Ages of whiskey during the "glut"

[tommyboy38]

Anyone know if/when OGD carried an "actual" age statement in the past opposed to an age for the BIB on the faux/real tax stamps? I picked up an OGD BIB from 1990 and it was listed as 8 years old on the faux tax seal.

I'm interested to know when the whiskey "glut" acutally occurred and how the ages of those whiskies may have changed. Did a 4 yr become a 10 yr? Or did a 6 yr become a 7 yr? Thanks in advance for any info.

__________________

"Brownest of the brown liquors..so tempting. What's that? You want me to drink you? But I'm in the middle of a trial!" L. Hutz

[cowdery]

Although a lot of producers used extra-aged whiskey in their standard products during the glut, few if any changed their labels to publicize that fact. I don't know of Old Grand-Dad ever carrying an age statement on its label, but bonded products were always required to state the season of distillation and the season of bottling on the tax stamp, which probably continued as long as tax stamps did. In 1987, Old Grand-Dad became a Jim Beam product when Beam bought National Distillers. If they had not stopped using tax stamps by then (the faux ones, that is. The real ones stopped in like '82 or so), I'm sure they stopped as soon as Beam took over.

The glut began to set-in in the late 70s, early 80s. I don't remember exactly when I learned that value brand Kentucky Tavern was 10-year-old whiskey but if I had to guess, I would say 1982-83. By the late 80s, the glut was still with us in the form of all the 15-year-old plus bourbons that began to appear, first in Japan, then here. As those products have now mostly all sold through, the glut is clearly over.

The glut was a pig-in-the-python type of phenomenon. The problem was how rapidly sales of American whiskey declined beginning in the late 60s. The problem was that up until that time, demand had exceeded supply. The change happened so rapidly that almost overnight. supply went from chasing demand to exceeding it and the producers were slow to adjust, so they kept over-producing for several more years. They would cut production, but never enough, and the stocks just kept building and building.

[tommyboy38]

Chuck,

Thanks for your input and for sharing what you know here at SB. The 1990 OGD BIB bottle I picked up had a faux stamp with an 8 year age statement which is something I haven't seen on a few faux stamped Old Fitz BIB's from the late 80's/early 90's and some earlier (1980) Old Forester BIB that I have.

[cowdery]

The whole reason the faux stamps were permitted was so the companies would not be forced to immediately change their bottling equipment to use a different kind of tamper-evident closure. Therefore, it's reasonable to assume that the producers just kept doing exactly what they had been doing, with the only change being the substitution of faux strips for the real ones, i.e., they kept date-stamping the BIBs as they always had. Some producers were still using faux stamps deep into the 1980s and a few brands, e.g., Basil Hayden, still have them (although they're now in addition to the tamper-evident closure).

[tommyboy38]

I have a few faux tax strips (some as late as the early 90's) and they seem to have many degrees of "faux-ness" to them. Some added a six or seven digit number (Old Forester), others say Bureau of the ATF and I think are still faux and some are merely decorated paper seals. From what I know and I may be wrong, the real ones were from the some Dep't of Revenue w/9 digit code. I think the Basil Hayden seal is just Beam's way to make the bottle look like it worth $30 (along with the wood/metal used on bottle.) as I assume it was introduced after the faux stamps disappeared.

[gblick]

I have some OGD 86 from around '90-91 that says "Aged 8 Years" on the label. I'll post a pic later tonight.

[cowdery]

I have some OGD 86 from around '90-91 that says "Aged 8 Years" on the label. I'll post a pic later tonight.

I vaguely remember that, as I was actually working on marketing for the brand about that time. Beam was fiddling with the label and that was one of the things they may have tried.

[gblick]

Here's a pic.

The 375ml is from '91, and the 1.75L is from '90.

[OscarV]

Any guess on what the age is of the current OGD?

The BIB is at least 4 years old, it does seem a little older.

But what is the 114?

[Pieface]

With no other reference apart from my tastebuds (read: probably wrong) I think the bulk of it is between 6-8 yrs for the OGD114.

[Josh]

Here's a pic.

The 375ml is from '91, and the 1.75L is from '90.

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Weird. Never seen that before. But for what it's worth, I just poured a glass out of my '87 OGD NAS and the whiskey is noticibly darker than the current one.

[cowdery]

Those labels seem like National labels, so a few years earlier than 90-91. The age statement may have been a way to make glut lemons into lemonade. Not long after Beam acquired the brand they started to fiddle with the label and at one point banished the bust image altogether.

Heaven Hill from the late 70s was promoting the 7-year-age statement on Evan Williams and that's about when they introduced their 12-year-old Elijah Craig, which in retrospect may have been to move some of the glut whiskey without blending it away.

[gblick]

Those labels seem like National labels, so a few years earlier than 90-91.

Thanks, I wasn't really certain when I said they were from 90-91. I was going by the number molded into the glass on the bottom of the bottles (90 on the handle and 91 on the 375ml).

[Rughi]

Sijan and perhaps one of the Gilberts were finding these 8yo labels from the

mid '80s in the DC area a few years back. Search the archives for their thoughts on these.

The Grand Dad distillery had TE caps from about '85, and seemed to use strips, or not, for several years into the Beam era.

I believe the Grand Dad labels list Clermont as well as Frankfort only once they actally had Beam juice in them. I have bottle indicated '92 bottlings that have TE caps, strips, and no mention yet of Clermont.

Roger

[tommyboy38]

I started the thread as I was curious about my 375 ml 1990 OGB BIB with and 8 year mention on the faux strip. That whiskey was distilled (not sure about the bottling) at OGD but did mention Clermont on the label.