Cats & Dogs in Your Neighborhood

[Barrel_Proof]

We are all familiar with the Cats & Dogs bottled and promoted by the various distilleries.

I'd be interested in learning about private label grocery store, drug store, and regional brands that are available in your neighborhoods.

[Drake]

In this mornings series of grocery ads I learned that

Abertson's sell a burbon with their name on it.

[jbutler]

Albertson's is promoting what they claim is a small batch bourbon whiskey in their new "Origine" house brand lineup.

I got the flyer in the mail two weeks ago. So far, all I'm finding in the stores are shelf tags and liquor department employees who know nothing of it or it's arrival date. Curious because their Origine single malt has been on the shelves for some time now.

I wonder if this is an example of the liquor world's version of "vaporware". I hope not.

Edit 1/1/05: not!

[chasking]

Osco Sav-On has its own store brand bourbon, but it's only available in 1.75l jugs, and I'm not quite willing to buy that much just to try it.

The Berghoff restaurant in Chicago has its own house bourbon. They used to sell bottles of it, but nowadays it's only available in their bar. I believe it comes in 10yo and 15yo expressions. I'm not sure where I heard this, but I believe it is made for them by Heaven Hill.

[TNbourbon]

Closest thing around here (besides Jack Daniel's, I mean) are Prichard's rum and bourbon, both discussed elsewhere on this forum -- distilled and/or bottled in Kelso, TN, not far from JD and Dickel. Independent branding either isn't allowed (I'd rather think) or not cost effective here.

[cowdery]

Every store is full of cats and dogs but the request was specifically for house brands, which might be the name of the store (e.g., Albertsons) or a name contrived by the store and sold nowhere else. In addition to store brands, distributor brands used to be very common. A maker would create a brand exclusively for a particular distributor. The distributor would sell it to many stores, but it would be exclusive with that distributor. In whiskey I really can't think of any examples here locally, but it used to be a very common practice. Old Commonwealth bourbon is an example of a brand Julian Van Winkle created originally just for Sam's here in Chicago but apparently without any promise of exclusivity, because when the spirits buyer moved to competitor Binny's, Old Commonwealth began to be sold there as well.

How can you tell if something is a house brand or distributor brand? If you see it in every outlet of a certain store but nowhere else, it's probably a house brand. If it is commonly available in your city or state, but your friends elsewhere have never heard of it, it's probably a distributor brand.

[gr8erdane]

The only one I've bought so far was from a small upscale chain here called Straub's (7.99 a bottle if I recall and I gave BobbyC a bottle as a throw in on a trade), but Schnucks Supermarket chain has a regular and a deluxe (whew) bourbon on their shelves. Have toyed around with maybe buying a bottle of the "deluxe" but after tasting the Straubs I just haven't been able to pull the trigger. Will have to look at the labels sometime to see what the difference is. The other big chain here is Dierberg's and I think they have a house label too but not for sure as I shop at Schnucks.

We're not thinking of having a bargain basement bourbon night at the Gazebo now are we?

[RedVette]

Osco Sav-On has its own store brand bourbon, but it's only available in 1.75l jugs, and I'm not quite willing to buy that much just to try it.

It was Sav-On that had Old Forrester at $8.99. Why would anybody buy the house brand when a perfectly good brand name is available at that low of a price?

[bobbyc]

and I gave BobbyC a bottle as a throw in on a trade

It's still intact, maybe if we do have a bargain nite at the Gaz, I could pony it up!

[Barrel_Proof]

It was Sav-On that had Old Forrester at $8.99. Why would anybody buy the house brand when a perfectly good brand name is available at that low of a price?

That one's easy to answer: Because the bottling itself is of interest.

In fact, I offer a bottle of Ezra B 15 year old Single Barrel -- a bourbon no longer available and prized by many here -- in trade for any two Cats & Dogs not already parked in the Barrel_Proof bunker!

[bobbyc]

In fact, I offer a bottle of Ezra B 15 year old Single Barrel -- a bourbon no longer available and prized by many here -- in trade for any two Cats & Dogs not already parked in the Barrel_Proof bunker!

That should bring the players out!

[gr8erdane]

Meow and bow-wow, you're on!

[RedVette]

OK, I should have said " Why would a non collector buy a house brand..."

[jbutler]

bump!

[Barrel_Proof]

Albertson's "Origine"

Now that's one handsome bottling for a house brand. It appears that the bottle is the same as the B. Prichard’s Double Barreled, but with a shorter cap on the cork.

[MarkB]

Thanks for the directin to this post. This thread is a bit of a typical forum discussion ... it goes on and on yet nobody seems to ever bother to comment about anything meaningful, such as whether it's any darn good or not, nor it's "origine." I found the Origine Bourbon at a Osco, for what that's worth.

[boone]

Cat's and Dog's is a slang term is this industry...

Means (in general)...same ole stuff, different label

Bettye Jo

[Gillman]

Saw an Old Williamsburg in New York State not long ago that could fall within this concept. There were two versions side by side: one at 80 proof, the other at barrel proof. There was a Minnesota address on the labels. Not Minneapolis, another town. It said master distiller Robert Srule (this from memory) selected and combined different barrel proof whiskeys to arrive at the brand. The barrel proof (over 60% abv) had a nice dark color. There was a story on the label about old distillers in New York, clearly an attempt to evoke some lore and give a local feel to the product. Wanted to try it but I had bought enough at the time, maybe another time.

On the same trip I saw Old Overholts and bonded Grandads, clearly recent bottlings both, with Frankfort stated, exclusively on the Grandad, and together with Clermont on the Overholt. Is that because of Boston distillery, is that near Franfort and is bottling done there?

GAry

[jbutler]

Mark,

I recommend you open the bottle and try it. If it's a meaningful comment you're after, here's one; this stuff is best left in the bottle. I might think otherwise if it were 100 proof, at least then it might have some flavor.

[MarkB]

Well, I opened it... and true, not so good. But I suppose bourbon is like sex, even when it's bad, it's "OK."

It's sort of dissapointing (paid $17 for this "on sale" at Osco!) when one sees new brands and tries to take the chance (and give the benefit of the doubt) to something new and then find it's just a marketing scheme. This happened also the last time a tried something I hadn't heard of (at the time), when I got some 1792 Ridgemont Researve. I think it's about on the same level as this "Origine"-- out of San Jose, CA no less!

Guess bourbon is one of those things best not to try and get adventerous with... yet something in my psyche won't accept that.

Mark

http://jazztrpt.freeservers.com

[gr8erdane]

How do you know if you'll like it or not if you don't rip off the seal, pop the cork and pour it? Life is an adventure and if every step led to a gold mine, what would happen to the price of gold? I say don't give up on it after one try, you might be surprised if you go back to it later. Many of us here have changed our minds a time or two on bourbons that didn't quite do it for us the first time. I think some bourbons are like people. If you wake it from a deep slumber it's gonna grumble and smell bad.

[boone]

Hi Gary,

The Old Grand Dad is made at the Boston Plant (now called Booker Noe plant) They bottle it at Frankfort.

The Boston plant does not bottle. The Clermont plant bottles, and as I stated earlier so does the Frankfort plant.

The Booker Noe plant (Boston) is 16 miles from my house...it's closer to Frankfort than Clermont. It takes about twenty minutes for me to drive to the Booker Noe plant in Boston. It's a forty minute drive to Clermont.

Bettye Jo

[ratcheer]

I read an old Gaelic quote in Playboy about 40 years ago. I won't attempt to reproduce the language, but the translation is, "There's whiskey, and there's good whiskey, but there's no bad whiskey."

Tim

[Gillman]

Thnaks Bettye Jo, I didn't realise Beam had a bottling plant in Frankfort. Does it only do bottlling there? Was that a distillery originally?

Gary

[jeff]

It's on Georgetown Road headed out of town. I believe it once was the Old Grandad Distillery.