Wild Turkey Bottling Comes Home

[cowdery]

We've speculated about this and the logical thing has happened. The bottling of Wild Turkey is leaving Fort Smith, Arkansas, and returning to the distillery in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky. Campari says the new facility will cost $40M, of which Kentucky taxpayers are kicking in $2.35M in incentives.

As we predicted (by which I mean myself and other people here, not the imperial we) they're going to centralize all of their bottling there, including Skyy Vodka. Bottling, of course, means a finished goods warehouse from which everything will be distributed. Bottling and finished goods distribution is the most labor-intensive part of booze-making, so this will mean many new jobs for the area.

It was 2006 when Pernod moved Wild Turkey bottling to LDI in Indiana, then a couple of years later it went to Fort Smith, where they make the Hiram Walker cordials line. Pernod got LDI in the Seagram's breakup and Fort Smith in the Allied-Domecq breakup.

Bottling in Lawrenceburg is slated to begin in the fall of 2013.

[DeanSheen]

Nice.

Sure seems like they have enough land to construct a facility on.

[cowdery]

Nice.

Sure seems like they have enough land to construct a facility on.

I think it's about 800 acres.

While the governor is spending taxpayer dollars, he really should improve Versailles Road between the distillery and 127 before the trucks start to roll. This will increase traffic on that not-very-good 2-lane road significantly and, for those who don't know, it goes right through downtown Lawrenceburg, such as it is.

Rt. 127 is 4-lane and limited access, so it's good, and from there it's a quick shot to either I-64 or the Martha Layne expressway.

[Bourbon Boiler]

Good to hear. Should make the tour a little more interesting as well.

[ethangsmith]

Cool. Maybe I'll hold off until 2013 for my Kentucky trip.

[losthog]

Good to hear. Should make the tour a little more interesting as well.

did the tour this past fall and was lot of fun. Got my Tee-shirt to prove it although they sent me a medium instead of the X-large I requested.

[cowdery]

did the tour this past fall and was lot of fun. Got my Tee-shirt to prove it although they sent me a medium instead of the X-large I requested.

Real bourbon drinkers don't wear mediums.

[Parkersback]

A question for anyone who might know: might this change in bottling facility at all change the taste of WT? I thought I remember seeing a post where a distiller at WT said that he wished they bottled on site.

[cowdery]

Jimmy says it hurt the whiskey to send it on a 700 mile road trip, so this should only make it better.

[Bourbon Boiler]

Real bourbon drinkers don't wear mediums...

... for very long

[Bourbon Boiler]

did the tour this past fall and was lot of fun. Got my Tee-shirt to prove it although they sent me a medium instead of the X-large I requested.

Welcome to the board.

[RegChumpington]

Real bourbon drinkers don't wear mediums.

They make for decent bar towels though.

[cowdery]

It's also great to send your 10-year-old to school wearing a booze-releated shirt. The teachers just love that. It assumes, of course, that your 10-year-old can still wear a medium.

[p_elliott]

This about time shipping the stuff off to Arkansas was not a good idea in the first place and it will bring jobs to the area. I just can't believe the bottling facility is going to cost almost as much as the distillery.

[tmckenzie]

My kids wear distillery stuff all the time. Especially the hats we bought that were too small. Nobody thinks about it here, but I were still in Alabama, I would be locked up. Have you priced bottling equipment lately?

[Bourbon Boiler]

So did anything else from Campari get bottled on Arkansas, or was WT the only holdover?

[cowdery]

So did anything else from Campari get bottled on Arkansas, or was WT the only holdover?

Turkey was at Fort Smith from when it was owned by Pernod and Campari didn't buy anything else from Pernod, so no.

Campari America's other brands are either imported in bottles or contract bottled. I've seen Skyy Vodka on the bottling line at Brown-Forman.

I don't know if Cabo Wabo is bottled in Mexico or the USA but if it's bottled in the USA, it likely will move to Kentucky too. I assume anything Campari America needs to bottle in the USA will be bottled at Turkey.

[StraightNoChaser]

Real bourbon drinkers don't wear mediums.

Say that to my face! :smiley_acbt:

[Bourbon Boiler]

Hey, I can wear a medium!

[Bourbon Boiler]

Turkey was at Fort Smith from when it was owned by Pernod and Campari didn't buy anything else from Pernod, so no.

Campari America's other brands are either imported in bottles or contract bottled. I've seen Skyy Vodka on the bottling line at Brown-Forman.

I don't know if Cabo Wabo is bottled in Mexico or the USA but if it's bottled in the USA, it likely will move to Kentucky too. I assume anything Campari America needs to bottle in the USA will be bottled at Turkey.

Thanks Chuck. Appreciate the info.