Who Owns Buffalo Trace

[Chefjohn]

In the course of what I’ve been reading I’ve come across some references to Age International and those references indicate that Age International owns Buffalo Trace. II was under the belief that Sazerac owns it. Other references indicate Sazerac is just the distributor for BT and AI owns it. Who owns BT?

[CardsandBourbon]

Sazerac is the parent company I believe.  Age International owns/owned various brands that are now distilled by BT.  If I'm wrong someone please correct this error.

[Ryan Dee]

Takara Shuzo owns all of the Age International brands, including Ancient Age(possibly not anymore), Blanton’s and Elmer T. Lee, despite them being distilled and aged at Buffalo Trace, owned by Sazerac Corp. This is also why you see other international offering of Blanton's  (IE, Gold, SFTB) much more than you will in the states, where only the Single Barrel is truly offered. I'm sure there are other releases, but they are extremely limited and closed off to certain groups.

 

Since they only own the Brands (key work here), and not the grounds, Saz still own's & operates under their own terms @ BT, but Warehouse H only houses Blanton's/ETL barrels.

 

At least that was my understanding of it the last time I researched it. I know RHF uses the #2 MB, but is matured at a different warehouse, unless any of this has changed in recent years.

Edited February 19, 2020 by Ryan Dee

[flahute]

Sazerac owns BT (the distillery) and the mashbill #1 brands.

Age International owns the mashbill #2 brands and BT distills for them.

[FasterHorses]

21 minutes ago, flahute said:

Sazerac owns BT (the distillery) and the mashbill #1 brands.

Age International owns the mashbill #2 brands and BT distills for them.

Interesting. So all of the MB2s are AI? 
is it an amicable relationship? Has one tried to take over the other?

[Ryan Dee]

30 minutes ago, flahute said:

Sazerac owns BT (the distillery) and the mashbill #1 brands.

Age International owns the mashbill #2 brands and BT distills for them.

So they own Hancock & RHF brands as well? 

 

and what do they do when Abraham Bowman wants a #2 run so they can re-distill & mature in Virginia? Do they have to purchase it outright from AI and then pay BT as well??

[BottledInBond]

49 minutes ago, FasterHorses said:

Interesting. So all of the MB2s are AI? 
is it an amicable relationship? Has one tried to take over the other?

I guess I can’t comment on how amicable it is, if one has tried to take over the other specifically. But, Sazerac probaly couldn’t take over Takara Shuzo even if they wanted to. Takara Shuzo is a huge international conglomerate and Age International is just a small piece of it. They are publicly traded so in theory Sazerac could try to buy up a controlling interest in shares but they probably wouldn’t want to anyway since they’re not just an alcohol company, they are in other businesses that Sazerac isn’t involved in. As a whole it is a much larger company than Sazerac too. Would Takara Shuzo want to take over Sazerac? Maybe, as it already has other alcohol businesses besides just Age International. However, Sazerac is privately held, which make it much tougher (impossible) to be acquired if the controlling family doesn’t want to sell. Since they’re billionaires already, unless the old man dies and the rest of the family then decides they want to sell, don’t expect this situation to change any time soon. 

[Chefjohn]

Thanks for the help guys. 

[flahute]

1 hour ago, FasterHorses said:

Interesting. So all of the MB2s are AI? 
is it an amicable relationship? Has one tried to take over the other?

It's amicable.

I recall that all #2's are AI but my memory sometimes fails me as I cram more and more into it.

[FacePlant]

2 hours ago, Ryan Dee said:

 but Warehouse H only houses Blanton's/ETL barrels.

 

That might be (is) incorrect.  

[flahute]

My memory was correct. For anyone wanting to dig deeper into the history, Chuck covered it in his blog a couple times.

 

http://chuckcowdery.blogspot.com/2013/12/it-was-best-of-times-it-was-worst-of.html

 

http://chuckcowdery.blogspot.com/2017/07/falk-and-baranaskas-saviors-of-buffalo.html

[smokinjoe]

29 minutes ago, flahute said:

My memory was correct. For anyone wanting to dig deeper into the history, Chuck covered it in his blog a couple times.

 

http://chuckcowdery.blogspot.com/2013/12/it-was-best-of-times-it-was-worst-of.html

 

http://chuckcowdery.blogspot.com/2017/07/falk-and-baranaskas-saviors-of-buffalo.html

Thanks for linking those, Steve.  Chuck at his best.  I did like the Pia Zadora mention in the comments in the first article... 

 

Stacy ThomasDecember 9, 2013 at 8:09 PM

Didn't Riklis have a bimbo wife whose showbiz career he promoted at lavish expense? Might have been a factor in his cash flow requirements. 

 

Pat in OKCDecember 9, 2013 at 10:37 PM

reply to Stacy:

That would be Pia Zidora. I was an auditor on the Rapid American audit engagement back in the early to mid-80s, when Schenley moved its headquarters to Dallas from NYC. Got a good exposure to the business. should have stuck with it. ha.

Edited February 19, 2020 by smokinjoe

[Chefjohn]

1 hour ago, flahute said:

My memory was correct. For anyone wanting to dig deeper into the history, Chuck covered it in his blog a couple times.

 

http://chuckcowdery.blogspot.com/2013/12/it-was-best-of-times-it-was-worst-of.html

 

http://chuckcowdery.blogspot.com/2017/07/falk-and-baranaskas-saviors-of-buffalo.html

Thanks for posting those Steve. That clears up the confusion for me 

[flahute]

1 hour ago, smokinjoe said:

Thanks for linking those, Steve.  Chuck at his best.  I did like the Pia Zadora mention in the comments in the first article... 

 

Stacy ThomasDecember 9, 2013 at 8:09 PM

Didn't Riklis have a bimbo wife whose showbiz career he promoted at lavish expense? Might have been a factor in his cash flow requirements. 

 

Pat in OKCDecember 9, 2013 at 10:37 PM

reply to Stacy:

That would be Pia Zidora. I was an auditor on the Rapid American audit engagement back in the early to mid-80s, when Schenley moved its headquarters to Dallas from NYC. Got a good exposure to the business. should have stuck with it. ha.

YES! I meant to mention that the comments were gold so thank you for zooming right into the center of the goldmine.

[FasterHorses]

6 hours ago, FacePlant said:

That might be (is) incorrect.  

I saw some experimental barrels in H.

[0895]

14 minutes ago, FasterHorses said:

I saw some experimental barrels in H.

 

You saw nothing...