Tom Moore distillery sold to Sazerac

[Jake_Parrott]

As part of Constellation's $334M unloading of "value" spirits brands to Sazerac Company, the Tom Moore distillery ("Barton"), the only currently-running commercial bourbon still in Bardstown, is now owned by the folks who own Buffalo Trace. Speculations, anyone?

http://blog.maltadvocate.com/2009/01...ld-to-sazerac/

[Josh]

trying...not...to...panic...

[funknik]

I hope Josh doesn't have a coronary! I'm wondering if this might affect me in a positive way from a distribution sense. I see many more BT products up here in ME than Barton (in fact, I think the only one may be 1792 RR) and Sazerac Rye showed up a couple of months ago for the first time, so I thinnk BT is expanding up into this territory a little more. I know there's a good chance that things will change for those bottlings, but anything that brings a wider selection my way would be good, if only in a purely selfish way. However,it seems Sazerac is a pretty responsible and accountable company and BT seems to strive to maintain quality among the labels they have picked up...hopefully this will be true.

[mozilla]

I disagree. I have seen the before and after of many labels that BT has inherited. Not to say that they ruined them, but there is a definite difference between many of them. I feel they have mostly gone down hill to a degree. Are they still better than others on the market, yes. Are they as good as they could be.....hard to say. Many of the issues that BT runs into involve warehouse space to fully age all their stable of labels.

Also, this means that there is one less distillery flavor profile in the marketplace. I don't know how that translates to a "wider selection"? I feel that the consolidation of distilleries is ruining the complete "pie" of flavor profiles. Now, every Barton label will be filled with BT juice.

[funknik]

I disagree. I have seen the before and after of many labels that BT has inherited. Not to say that they ruined them, but there is a definite difference between many of them. I feel they have mostly gone down hill to a degree. Are they still better than others on the market, yes. Are they as good as they could be.....hard to say. Many of the issues that BT runs into involve warehouse space to fully age all their stable of labels.

Also, this means that there is one less distillery flavor profile in the marketplace. I don't know how that translates to a "wider selection"? I feel that the consolidation of distilleries is ruining the complete "pie" of flavor profiles. Now, every Barton label will be filled with BT juice.

Good point....I wasn't really thinking of it in terms of the long term, I guess I spoke before really hashing it all out. Obviously the less distilleries the less profiles -- being unfamiliar with Barton in general I wouldn't really be personally affected, but I feel sorry for those that will feel the pain on this one.

[kickert]

What is the chance that Sazerac would leave the distillery as is and allow it to continue production.

[Josh]

I'm not hyperventilating for the moment so I'll take this opportunity to respond.

There seem to be several possible senarios going forward from here. I'll start with the ones I like the best, and end with the worst.

1. Saz owns Barton, but basically leaves it alone. The bourbons continue to be made the same way and nothing really changes other than who signs the employee's paychecks.

B. Saz does consolidate, but the Barton "bite" retains its teeth and the Bardstown and Owensboro facilities remain largely the same.

III. Saz unloads Barton on somebody else (e.g. B-F) and they continue things unchanged (although they may sue themselves as in the Coke Zero commercials).

Delta- Saz spins off Barton or sells them to an independent or NDP (e.g. KBD)

5. Saz shuts down distilling at the B-town facilities, and folds Barton into BT, but makes an effort to keep VOB distinct from its other rye-flavored products.

F. The above, but no real effort is made to keep VOB distinct. It fills a price slot between BT & AAA or something like that.

VII. VOB and its kin die, but the distillery is kept open for bulk whiskey production

Zeta- Everything is killed, including all the employees at Bardstown and Owensboro!

9. BT uses the Barton name to launch a new line of "light" whiskey.

[funknik]

I'm not hyperventilating for the moment so I'll take this opportunity to respond.

There seem to be several possible scenarios going forward from here. I'll start with the ones I like the best, and end with the worst.

Josh, great rundown. I think (hope!) barring the last couple of options (I'd like to see the employees keep their lives ), this won't be a terrible disaster. As long as these bottlings aren't ruined, I would think it's preferable to keep them out there rather than seeing them go the way of the dodo.

[sku]

Maybe BT will leave it alone but increase distribution of VOB. That's certainly something I'd like to see.

[Josh]

Maybe BT will leave it alone but increase distribution of VOB. That's certainly something I'd like to see.

Ditto. That could be a positive consequence of 1-5. Or maybe even a Barrel-proof Barton entry into the BTAC!

Hey, a guy can dream.