Does Meijer Sell Private Barrel Selections?

Meijer is a regional supercenter chain that started in Michigan and has slowly expanded out to Ohio and Indiana in the last several years - their business model is very similar to Walmart. I was in a Meijer store recently and I was surprised by the bourbon selection they had. One bottle in particular caught my eye and I purchased it. It was a Knob Creek Single Barrel. However, it had a metallic sticky tag stuck toward the top of the bottle. It states Barrel #284 Hand Selected by Meijer. On the right hand side is Fred Noe's signature - not his real signature, just an impression in the metallic tag.

I have a few questions. Who applied this metallic tag? Meijer or Knob Creek?

More importantly, this particular bottle is the first evidence that I have seen that Meijer has ever participated in a private barrel purchase. Have their been other private barrel purchases by Meijer in the past? Seems like private barrel purchases would be right in their wheel house. They have really stepped up their wine purchasing efforts in the last 5 to 10 years. Private bourbon purchases seems like the next logical step with their number of stores and excellent distribution system. Anybody know anything about this? Thanks in advance.

The sticker is from Beam and they have been doing this for retailers for a while.

The local Giant Eagle supermarket had a special bottling of KC a few years back that included a customized wooden box with the store logo.

The local Meijer here in my neck of the woods has a Knob Creek Single Barrel,...it looks so so special with the Meijer logo on it.

I've seen Knob Creek do this for both Kroger and Martin's (a smaller, regional grocer) in my area. I don't think there's any special selection process behind it.

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Originally Posted by Bourbon Boiler

I've seen Knob Creek do this for both Kroger and Martin's (a smaller, regional grocer) in my area. I don't think there's any special selection process behind it.

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That is rather misleading as with all the other distilleries if it has a special sticker on it like that it was a specially selected barrel.

I don't see why they couldn't have selected their own. Meijer sells a lot of booze. How selective the selection was is an open question, but unless somebody is going to do a KCSB tasting, or has an inside source, I don't know if we'll ever know for sure.

The Meijer store in Greenwood IN seems to have improved their bourbon selection quite a bit. This started about a month before Christmas. They started to sell Four Roses Single Barrel, Bulleit Rye, and KC SB; all cheaper than most other places. I think they got some other stuff too. When they started, the KC did not have the silver tag. Recently, I started to see the silver tag, with a barrel number. I think putting the barrel number is a good idea.

It's just another commodity for these stores so I wouldn't place too high a hope that it will be noticeably better than the regular offering, we could get lucky though.

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Originally Posted by p_elliott

That is rather misleading as with all the other distilleries if it has a special sticker on it like that it was a specially selected barrel.

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I would suspect that it is specially selected, only probably by a Beam employee (who has not particular motivation to get the best one available) instead of a supermarket employee.

The main difference is now, if some one wanted to buy more (or avoid) a particular barrel, they could. The first KC SB I got from a liquor store, shortly after it was available here, had a cinnamon red hot thing going on. It almost numbed my mouth, but not in a bad way. The recent stuff from Meijer is more like a barrel proof JB Black to me.