Popcorn Sutton Distillery bought by Sazerac

[VAGentleman]

http://www.fredminnick.com/2016/12/22/sazerac-purchases-tennessee-whiskey-distillery/

 

Weird that they bought the distillery but not the brand.  Will be interesting to see what happens to the brand.  Will be cool to see what John Lunn can do here for Sazerac

[kwshannon]

So they wanted the completed distillery, with minor conversion work to implement the Lincoln process, plus the experienced staff, in my opinion.

[tanstaafl2]

1 hour ago, VAGentleman said:

http://www.fredminnick.com/2016/12/22/sazerac-purchases-tennessee-whiskey-distillery/

 

Weird that they bought the distillery but not the brand.  Will be interesting to see what happens to the brand.  Will be cool to see what John Lunn can do here for Sazerac

 

Well I presume that things have worked out pretty well for Lunn and Henley after leaving Dickel! If one were a conspiracy theorist...

 

Not sure if Sazerac thinks they can go toe to toe with 800 pound behemoth in Tennessee whiskey or if they just see some extra room in the market in general but this one does seem a bit harder to figure. My presumption was that output at this distillery was relatively small in the overall scheme of things but perhaps not?

[VAGentleman]

They have 2-2500 gallon stripping stills and a 1500 gallon spirit still, so they have the ability to make quite a bit.  I believe Check Cowdery stated they were running about 20% capacity so I think they can start cranking out a lot once they get up to speed

[VAGentleman]

I guess they'll have to rename the distillery also.  Wonder if they'll be allowed to go with Avery's Trail, which is the brand name they're using for the Gin they're making.  Didn't see any mention of that in the article

[tanstaafl2]

29 minutes ago, VAGentleman said:

They have 2-2500 gallon stripping stills and a 1500 gallon spirit still, so they have the ability to make quite a bit.  I believe Check Cowdery stated they were running about 20% capacity so I think they can start cranking out a lot once they get up to speed

 

Just reread that post. Bigger than I thought obviously. Although unless they plan to continue to do "specialty" spirits I would think a column sill might be next in the plans.

 

in retrospect I suppose this was not that much of a surprise when the newbie "tech investor" built the shiny new distillery and hired a big name to run what amounted to at the time a relatively insignificant brand (at least to me!). May have been shopping it from the start. Or I may just be jaded...

 

"When we met yesterday, just the two of us, he pointed out that if he was still at Dickel there would have been ten Diageo people there monitoring the conversation."

 

I wonder if Mr. Lunn has recovered from the intensity of life under the Diageo overlords or if Sazerac is just that much less intense than Diageo! A little of both perhaps.

[VT Mike]

I didn't realize Henley had left Dickel over the summer. Two distillers gone in 15 months, Diageo must be a pretty awful company to work for.