Who makes Bulleit

[sku]

I thought Bulleit was made by Four Roses, but the database on this website says it's made at BT. Does anyone know where it is made?

Also, I know Diageo owns Bulleit. Do they own Four Roses as well?

Thanks.

[Jake_Parrott]

Four Roses makes Bulleit. Diageo buys it when it's made but stores at least some of it at 4R Cox's Creek. 4R is owned by Kirin.

[OscarV]

Bulleit is made by Four Roses.

In Lawrenceburg and owned by Kirin Breweries.

[sku]

Thanks all. Sorting out who owns, makes and/or bottles each Bourbon seems to be getting harder and harder.

[HighTower]

I recently asked Jim Rutledge about Bulleit, as I was wondering why in Australia we are receiving bottles that are no longer 90 proof, but they are 80 proof and bottled in the UK.

I was asking as I don't like this 80 proof stuff, and I was wondering what water source may have been used. If I ever see 90 proof bottles still around I snap them up.

Jim said they sold the bourbon to Diageo, and once they had it what happens with it is out of their hands.

Maybe they cut it with some lovely water from the River Thames

Scott

[mozilla]

Leestown Distilling (aka Ancient Age) and Seagrams/ Four Roses has made Bulleit, at one time, for Tom.

info from EllenJaye.com

[HighTower]

Just found that email from Jim.

Here's a bit of it:

I don't have any idea what Diageo does with their Bourbon we sell them. I'm pretty sure Bulleit is not the same formula it was when we were both part of Seagram. I didn't know they had changed the strength, and I don't know how widespread the change. The reduced strength doesn't surprise me. Diageo would like to have more Bourbon from us than we are willing to supply and I suspect the change is an effort to spread the inventory further.

Scott

[TNbourbon]

The Bulleit brand originated in the early-'90s, when Tom Bulleit bought some barrels from Buffalo Trace (then Ancient Age/G.T. Stagg) for private bottling. There was a 90 proof, and a BIB 'Thoroughbred' bottling. See here:

http://www.straightbourbon.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=2168&d=1135050531

I don't think it lasted long. I still have a couple of bottles of the 90, and had a couple of sealed cases of the 100-proof (from 1996, I think -- perhaps Bobby can peek in the 'bunker' and give further details). DSP-KY-113 appeared prominently on the case markings.

Tom Bulleit is only associated with the current bottling as a marketer. In other works, Diageo bought the rights to his brand.

[cowdery]

Tom Bulleit's original brand, more than ten years ago, was made at BT. There were actually two expressions, Bulleit and Thoroughbred. I don't exactly know why, but he later moved the operation to Seagram's. They produced a new bottle design (the current one) and Four Roses started to make it. When Seagram's was broken up, Four Roses was sold to Kirin but the Bulleit brand was retained by Diageo, which got interested in it and decided to start pushing it.

At the time of the sale, Four Roses had a contract with Diageo to supply Diageo with bourbon, and it amounted to about half of the total production of the distillery, which was a big limiting factor for growing the Four Roses brand. Today, the only thing Diageo is getting from Four Roses is the whiskey for Bulleit. I don't know the terms, but I suspect Four Roses would like to get out from under that obligation as soon as possible so they can devote all of their production to supplying the Four Roses brand and moving it into more U.S. markets.

For its other bourbon needs (I. W. Harper, the bourbon component of its blends), Diageo has contracting with Brown-Forman, Barton and others to produce whiskey to its specifications, which it is aging at the old Stitzel-Weller Distillery. I don't know this, but it's possible some of that whiskey is intended for future batches of Bulleit.