Sam Cougar Bourbon

[thanis]

Was not sure where to place this. It is a non-KY bourbon, produced in IN (so it is America), but an export-only brand.

Did not want to offend a bourbon purist, so I placed under other.

Has anyone had it (maybe from or during trips to Australia and New Zealand). I noticed a bottle, of all places Malta. It suck out because the label stated bourbon.

When I returned home, and looked it up, I realised the opportunity I missed.

Any thoughts on where you might get some, or am I from MI and this is just easy to get in other states?

[cowdery]

I don't believe it is available anywhere in the United States. It may even be bottled down under. It's natural to assume a non-Kentucky origin for any product labeled bourbon that doesn't say Kentucky, so it could be something from LDI. There's no way to know. That's the only reasonable source, either directly from LDI or from a third party that's reselling it.

The thing about LDI is that we only really know five things: 1) it is in Indiana, not Kentucky, 2) it has a whiskey still, 3) it has aging warehouses, 4) we can verify that rye made there has shown up on the market, and 5) Pernod (which makes Sam Cougar) used to own it.

[camduncan]

When I was in Bardstown for the 2008 Sampler, I was very fortunate to spend some time with Bill Friel who had come into the General Nelson to catch up with a few people. I had a bottle of Cougar sitting on the table in Tims room and Bill was able to shed some light on it... Unfortunately I failed to write down the information, so most of it is lost in the haze of the night now What I do remember (with a little help from Tim) is that Bill was the one who'd hired Sam 'whatever' who's name appears on the bottle. He also confirmed that Cougar's genesis is/has been Lawrenceburg, IN, not KY.

[cowdery]

Bill Friel, former Master Distiller at Barton, is another one of the many distillers who received most of his training at Seagram's, so he knows LDI well.

[Pieface]

It really just would be an oddity to have thanis. The whiskey is nothing special and likely the 74proof aussie "bourbon", was it a largely green coloured label? It's OK for mixing but sipping neat is not it's strong point.

The Cougar XS at 86proof is a bit more interesting but it is still pretty simple juice. I'd put EWB comfortably ahead of it and the EWB is typically $5-10 cheaper too as it goes head to head pricewise with the 74proof green label sam cougar.

HtH

[camduncan]

Most who tried the 86 proof XS I had at the 2008 Sampler deemed it an interesting dram, but I don't think anyone considered it remarkable. From memory, the remainder of the bottle took a trip to Cliff's Kentucky home on the Sunday after the Sampler and is still there unless it has since been consumed.