Grommes & Ulrich

[**DONOTDELETE**]

Has anyone heard of a brand of bourbon called Grommes & Ulrich? It comes in a square bottel, black label with white lettering, stating that it is Pre-War 1942, 84 proof, aged 103 months, from Marquette Disributors, Chicago, IL. The bottle was purchased in Georgia during the early 1960's. Who was the distillery and are they still around? This stuff is smoooth.

[cowdery]

The fact that the distributor is named on the bottle is a pretty good indication that it was a distributor brand. I have never heard of a distillery by that name.

- chuck

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I did see something about a 12 year old bourbon named "Old Grommes" on a Japanese site: http://www.bourbon-whiskey.com/todays/groms101.html. It's hard enough getting the font to look right, but read that stuff? Please forgive my newbyness, but what is a 'distributor brand'?

Let's try another. Also back in the sixties, we found a gray ceramic jug in a muddy field. On it was painted in blue a very stylized label with 2 cherubs holding a gonfalon bearing the words, R H Parker, "Old Style", Nelson Co., KY. It's a nice bookshelf nick-nak, but I am beginning to wonder if it's an antique or just made to look like one. It's not in the greatest shape. Maybe I should just enjoy the contents of my intact bottles and not worry about it. Thanks for your help.

[cowdery]

A distributor brand is a brand created by a distiller for a specific distributor. The brand is then exclusive to that distributor and usually only available in the limited area covered by that distributor. Distillers also sometimes create exclusive brands for large retailers. Heaven Hill is a leader in this type of business. At one time, they made more than 2,000 different brands of whiskey and other spirits.

The "Parker" jug may be a genuine antique. I am unfamiliar with the name "Parker" as a distiller in Nelson Co. or elsewhere, but it's a common enough name for the region and there were once hundreds, if not thousands, of distillers in the area. Nelson Co. is a good sign, as that has always been one of, if not the, major whiskey producing counties in Kentucky. Home of Jim Beam, among others.

- chuck