Trey Zoeller of Jefferson's Reserve in Austin

[gburger]

Master Distiller Trey Zoeller of Jefferson's Reserve will be at Twin Liqours at Hancock Center in Austin on Wednesday June 8th.

Here is the info. I plan on attending.

http://www.twinliquors.com/event/evening-trey-zoeller

[Ian S.]

Master Distiller Trey Zoeller of Jefferson's Reserve will be at Twin Liqours at Hancock Center in Austin on Wednesday June 8th.

Here is the info. I plan on attending.

http://www.twinliquors.com/event/evening-trey-zoeller

I'll see you there. I believe he's there kicking off the JPS 18 and the private bottling that Twin's bought of JPS 17.

[callmeox]

Apparently the title of 'master distiller' has a pretty loose definition these days. :grin:

[cowdery]

While I think a master distiller really aught to, you know, have something to do with distillation, barrel selection is also a big part of the master distiller's job. I had some of the regular Jefferson's recently and I think, based strictly on the taste, that he is mixing several different bourbons together.

[gburger]

Ian, I think you are right. David from Twin said they were buying some of that.

And OX I wonder how you can be called a master distiller when you don't have a distillery?

I guess you can be one......

[Ian S.]

Trey Zoeller was a good guy and he was very in depth when speaking about his business practices and his bottlings. If anyone has questions about the line of Jefferson's or the JPS, I would be happy to clear it up.

[gburger]

Ian,

Thanks again for getting me a bottle of Pappy 15.

It was a nice event tonight with Trey. The Jefferson's 17 was flavorful, looking forward to seeing how one more year in the barrel tastes when the 18 comes out in a couple of weeks.

[Ian S.]

Ian,

Thanks again for getting me a bottle of Pappy 15.

It was a nice event tonight with Trey. The Jefferson's 17 was flavorful, looking forward to seeing how one more year in the barrel tastes when the 18 comes out in a couple of weeks.

Np, Gregg. Anytime that I can help a fellow SB'er out, I will. Enjoy that bottle and savor every sip. :grin:

Did you get the JPS batch 3?

[cowdery]

Did he talk at all about accessing whiskey? I have a feeling, based on taste, that their current Jefferson's product is a blend of straight bourbons. That's kosher and still "straight bourbon" under the rules, and it's a tribute to him that he's been able to make such good use of the whiskey available to him.

[chefnash51]

John Hansell posted a bit about this..

"here has also been an improvement in the formula to Jefferson’s Bourbon. On the outside (as you see in this picture) everything looks the same, but one sip will tell you that it’s more mature than previous standard Jefferson’s release. I’m told by the brand manager that there’s some whiskey in there in the high teens."

Leads me to believe the are definitely blending different bourbons.

http://www.whatdoesjohnknow.com/2011/04/11/new-whiskies/

[White Dog]

Did he talk at all about accessing whiskey? I have a feeling, based on taste, that their current Jefferson's product is a blend of straight bourbons. That's kosher and still "straight bourbon" under the rules, and it's a tribute to him that he's been able to make such good use of the whiskey available to him.

He was being very upfront about the ages used at Whiskey Fest Chicago. It's all a blur, but he told me the multiple ages that were in the regular, and reserve bottlings. I got too drunk to remember, and I wasn't taking notes, but I think you should just shoot him an e-mail.

And he stated the Presidential 18, as well as the 17, is solely S-W.

[chefnash51]

He was being very upfront about the ages used at Whiskey Fest Chicago. It's all a blur, but he told me the multiple ages that were in the regular, and reserve bottlings. I got too drunk to remember, and I wasn't taking notes, but I think you should just shoot him an e-mail.

And he stated the Presidential 18, as well as the 17, is solely S-W.

well solely aged in S-W barrels at least. :slappin: i kid i kid

[gburger]

We were at Twin Liquors for the event. Twin buys single barrels from him so the three Jefferson's choices at their stores are all single barrels.

I told him I had a bottle of Reserve I bought elsewhere and he told me that bottle may have 3 or 4 different barrels and years. Most of it should be 10-12 year old stuff.

I actually like the bottle I have at home more than the single barrel I tasted last night for the Reserve.

Looking forward to the 18yr Presidential.

[Ian S.]

Did he talk at all about accessing whiskey? I have a feeling, based on taste, that their current Jefferson's product is a blend of straight bourbons. That's kosher and still "straight bourbon" under the rules, and it's a tribute to him that he's been able to make such good use of the whiskey available to him.

That's exactly what he does. He buys barrels from multiple distilleries and blends them in batches of 6-10 barrels to get the balance of flavors that he is looking for(trying to maintain some consistency). The Jefferson's is mostly 6-8 year old stuff while the Jefferson's Reserve ranges from 10 up to 15-16 year old stuff.

He's also supposedly holding onto some prime S-W barrels that he thinks will continue to age gracefully to be bottled as a 20 year old JPS. That will be the last of his S-W juice.

[Ian S.]

well solely aged in S-W barrels at least. :slappin: i kid i kid

It sounds like he couldn't legally say that it was distilled at S-W on the bottle. Buying barrels and blending them puts him in a tough position. He can't contractually tell anyone what bourbons that he has blended in each batch. I'm guessing that this is the reason for that questionable statement on the JPS bottles.

[CaptainQ]

He's also supposedly holding onto some prime S-W barrels that he thinks will continue to age gracefully to be bottled as a 20 year old JPS. That will be the last of his S-W juice.

[cowdery]

He also, by accounts, has moved his bottling operation from KBD to LDI.

[Ian S.]

He also, by accounts, has moved his bottling operation from KBD to LDI.

I remember him saying that he actually bottles at both locations. Or maybe he said that he "has" bottled at two locations.

[gburger]

I was about to post the same thing Ian. He did mention both places.

[cowdery]

As I understand it, he only uses KBD when he wants some of their whiskey (i.e., whiskey in their warehouses.) Otherwise he uses LDI. I have heard from others that KBD can be somewhat unreliable. Things get done eventually but there always seems to be some kind of problem along the way.