Templeton Rye Event in Iowa

[Dr. François]

I got this from the brand manager at Templeton Rye. Anyone near Iowa should check it out and report back!

Saturday, June 7, 2008

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Greetings from Templeton

Hello friends,

Just a reminder about this weekend's festivities at the brand new, expanded Templeton Rye Distillery. We'll be opening our doors at 1:00 pm with tours led by the Templeton Rye team starting every 30 minutes. Visitors can stick around after the tour to check out our gift shop. We'll also have some of the TR barrels used to age Batch 2 for sale for $75 each. Don't forget your truck to bootleg it home — of course, they are empty.

The tours end at 5:00 pm, but that's when the real fun begins! We'll walk across the lot for some great live music under the stars with The Nadas and opening act Fat Andy. Fat Andy will take the stage at 6:00 pm with their self-proclaimed sound of Americana, Folk, Southern Alt-Country Rock. The Nadas will start shortly afterwards and rock into the night. We've partnered with the City of Templeton who will set up a beer garden and allow camping in the park for those who want to spend the night.

The open house is complimentary but you will need a ticket to see the music. Tickets are only $10 and can be purchased at www.iowatix.com and or at the gate the night of the show. Smart TR and Nadas fans can go the all-inclusive route and hop on a chartered bus that will depart from AK O'Connors in West Des Moines to Templeton, and take you back to Des Moines after the show. Only $35.00 covers the bus ride, PLUS admission to the concert and the distillery open house tour.

And here's the big bonus . . . are you ready? Mike Butterworth, lead singer for The Nadas, will be your bus chaperone during the trip to Templeton. How cool is that? So hurry and sign up for the bus package today at http://www.thenadas.com/store. Space is running out and Mike will be so happy to have you all along.

I can't wait to see you all on Saturday and I know it will be a great day. Keep your fingers crossed for good weather.

Sincerely,

Michael Killmer, Brand Manager, Templeton Rye

[cowdery]

A word to the wise. Although Templeton does have a distillery, not a drop of the whiskey they are currently selling was made there. It is bulk whiskey they purchased and bottled.

They sure do seem to be well-capitalized, though. I'll give them that. They're spending marketing money like crazy.

I just don't understand why anyone would want to buy whiskey from someone who won't tell you who actually made it.

[Dr. François]

A word to the wise. Although Templeton does have a distillery, not a drop of the whiskey they are currently selling was made there. It is bulk whiskey they purchased and bottled.

They sure do seem to be well-capitalized, though. I'll give them that. They're spending marketing money like crazy.

I just don't understand why anyone would want to buy whiskey from someone who won't tell you who actually made it.

"We'll also have some of the TR barrels used to age Batch 2 for sale for $75 each."

Chuck,

It sounds like batch two, which they have apparently dumped, was estate made. Am I misguided in this belief? Perhaps I just want to believe it?

If Templeton is selling Templeton branded barrels, it seems like the juice that went into the barrels was estate made. If the barrels are branded DSP-KY ###, then that assumption wouldn't be accurate.

When was the last time someone sent interrogatories to Templeton?

Jeremy

[Gillman]

This would suggest that current bottles on the shelf contain whisky distilled on site. Perhaps someone could give a taste note (ideally, comparing it to an early bottling from Templeton) from a bottle recently purchased. I would think that a relatively young distillate of rye whiskey, if made on site, would "jump out at you", i.e., you would know if it was estate-produced using Jeremy's term.

Gary

[cowdery]

When you are dealing with people who don't have any interest in providing clear, factual information, and who prefer smoke and mirrors, you quickly tire of sending interrogatories. These are people who, on their original web site, clipped a photograph of a still out of a catalog and labeled it "our still."

[ILLfarmboy]

When you are dealing with people who don't have any interest in providing clear, factual information, and who prefer smoke and mirrors, you quickly tire of sending interrogatories. These are people who, on their original web site, clipped a photograph of a still out of a catalog and labeled it "our still."

Perhaps the folks at Templeton didn't think anyone would notice. Maybe they think we're are Idiots Out Walking Around.:cool:

[Dr. François]

I wish Templeton had just been forthcoming from the beginning...this is a pretty interesting looking product. However, you're right, Chuck...the corporation has provided enough reasons to experiment elsewhere. C'est la vie. Plenty more whiskey to drink.

[cowdery]

I don't mean to be a hard-ass, but a producer has to prove itself to us, not the other way around. Templeton and some of these other start-ups have not gotten off to a good start.

That said, the whiskey in the bottle is good. I very much would like to know who made it. Is my desire to know unreasonable? After all, if the product was crap I wouldn't care who made it.

[ILLfarmboy]

Well.............

I wonder how the event went.

Do we have any lurkers or members who never post who were in attendance?

For me, it is a good three and a half hour drive to Des Moines to catch the buss.

Although, there are a number of question I would have liked to have asked, if you know what I mean.

[wku88]

The Templeton I have had the pleasure to drink must have presumeably came from the first, farmed out batch, and it was very good. Much sweeter and smoother than Saz, and worlds away from JB Rye. Although it is intriguing to know where it came from, the fact is, it's real good whiskey.

[shoshani]

The Templeton I have had the pleasure to drink must have presumeably came from the first, farmed out batch, and it was very good. Much sweeter and smoother than Saz, and worlds away from JB Rye. Although it is intriguing to know where it came from, the fact is, it's real good whiskey.

That right there would lead me to speculate that their farmed-out rye was distilled at Brown-Forman by Messrs. Beam . I haven't had Templeton, but that "sweeter and smoother than Saz" description could certainly fit something like Rittenhouse.

[cowdery]

Scott Bush, the owner of Templeton, refuses to tell me his source, but avers that it was none of the "usual suspects," i.e., the major American distilleries such as Brown-Forman known to make straight rye. I have further speculated that he got it from Canada and this he would neither confirm nor deny.

He has also asserted that it "tastes like no other rye whiskey on the market," a claim that wouldn't necessarily be a good thing and with which I disagree. It is a good, solid straight rye whiskey, not exceptional really, and also not particularly distinctive. I would also say that it's no better than several ryes that sell for half as much.

[shoshani]

Scott Bush, the owner of Templeton, refuses to tell me his source, but avers that it was none of the "usual suspects," i.e., the major American distilleries such as Brown-Forman known to make straight rye. I have further speculated that he got it from Canada and this he would neither confirm nor deny.

I noticed that on the Templeton Rye blog they feature current barrels whose tops are emblazoned with the DSP-IA distillery number.

They also apparently sold or gave away barrels from their first two bottlings as premiums. If one of those barrels can be located, perhaps its DSP number will be on its top as well.

This, of course, does not help if the rye was sourced from more than one distillery...

[cowdery]

The new, best guess for the source of both Templeton and High West is Lawrenceburg, Indiana.

[ILLfarmboy]

Does anyone know when their own juice will be ready to bottle, a year from now, two or three years? Will they perhaps blend the purchased bulk whiskey with their own juice for a time so as to make any variation in flavor profile a slow change less likely to raise eye brows?

[shoshani]

The new, best guess for the source of both Templeton and High West is Lawrenceburg, Indiana.

Jim Murray spent years praising a rye from Lawrenceburg, Indiana while deploring the fact that Seagram made it strictly for blends with no intention of releasing it as a straight. If Templeton and High West do come from Lawrenceburg, I wonder a) whether Angostura got the mashbill for that rye as part of the sale and whether that particular rye mashbill is in these bottlings.

[shoshani]

I wish Templeton had just been forthcoming from the beginning...

Not part of the marketing plan.

There are two things in the Templeton back story that make absolutely no sense to me:

1. The rye whiskey made in Templeton, Iowa was made by an army of bootleggers; the entire town was apparently involved.

2. Rye from Templeton was known as "The Good Stuff" by connoisseurs who were prepared to pay a premium and risk jail time or worse to get it.

My eyebrows are raised as follows:

1. If everyone in Templeton was making this stuff, how on earth would a consistent product ever have been achieved? We know for a fact that the identical mashbill will make wildly different whiskey when it's made and/or aged in different locations by professional distillers with an operation sizable enough to guarantee some modicum of consistency. An army of bootleggers working furtively out of their backyards, basements and kitchens, with different water and different ambient yeasts? Not a chance.

2. I think it odd that any bootlegged rye would have been impressive enough to have been dubbed "The Good Stuff" without heavy additions of flavoring and coloring materials. Nobody was inflicting a #3 char on new white oak barrels in Templeton and resting the spirit for two or more years. Presenting the history of the product as being straight whiskey is romantic but since it was illegal to distill anyway (except for half a dozen distilleries once a year for five years), there was no point in following any of the labeling legislation for straight whiskey. Think about it.

[cowdery]

I've said it many times, but I have trouble doing business with anyone who starts the relationship by lying to me. That pretty much taints everything that comes after.

[augustgarage]

Templeton is offering distillery tours now - I might actually be in Iowa City later this Spring, but doubt I'll have time to make the (7 hours round) trip. The "

" video focuses exclusively on the bottling (and bottle labeling) process...

Scott Bush will be at WhiskyFest in Chicago...I'd be interested in seeing if any further info can be garnered about their product (in its past, present, or future states).

[ThomasH]

Templeton's bottling process must be getting higher tech. The bottle I have is from 4-14-08 and instead of the tape around the cork top, mine has a clear plastic shrink seal and a faux tax stamp similar to those found on ND bottles in the mid to late 1980's!

Thomas

[squire]

I have to agree with Chuck, there is no excuse for misleading information and non answers. There is no point, being truthful would gain experienced customers and advertising will bring in those who don't care.

[augustgarage]

Templeton is finally responding to some of the questions about their rye. Note this post and the follow-up comments. Scott Bush seems to have perfected the politician's art of answering the question he wanted to hear rather than the one that was asked - still, I think there is a lot of potential with this distillery. They claim to have 130 barrels of their own distallate now ageing, though it sounds like they won't be bottling any of this until it has spent sufficient time in the barrel.

[sku]

Templeton is finally responding to some of the questions about their rye. Note this post and the follow-up comments. Scott Bush seems to have perfected the politician's art of answering the question he wanted to hear rather than the one that was asked - still, I think there is a lot of potential with this distillery. They claim to have 130 barrels of their own distallate now ageing, though it sounds like they won't be bottling any of this until it has spent sufficient time in the barrel.

You're right that the blog post is pretty political, lots of weasal words there. Why can't they just be up front the way High West is and say, we are ageing rye but it's not ready yet so we are marketing another rye under our label. What's the harm? I respect the straightforward response a lot more.

[Josh]

You're right that the blog post is pretty political, lots of weasal words there. Why can't they just be up front the way High West is and say, we are ageing rye but it's not ready yet so we are marketing another rye under our label. What's the harm? I respect the straightforward response a lot more.

Or just say, "I'm not going to tell you where the stuff is from" up front instead of being shady about the whole thing. This whole business doesn't seem to have won Templeton a lot of friends around here.

[Jono]

http://maps.google.com/maps?client=opera&rls=en&q=templeton+iowa&sourceid=opera&oe=utf-8&um=1&ie=UTF-8&split=0&gl=us&ei=PRHdSZunJY6wNNi3sNMN&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&ct=image&resnum=1

Templeton, IA is pretty remote...you would have to be going to Des Moines or Omaha....or Sioux City.....to be near there.

I think the lesson in corporate communication from this episode is to just be honest....the whiskey consumer knows that a start up needs time and that the initial product is often obtained elsewhere. They have a right not to say where it came from (other than legal disclosures)...due to competitive considerations?...but I don't know if that it is a real concern....maybe someone in the industry could comment.