LDI Sold, Finally.

[cowdery]

The new owner of Lawrenceburg Distillers Indiana (LDI) is MGP Ingredients, Inc., of Atchison, Kansas. Their press release is here and my blog post about it is here.

MGP, which stands for Midwest Grain Products, is a big and well-respected grain neutral spirits (GNS) producer. They have a big GNS distillery in Pekin, Illinois, near Peoria.

Since MGP is already in the business of selling bulk GNS to beverage alcohol companies, this is probably good news for everybody who buys whiskey from LDI. Because MGP is a public company, there probably will be a lot more transparency going forward, which is also good news.

MGP is only buying the distillery, not the nearby bottling plant. No mention was made of who's getting the Rushville Grain Division.

[chefnash51]

Because MGP is a public company, there probably will be a lot more transparency going forward, which is also good news.

Hope this hold to be true! I think it's far time for some transparency.

[macdeffe]

Maybe they will sell Charles Medley as well, to someone reopening it ? :-)

Steffen

[cowdery]

I'm told Medley was sold some time ago but I can't find out to whom or why. Angostura didn't get very far with the restoration. They repaired the warehouses, so those might now be usable, but the distillery is no nearer to being operational than it was when they bought it.

[White Dog]

Fascinating. I've said it before and I'll say it again: by complete accident, LDI is the most interesting producer of Rye Whiskey in the U.S.

[cowdery]

Latest news. Proximo appears to be buying the bottling operation.

[White Dog]

Latest news. Proximo appears to be buying the bottling operation.

That's a bad sign.

[tmckenzie]

Ainlt they the ones who bought Stranahans? uh oh.

[cowdery]

From what I've heard, things have gotten so bad at LDI that they can only get better.

Proximo is the company that bought Stranahan's. The money behind Proximo comes from the family that owns Jose Cuervo. Diageo controls the marketing rights to Cuervo, but they're paying some kind of royalties to the folks who own it, which they are investing in Proximo.

Their biggest brand is 1800 Tequila.

They are, by their own admission, very secretive.

[jburlowski]

I learned that The Party Source has purchased / committed to buying 300+ barrels of LDI bourbon for future bottling & distribution. The sampling we tasted was 5-6 yo and quite good... although I would say it would benefit from additional aging.

TPS has also contracted to aging their distillate (once they get their distillery up and running) at LDI.