Henry McKenna...40 seasons?

[brian12069]

Last night I cracked open a bottle of Henry Mckenna Single barrel 10 yr BIB. On the bottle it says "we have filled this bottle entirely from a single barrel aged through 40 Kentucky seasons"
Huh?...isn't a season a year? I know someone here can clear this up for me. By the way...it was VERY good!

[kbuzbee]

Last night I cracked open a bottle of Henry Mckenna Single barrel 10 yr BIB. On the bottle it says "we have filled this bottle entirely from a single barrel aged through 40 Kentucky seasons"
Huh?...isn't a season a year? I know someone here can clear this up for me. By the way...it was VERY good!

Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter. 4 seasons = 1 year. Odd phrasing though.

Cheers,

Ken

[Gillman]

Well, traditionally there are two seasons in distilling (spring and fall) so that would suggest a 20 year old product. Some of the Elijah Craig 18 year old is 20 years old or more. Is McKenna now produced by HH? I think it is. That may be your answer. In any case, nice marketing.

Gary

[Gillman]

Ken, you may be right.

Gary

[kbuzbee]

Well, traditionally there are two seasons in distilling (spring and fall) so that would suggest a 20 year old product. Some of the Elijah Craig 18 year old is 20 years old or more. Is McKenna now produced by HH? I think it is. That may be your answer. In any case, nice marketing.

Hi Gary, yes, McKenna is HH these days. I was a little confused by that 40 seasons verbage when I first read it. Did the math and figured that was what they were going for....

cheers,

Ken

[brian12069]

Seems kinda silly to me. Can't they just say 10 years old...

[AVB]

This is advertising.....those people woudn't know distilling seasons if it hit them in the face so they fall back on what the may have learned in school. Spring, Summer, Fall & Winter. 40 seasons is 10 years.

[TNbourbon]

Well, traditionally there are two seasons in distilling (spring and fall)...

Traditionally, that's true, Gary -- but Heaven Hill, since its acquisition of the Bernheim Distillery in Louisville, has become the only distiller to operate year-'round. So, does it have four distilling 'seasons', the traditional two, or just one?
In any case, HH's website says Henry McKenna Single Barrel is 10 years old.

[ratcheer]

I will have to look at my bottle. I could swear it does say 10 years old.

Tim

[Gillman]

Tim, no doubt you are right, as Ken is. I now see this, too, because bonded means from one distilling season (sorry but that's still true!) and therefore this whiskey must be 10 years old not 20. While it is true age expressions generally refer to the youngest whiskey in the bottle, by definition bonded cannot contain whiskey from more than one season (and therefore also, year) so to state (as you said the website does) that it is 10 years old when in fact it is 20 would not be correct and they wouldn't do that (make an incorrect statement) so it must be 10 years old!

Gary