Is Cabin Still a Wheater?

[cowdery]

Cabin Still was one of the Van Winkle-era Stitzel-Weller brands, though if Old Fitzgerald was considered the flagship, Cabin Still was the opposite. It was, however, a Stitzel-Weller wheater for many years.

In the Spring of 1993, United Distllers sold about 70 brands to Heaven Hill, Cabin Still among them. Heaven Hill immediately sold many of those brands to David Sherman (now Luxco), but not Cabin Still.

At the time, Heaven Hill was queried and said Cabin Still would remain a wheated bourbon, but Cabin Still is such a small brand I never thought to ask again. Now, of course, Heaven Hill has Old Fitzgerald and also makes wheated bourbon for Luxco, for Rebel Yell, but none of that happened until Heaven Hill bought Bernheim in 1999. What were they doing for wheated bourbon between 1993 and 1999, when Cabin Still would have been Heaven Hill's only wheated bourbon?

This is not necessarily a mystery, as they may have obtained enough aged and aging wheated bourbon in the sale to cover at least the first four or five years of that, and could have bought it from Diageo thereafter. I'm just curious if they went to the trouble.

[OscarV]

Hey Chuck,... below is a thumbnail pic that Joel AKA TnSquire posted of some "dusty finds".

The Cabin Still bottle is interesting because above the Cabin Still name it says W. L. Weller, I assume this was bottled under the Van Winkle ownership.

I have never seen a Cabin Still that said WLW on it.

You have any knowledge of what it taste like or any other observations?

[cowdery]

In addition to never seeing Weller on the label, I've never seen Cabin Still in that type of bottle. It's usually in the squat "barrel bottle" like the two on the ends.

[gothbat]

Although I can't speak to Chuck's question, here is some information about the label/name. It's hard to say when they're from because they're not bonded and thus don't have dates on the labels (and there do not appear to be any markings on the bottles themselves to indicate when they were made) but I have 3 different Cabin Still mini's and they all have slightly different names. The oldest, which has a copyright date of 1939 on the label, says "Old Cabin Still" (aged 5 years, 91 proof); it also sports a different picture on the label, the middle bottle with copyright date 1956 (aged 6 years, 86 proof) says "W.L. Weller's Cabin Still", while the youngest with a copyright date of 1974 (aged 6 years, 80 proof) just says "Cabin Still".

edit: Interesting, I just went and took a look at the empty Cabin Still Hillbilly Decanter I have and the sticker on the base says "Old Cabin Still" (Aged 6 years, 90 proof). The decanter is dated 1969 so I guess they just liked to switch it up from time to time.

[OscarV]

The oldest, which has a copyright date of 1939 on the label, says "Old Cabin Still" (aged 5 years, 91 proof); .

Aged only 5 years, I would have loved to have tried it.

I am of course not an expert, nor do I portray one on TV.

But these lower proofed distilled and barreled bourbons are probably the best.

[TnSquire]

I have never seen Cabin Still in anything other than the tall bottles like I posted. I left a bunch on my last trip to D.C. that were also in the tall bottles.

[TnSquire]

edit: Interesting, I just went and took a look at the empty Cabin Still Hillbilly Decanter I have and the sticker on the base says "Old Cabin Still" (Aged 6 years, 90 proof). The decanter is dated 1969 so I guess they just liked to switch it up from time to time.

I posted in my dusty bottle thread pictures of Antique 107 with different labels as well.

[cowdery]

I might be wrong (Cabin Still has never been much on my radar screen) but I thought it was in the barrel bottle.

[ThomasH]

Cabin Still has been bottled in the barrel bottle in the past. I even have some older minis in my collection that are the barrel style bottle!

Thomas

[ggilbertva]

I picked up some mid 80's Cabin Still on one of my dusty trips into D.C. last year. Here's a pic.

As you can see, they are the taller bottles.

[mozilla]

Although I can't speak to Chuck's question, here is some information about the label/name. It's hard to say when they're from because they're not bonded and thus don't have dates on the labels (and there do not appear to be any markings on the bottles themselves to indicate when they were made) but I have 3 different Cabin Still mini's and they all have slightly different names. The oldest, which has a copyright date of 1939 on the label, says "Old Cabin Still" (aged 5 years, 91 proof); it also sports a different picture on the label, the middle bottle with copyright date 1956 (aged 6 years, 86 proof) says "W.L. Weller's Cabin Still", while the youngest with a copyright date of 1974 (aged 6 years, 80 proof) just says "Cabin Still".

edit: Interesting, I just went and took a look at the empty Cabin Still Hillbilly Decanter I have and the sticker on the base says "Old Cabin Still" (Aged 6 years, 90 proof). The decanter is dated 1969 so I guess they just liked to switch it up from time to time.

I noticed that the two minis on the right are "Distilled for and bottled by". I have a ltr from 1987 that has some great barrel flavors. It looks like Greg's bottles.

[ggilbertva]

Jeff,

I checked mine again and they say the same thing. All my bottles range in date from 1980-86

[jbewley]

I don't know how much light this sheds on the current Cabin Still product, but as an FYI, I just received a response from Heaven Hill Marketing to a question (which was basically, "Hey, this Old Fitzgerald stuff is great..do you make any other wheated bourbons?"), and the response said that "The Old Fitzgerald line [OF, OF1849, VSOF] are the only wheated Bourbons we make." Then they mentioned Bernheim Wheat Whiskey.

So either Cabin Still isn't a wheater anymore, or it's so far off their marketing/cust svc folks' radar that they don't know it is.

- Jeff

[cowdery]

Look at it this way.

Heaven Hill doesn't "make" Cabin Still or Rebel Yell or Old Bardstown or Jefferson's Reserve. Heaven Hill makes bulk whiskey that it sells to NDP customers such as Luxco, KDL and M&K, but it doesn't know what they do with it. I mean, they know but they don't "know," as they are not in a position to speak for their customer, nor would they want to.

Therefore, the only wheated bourbon Heaven Hill makes is Old Fitzgerald.

[OscarV]

OK then, who "bottles" Cabin Still?

A distillery or a buyer of bulk whiskey?

[cowdery]

I believe Luxco bottles and markets Cabin Still, as well as Rebel Yell and Ezra Brooks. They are based in St. Louis. They are a bottler and rectifier.

[mozilla]

I thought that Cabin Still listed Bardstown on the label. I will have to check next time I am in a store.

[OscarV]

My bottle satys;

"Distilled For And Bottled By Cabin Still Distillery Bardstown, Kentucky"

It is an '05 bottle.

[mozilla]

What upc does it show?

The Bardstown site says HH, but the distilled for says that they are allowed to use others distillate.

[OscarV]

UPC number, 96749 23230

What's that?

[mozilla]

96749 is the number found on almost every HH product. I forget their other upc's right now....I will have to see what I have accessable...and check. I'll update if I find any...

88076 is the only other one I have out. I would bet that they have a good number more up their sleeve. They just chose to use the 96749 as it is well known as being HH.

[cowdery]

I jumped the gun on lumping Cabin Still with the brands that went from UDV to HH to Luxco in quick succession in 1999. Luxco got Rebel Yell in 1999. The Cabin Still transaction goes back to 1993, when HH got it with a bunch or other brands including Ezra Brooks and Yellowstone, which it immediately dished to Luxco.

At that time, since HH wasn't making any wheated bourbon, they must have switched Cabin Still to a rye-recipe bourbon. I hadn't really thought about it, but nothing else makes sense.

According to Rebel Yell's web site, Rebel Yell is a wheated bourbon made by Heaven Hill, but I still think Heaven Hill's statement regarding Old Fitzgerald is true.

I should tag my posts as either "from memory" or "looked-it-up," so readers can better assess their reliability.

[mozilla]

We all get our facts mixed up every once in a while, Chuck. No need to worry about jumping the gun. Your facts are correct alot more than most of us, which is why it is so nice to have people like you and Mike Veach available to help us out.

[BourbonJoe]

This is when Cabin Still was definitely a wheater. DSP-KY-16 Stitzel Weller. 5 y/o, 90 proof. Circa 1965.

Joe

[mozilla]

Wow! That is pretty sweet. Where did you come up with that bottle, Joe?