Medley Brothers Bourbon

[cowdery]

Here's something to look for that's just being rolled out now. Medley Brothers Bourbon. This is from Charles Medley and his son, Sam, who have been doing the Wathen's Single Barrel for about 15 years now. This is a four year old bourbon, 102 proof, for about $25. Virtually the same label as the 1950s, showing the five Medley brothers.

It's NDP, but Kentucky-made (not LDI). It's similar to Angel's Envy in that Charles Medley, like Lincoln Henderson, spent his whole career as a hands-on distiller, so he's doing the quality control, i.e., picking the barrels. Their products are contract distilled, not bulk, and use their mash bill. Wathen, second from the right, is the father of Charles, grandfather of Sam.

Earlier this year they also came out with a 12-year-old, and it's very good, but also very limited. The Medley Brothers will be in ten states initially. I know Kentucky and Illinois are two of them. I know, it's just an NDP whiskey with a story, but it's good whiskey and a true story.

[tigerlam92]

Interested. I had like Wathen's and was about to start a thread why no one talk about them much recent years.

I think I will give this a try if I happen to see it here.

Thanks,

[tmckenzie]

Any idea what the mash bill is?

[MyOldKyDram]

Saw this one over the weekend but passed on it. Haven't really heard much if anything about it to this point.

[Lazer]

I would much rather see EW white label show up here in NYC.

[PaulO]

Do we know if it's coming to Indiana?

[cowdery]

I saw a list of the other states but I don't recall where and now I can't find it. They did Kentucky first.

I had dinner with Sam Medley last night and we talked a lot about the mash bill. It has been the Medley family mash bill at least since the generation of the five brothers, maybe longer. It is 77% corn, 10% rye, 13% malt. All three of their expressions use that mash bill.

We also talked about the fact that they have bootstrapped this business, which is why it took them 15 years to expand the line. They don't have any investors, it's just the family.

If I remember correctly, the suggested retail prices are:

Medley Brothers - $25

Wathen Single Barrel - $35

Medley 12-year-old - $50

[Kyjd75]

I saw this today at Eric's store in Elizabethtown. Was surprised as this is the first I have heard of it. I have been a fan of Wathens and the 12 yr "Old Medley" releases. IMHO both are quite good. Kind of dismissed this when I saw it but now think maybe I should give it a try.

[Josh]

I'm glad to know that the story is real. I will be sure to pick some up when I get the chance!

[fussychicken]

It's NDP, but Kentucky-made (not LDI). It's similar to Angel's Envy in that Charles Medley, like Lincoln Henderson, spent his whole career as a hands-on distiller, so he's doing the quality control, i.e., picking the barrels. Their products are contract distilled, not bulk, and use their mash bill.

Who in Kentucky contract distills unique mash bills? Not many people left that will do that...

Any idea where they are keeping their barrels?

I've always hoped the Medleys would be able to open back up Owensboro one day. So many good comments about the bourbon that used to come out of that distillery.

[White Dog]

Who in Kentucky contract distills unique mash bills? Not many people left that will do that...

Any idea where they are keeping their barrels?

I've always hoped the Medleys would be able to open back up Owensboro one day. So many good comments about the bourbon that used to come out of that distillery.

Good question. HH or B-F?? Come on, Chuck. You know we all wanna know where it's distilled.

[r60slash5]

Saw this in on http://queencitydrinks.com/2013/10/15/medley-brothers-bourbon-relaunch/ "Soon be available in Georgia, South Carolina, New York, Massachusetts, Illinois, Connecticut, and Rhode Island"

I already have a good idea where to ask about it.

Ted

[sutton]

I love the Old Medley 12yo I have - I'll keep an eye out for this, esp. if there is a family relationship to the 12yo.

[ethangsmith]

Sounds like a decent bourbon. I'm good for a bottle. Hopefully it makes its way to PA or MD....

[Lazer]

Sounds like a decent bourbon. I'm good for a bottle. Hopefully it makes its way to PA or MD....

No it does not sound like a decent bourbon. it sounds like an overpriced less than decent bourbon just like wathen's single barrel. What sounds decent about this? The proof? The age? Is it non-chill filtered? This sounds like a $10 - $15 bourbon that they are charging $25 for. I can name some bourbons at $25 that I would pay more for. (but I won't)

[ethangsmith]

To each their own, but that's like saying the Beams don't know crap about whiskey. Keep in mind it was stated earlier in this thread that the Wathens are having this made for them and it's not just bulk whiskey. What does that mean? It means they've got a good control over their product and it stands to be potentially different than other whiskies on the market. Again, you're free to your opinion, but I am interested to try something that could potentially be a little different and keeps the heritage of a famous KY distilling family alive.

[CL]

I had dinner with Sam Medley last night and we talked a lot about the mash bill. It has been the Medley family mash bill at least since the generation of the five brothers, maybe longer. It is 77% corn, 10% rye, 13% malt. All three of their expressions use that mash bill.

Ah ha, that explains a lot - 77% corn. I used to always keep a bottle of the SiB around b/c the sweetness of it made it an easy drink. I don't buy it much anymore though - it's not in NC and when I do see it when traveling, it always seems to be $40. At that price, I'd rather buy more complex bourbons. However, I am interested in the MB version - I'd drop $25 to try it.

[JKLS]

I really enjoy the Old Medley 12. Have yet to try the Wathen's and will keep an eye out for this as it appears CT is on the future release list (surprisingly).

[BourbonJoe]

I tried the 12 y/o at Cork and Bottle in Covington. I did not like it well enough to buy it. YMMV.

Joe

[cowdery]

As I wrote in the original post, all three Medley expressions use the same mash bill, so the Medley Brothers is just the 12-year-old at 4-years-old. I tried it and it's very good, very rich with all of the good wood flavors, but with a little bit of grain too.

One thing about bulk whiskey is that, especially in the current environment, you don't always get the pick of the litter. You have to take what the distillery is willing to sell you, which often isn't their best stuff. There are 4-year-olds the distillers will sell in bulk and 4-year-olds they keep for themselves, for their own brands. This tastes more like the ones they keep for themselves.

Who will do contract? As I've said many times, no one is in the bulk whiskey business except when they are, though most of the majors only sell aged whiskey in bulk as inventory adjustments. That's sometimes called the spot market. Almost anyone with the capacity will do contract. Why not? You get paid up front plus you get an income stream from aging, and you never have to worry about selling the stuff when it matures because the NDP owns it. The retail sale is their problem.

Most start-ups can't afford to do contract, they need whiskey they can sell right away. They usually have very little capital to invest and don't want to wait four or five years before they have something to sell. If you're going to do that, you might as well build a distillery. Most contract work is from established businesses. The considerable whiskey that Diageo buys from MGPI and others is all contract. What regional rectifiers like Phillips, Luxco, Frank-Lin and Paramount buy is contract. I suspect Templeton Rye, which has been a successful brand for six or seven years now, has switched from spot to contract.

Heaven Hill uses a contract distilling model with their distributors. The 6-year-old whiskey that will be 7-year-old (theoretically) Evan Williams next year isn't owned by Heaven Hill. They sold it to their distributors years ago, when it came off the still. This allows Heaven Hill to free up capital to invest in more production and gives the distributors a favorable price, especially in an expanding market. Heaven Hill works with its NDP customers the same way. Brown-Forman still has quite a bit of excess capacity in Shively so they're happy to do contract. They just prefer to work with other producers, people who already know the industry. I've never really talked to anyone at Beam about it but I know they do it too and I suspect their attitude is the same. Heaven Hill was probably doing a little less of it until they expanded Bernheim sufficiently, but Heaven Hill has always done both contract and spot as a regular part of their business.

No producer except MGPI has any interest in talking about this part of the business. If you want to write something about them, they'd prefer you write something about the brands they own. Nobody will talk about what products use their whiskey and that's fair. If I'm a contract producer, I'm making and selling whiskey with certain specifications. I don't really know if customer A is using that whiskey to make Brand B. It's none of my business and I don't care.

You also have to remember who Charles Medley is. He's not some guy who one day got a wild hair to start a whiskey business. He's been doing this for 50 years and knows everyone in the business. He was the master distiller at Medley when the family owned it and stayed as master distiller with every subsequent owner, down to and including United Distillers, which became Diageo. When Diageo sold the Owensboro distillery in 1992, Charles bought it. He also bought the 8,000 or so barrels of whiskey that were still in the warehouses. That's what Wathen's single barrel was originally. When that started to run out, they looked around for partners. They needed whiskey, they also needed someone to bottle and distribute it. They worked with Luxco for a while. There was also a period when they weren't doing much of anything. Now it's Frank-Lin, from California, and Sam, son of Charles, is now the driving force. They figure this is a good time to ramp it up. In a couple of years they hope to being doing 30,000 cases, most of that in the Medley Brothers.

Companies like Luxco and Frank-Lin already have contract relationships with distillers, so somebody like Charles can either buy from them or buy directly from the distiller. He buys directly from the distiller.

What does Charles do? He isn't hanging out at the distillery. He's sitting in his office, tasting samples, deciding what's ready and what needs to age a little longer.

Who will do contract under those terms? Just about everybody. The list of who won't is shorter: Maker's, Wild Turkey, Four Roses. In their cases it's just because they don't have enough capacity. With the enlarged distillery, I wouldn't completely rule out Wild Turkey. I suspect, but don't know, that Charles is getting his from Heaven Hill. He was still employed by United Distillers (now Diageo) when new Bernheim was being built, so he knows that distillery. But it could be anybody.

Do I care? Not too much. I know it's one of those guys and I know it's Charles Medley, not Craig Beam or Chris Morris, who is doing the quality control.

I don't want it to sound like I'm working for them because I'm not, but I think there is a qualitative difference between this and the many micro-producer whiskeys that have come on the market recently. I put them in the same category as Angel's Envy.

Edited October 17, 2013 by cowdery

[Kalessin]

Thank you, Mr. Cowdery!

[Enoch]

I have a 1960s bottle of Medley Bros. BIB so I will have to buy one of these and compare.

[Lazer]

At the end of the day, I don't care if pappy van winkle himself came back from the dead to sample the whiskey, I'm not going to pay $25 for 4yr old bourbon. I don't buy as much whiskey as I used to, partly thanks to the bottle of wathen's I overpaid for that I have no interest in finishing and partly because I have plenty of reserves on hand. There's plenty of whiskey that I like at $25 and under that I'd rather spend my money on. I did the sentimental thing with Wathen's and I regret it. That's all.

[ethangsmith]

I'd be happy to buy the bottle you're not going to buy- if I can find it!

[smokinjoe]

Glad to hear Georgia's on the distribution Hit Parade. I look forward to trying it out. Sounds like it could be interesting. Regardless, as one of our esteemed players at our (used to be weekly) poker games used to say, when calling an inexpensive bet...Heck, I'll pay that to watch a pig f**k...