whisky, maybe 4-6 months. Whisky at 4-6 months of aging may have it's color, but the taste is still very harsh, and the JD distillers felt that charcoal filtering made it a bit more tolerable.. not relevant given today's bourbon is fully matured and doesn't need to be rushed to market.
It's not Boubon without Kentucky
had a few yourself tonight I see
Absolutely.
@@funnyhandle I fixed it and yes
Wrong.
KINGS COUNTY DISTILLERY has some of the best booze I've ever tasted! If you haven't had some, GO NOW and get it! It's worth the $
If it's made from corn, is it really whiskey? That to me is bourbon. Big difference. Barrels and grains. Different beasts.
Tammy d- Bourbon HAS to be made from 51% corn by law.
F Chuck!
Отличная выпивка!
This is why Scotch whisky has such tough regulations, to stop Scottish whisky becoming like it is in America.
Then you don't know much about Scotch.... the only thing that's "regulated" is the name. In order to be call Scotch, it must come from Scotland.... that's it. Outsourcing & blending is just as prevalent there as it is here. "Blended Scotch" is alcohols blended from more than one distillery, while "Single Malts" are still blends (of barley), just that all of the ingredients are sourced from the same distillery, that's all the "Single" means. Most of your larger, famous distillers have their own very good brands, but still make a ton of money outsourcing their base whiskys to other blenders.
Edit - link: ruclips.net/video/M-rjtG_CHzU/видео.html
American liquor labeling laws are way stricter than Scotch. You have no idea what you're on about.
Complete nonsense exactly what you get from NBC. By law every bottle has to state where the whiskey was distilled, so you can tell all the MGP sourced whiskey. There is no cover up. Also MGP make great whiskey, every client they have has a specific mash bill and age that they purchase from MGP.
Some of us have been enjoying and understand bourbon for decades