Balcones: Next stop, world domination?

[timd]

Lol I've never even heard of that. But it was before I started with the distillery...

I think that was around the same time he did the True Blue bottling (that I have the scraps from) for LA - he did a couple of regional things back in early 2012, IIRC.

[Balcones Winston]

I think that was around the same time he did the True Blue bottling (that I have the scraps from) for LA - he did a couple of regional things back in early 2012, IIRC.

What was the barrel # for the California bottling again?

[HighHorse]

Didn't know it was quite so uncommon. I picked up one about a month ago but it was marked as the "ATL Edition" and dated from May 2012. Have been meaning to give it a try but haven't done so yet. Perhaps there will be a good occasion coming up soon in early November...

[ATTACH=CONFIG]16706[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]16707[/ATTACH]

Reservations made! Look forward to seeing you guys again.

[timd]

What was the barrel # for the California bottling again?

It was 1459, I believe.

[Balcones Winston]

Are we still in the "Special Olympics" now?

Balcones’ First Bourbon Sweeps New York World Wine & Spirits Competition with Best in Show Win

2 Gold, 5 Double Gold and 3 Category Best in Show Wins to Boot

October 18, 2013 Waco, Texas – Trail-blazing Balcones Distillery received top honors for a second time in three years with its 5th Anniversary Texas Straight Bourbon being awarded the Sweepstakes Best in Show for all brown spirits at the 2013 New York World Wine & Spirits Competition. On top of this monumental accolade, Balcones Bourbon was also given the title of Best Bourbon in Show and awarded a Double Gold medal. Balcones entered seven spirits into the competition, with all seven returning Double Gold or Gold medals. True Blue 100, the newest product in Balcones’ core range, clutched Best Corn Whiskey in Show while the distillery’s unreleased Texas Rum was recognized as the Best Dark/Gold Rum in Show.

The famed Texan craft distillery won awards across its portfolio, which included five Double Gold and two Gold medals, with three entries named Best in Show for their category. The Balcones awards were named as follows:

• Balcones 5th Anniversary Texas Straight Bourbon
  Sweepstakes - Best in Show - Brown Spirits, Best Bourbon in Show, Double Gold
  
• Balcones Texas Rum Special Release
  Best Dark/Gold Rum in Show, Double Gold
  
• Balcones True Blue 100
  Best Corn Whiskey in Show, Double Gold
  
• Balcones Brimstone Resurrection
  Double Gold
  
• Balcones Crooked Bourbon
  Double Gold
  
• Balcones Texas ‘1’ Single Malt
  Gold
  
• Balcones Texas Rum
  Gold
  

Michael Bondra, Brand Manager for the New York World Wine and Spirits Competition said: "We are thrilled and amazed at how far Balcones has come in such a short time. From winning Best of Show in our first competition to this year’s unprecedented seven entries (winning) five Double Gold, two Gold and a 2nd Best In Show Award. They have a rare ability to continually bring award winning products to the market place year after year."

Chip Tate, Balcones' President and Head Distiller said: “We are beyond thrilled to have a second whisky in our portfolio named Best in Show for Brown Spirits as well as having all seven of our entries take a Gold medal to boot. Balcones has reached new heights with this prestigious win and we are very proud to have been a part of this year’s New York World Wine & Spirits Competition."

The New York World Wine and Spirits Competition is one of the largest trade events for the food and beverage industry for 12 years running and has attracted thousands of professionals from restaurants, bars and clubs, food and beverage buyers and professionals from throughout the United States and the world. Judges represent all sectors of the Industry and include USBG mixologists, educators, beverage directors, journalists, authors, sommeliers, chefs and bar and restaurant owners.

[timd]

Are we still in the "Special Olympics" now?

[Balcones Winston]

Congrats - that's a huge score... Glad to have tried them all.

Although, I'm surprised that Texas 1 "only" got a gold... must've been those damn scotch snobs.

[MyOldKyDram]

I dunno. Is this one of those events where everyone gets a ribbon? How do the particulars of this one work? I've honestly no clue.

[Balcones Winston]

I dunno. Is this one of those events where everyone gets a ribbon? How do the particulars of this one work? I've honestly no clue.

[MyOldKyDram]

Well awesome then and congratulations!

[Trey Manthey]

I guess I'd be more excited if there were any plans for releasing some of that stuff to the general public. It's like a movie winning an Academy Award for best picture, but it never getting released to theaters or video.

[wadewood]

Please tell us how many spirits (total, not just Balcones) were entered into this competition and how many won awards. Without that information, and they don't publish it, the awards are worthless.

For a mere $500 per entry, please also enter into the Grand International Wade Woodard poobah awards Competition.

[Balcones Winston]

Please tell us how many spirits (total, not just Balcones) were entered into this competition and how many won awards. Without that information, and they don't publish it, the awards are worthless.

For a mere $500 per entry, please also enter into the Grand International Wade Woodard poobah awards Competition.

[Paddy]

Congratulations! Looking forward to seeing you have a tasting in KY soon!

[Balcones Winston]

I guess I'd be more excited if there were any plans for releasing some of that stuff to the general public. It's like a movie winning an Academy Award for best picture, but it never getting released to theaters or video.

This is all a promise of things to come. We are cranking out these spirits in a <2600 square foot distillery Chip and his crew built from scratch basically. Just think of what we'll be able to do with a new 65k square foot facility.

[wadewood]

Let me know what you find out

? did you mean to post "I'll let you know what I find out". Your company entered the competition, surely it can find out this information (how many spirits entered vs. awards given)

[Balcones Winston]

Yeah, if I cared to I guess I could.

[bearmark]

Congrats Winston! Chip is a miracle worker and its good that the world is starting to figure that out.

By the way, nice name, Crooked Bourbon. I'm looking forward to the Special Reserve edition with an age statement of 729 days (a day shy of 2 years) at 72.9% ABV in a 729ml bottle. ;-)

It also appears that you do know where the Commonwealth of Bourbon is. :-P

[TunnelTiger]

Really babying my True Blue Cask Strenght and my Rumble Reserve Cask Reserve until I can get some for the bunker. These are most excellent wiskeys!

[Balcones Winston]

Congrats Winston! Chip is a miracle worker and its good that the world is starting to figure that out.

By the way, nice name, Crooked Bourbon. I'm looking forward to the Special Reserve edition with an age statement of 729 days (a day shy of 2 years) at 72.9% ABV in a 729ml bottle. ;-)

It also appears that you do know where the Commonwealth of Bourbon is. :-P

Thanks buddy! We are pretty stoked ourselves. I just looked at the awards again and we dominated the double gold awards, taking 5 out of 28 awarded! :eek:

Really babying my True Blue Cask Strenght and my Rumble Reserve Cask Reserve until I can get some for the bunker. These are most excellent wiskeys!

Gotta love RCR. What a gorgeous spirit.

[wadewood]

Yeah, if I cared to I guess I could.

Ignorance is bliss.

[Balcones Winston]

It's not about ignorance. At Balcones, we hope that Texas whisky lovers will rejoice and take pride in our success. I could see your point if we had just won a couple of bronze and silver medals, but the fact is we took double gold and gold for everything we entered, and our bourbon beat every other brown spirit in the competition - which is no small feat. (complaint that we didn't make enough enters stage left) Maybe that doesn't mean much to you, but it means a lot to us, and a lot to whisky lovers all over Texas and the rest of the world who have gone out of their way to congratulate us on our achievements. It's also worth mentioning that it's thanks in part to those awards we were able to secure the financing to build our new distillery.

For what it's worth, roughly 260 spirits were entered. If you want to do the rest of the math, please post the results here. The full awards list is at http://www.nyworldwineandspiritscompetition.com/

[wadewood]

For what it's worth, roughly 260 spirits were entered. If you want to do the rest of the math, please post the results here. The full awards list is at http://www.nyworldwineandspiritscompetition.com/

I count 130 award winning spirits, so 50% win awards. I guess that's better than the San Francisco world spirits competition, where the last time I checked more spirits won awards than were entered (due to spirits being entered in more than 1 category). I think these awards shows are a complete farce and that they are basically pay for play - really nothing more than paid advertisement. My distaste of these is nothing to do with Balcones; well other than the fact I think you should stop playing the game. I have called plenty of others out for exact same thing and will continue to point out to others how worthless these awards are. The game is the fact that one can hang this on bottle or place sticker on bottle and consumers are gullible into thinking it won a gold medal it must be good. So my despise is for the players and for the game.

[Balcones Winston]

You may disagree with the premise behind these events but let's not forget you have never entered one of these competitions, never mind won an award for making whisky. Which is probably why you don't understand their value. Having interacted with these organizations personally, and working for a distillery on the receiving end of some pretty impressive accolades, I can personally vouch that they are worthwhile to participate in. If anything they are validation that we, a tiny craft whisky distillery tucked under a bridge, are doing something right, even faced up against some of the big players in the industry. Obviously it is a form of marketing for a supplier, who wouldn't advertise the fact that a panel of respected judges gave their creation an award? We're not trying to dupe "gullible" consumers into thinking our product is good, they are fortunately smart enough to make the judgement for themselves. Our aim is to be able to say "We made this, these people said it was really good, we hope you like it too" which you could argue is a more modest approach than "We made this, it's really good, trust me, buy it." It seems to be working for us so far.

I must stress to you the competition itself is not a farce. The judges are real, they have relevant experience and stature in the industry, and the evaluation process has strict rules and standards. Furthermore, the NY WWSC is done out in the open at a trade show so it is 100% transparent. You are free to not respect the results, but we do and so do many, many others, so it's unfair to say they're worthless.

Also, it's a misleading to point out that 50% of the entries won awards. They are not all equal. Bronze, Silver and Gold account for 80% of those, while Double Gold only represents the top 10% of all spirits entered. Finally, <1% of entries received the top honor: Best in Show - Brown Spirits

[cowdery]

Wade likes to be the turd in the punchbowl but he's right about awards. It's nothing against Balcones, you know how good your stuff is, that's not the issue. The problem is that there are so many competitions giving so many awards that it's impossible for the consumer to know what any of it is worth. I used to judge in competitions for Whisky Magazine, ADI, and others. I no longer do. For one thing, it's a lot of difficult and time consuming work with no benefit to me, and the quality control is zero. But advertiser-supported media love them because advertisers love them, especially when the sponsors are generous with the awards.

All the children are above average.

Then there are the competitions that seem to exist only for the glorification and probably enrichment of the organizers, or so they hope. Again, their customers are the people who pay to enter and to satisfy their customers they give lots of awards.

I wouldn't have brought up this subject in this thread but since it's here and people seem to be dancing around it, I thought I'd jump in and lay out the dilemma as I see it.