Jefferson 18 vs 17 year

[Bmac]

It was a stupid choice of words on Jefferson's part, but that's it. We know Jefferson's is wheated bourbon made at Stitzel-Weller.

I quite agree. I am sure there's a story behind why 'Aged in Stitzel-Weller barrels' was used. Honesty, I still think it was done because there were complications using "Stitzel-Weller whiskey." Maybe the original request to COLA was denied for that reason. Based on the way the Jefferson's salesman are pushing the whiskey, they are targeting enthusiast who seek out SW. What I was told is that stores should be saying to customers "if you can't get pappy, get this, it's the same juice." Therefore, they clearly wanted the province known for that reason.

[Tico]

First, I can't believe we're talking about the origin of Jefferson's again.

Second, use your heads. What is 'Stitzel-Weller Cooperage?' Stitzel-Weller isn't a cooperage, it doesn't and didn't make barrels, so what is SW cooperage? Is it a barrel that was used to age Stitzel-Weller whiskey? Maybe, but you couldn't use that to age bourbon, because it would be a used barrel, so it can't mean that. "Stitzel-Weller cooperage filled with Bernheim whiskey" is an impossibility since the words 'Stitzel-Weller cooperage' are meaningless. There is no such thing.

I myself have thrown it up as a joke but I don't think I'm going to do that anymore, always too many newbies around. Why confuse them unnecessarily?

It was a stupid choice of words on Jefferson's part, but that's it. We know Jefferson's is wheated bourbon made at Stitzel-Weller.

According to Sally VW Campbell in "but always fine bourbon"

"Stitzel Weller barrels were more costly than others because they were thicker"

"Upon stepping into the little cooper shop"

Geroge Durkalski ran the cooperage at SW, there is a pic of him in the book circa 1959. (pages 152-153)

Im not disagreeing with you, I think the JPS stuff is SW but SW did have a cooperage shop at one point, not sure if it was still active when the JPS was distiller and barreled in 1991.

[Tico]

Here is the picture mentioned above

[ATTACH=CONFIG]13957[/ATTACH]

[Bmac]

Here is the picture mentioned above

[ATTACH=CONFIG]13957[/ATTACH]

[Tico]

Just an observation but arent those used barrels? They are dismantling, not creating.[/]

Probably on their way to Scotland, used barrels are broken down then arranged on a pallate.

[cowdery]

Cooper shops at distilleries were mostly for making repairs and for knocking down barrels for shipment to Scotland. Even in 1959, a small all-hand cooper shop like that could not possibly have supplied enough new barrels for a distillery the size of Stitzel-Weller. Even so, that shop was a distant memory by the time the whiskey for Jefferson's was made. I'm saying that from personal knowledge, as I was there during SW's last days.

I stand corrected for saying SW didn't have a cooperage, because a repair shop like that is considered a cooperage, but it doesn't really change the point. For purposes of the Jefferson's bottling, that statement can't be parsed for its 'true' meaning because it doesn't have one. It is meaningless nonsense, like most label copy.

As for Sally's statement, every distillery gives barrel specifications to its cooperage. That was not the meaning intended by the Jefferson's label writers.

I am sure there is not a story behind why 'Aged in Stitzel-Weller barrels' was used. It certainly had nothing to do with label approval, as that's not something TTB would care about.

The copywriter simply didn't understand what he was writing about. Speaking as a copywriter, I can assure you that happens a lot.

[cowdery]

This talk about old-time cooperages inspired a blog post.

Now 20 years old, my "Made and Bottled in Kentucky" has become an historical artifact in its own right. I don't know if Walter Doerting (in the excerpt on the blog) has passed, but I assume he has. Other interview subjects in the video who are no longer with us include Sam Cecil, Booker Noe, and Owsley Brown.

[luther.r]

Chuck, do you know any specifics of S-W's barrels? Which cooperage was making them, what char, etc.?

[cowdery]

I don't know. I know there were a few more cooperages then. Brown-Forman's would have been convenient, but there were others in the area. The building that houses Kelvin Cooperage, on Outer Loop Road, was built as a cooperage and that would have been convenient to them too. Sally Van Winkle Campbell says they were thicker than other barrels. I don't know about that.