April 1987.
James B. Beam Distilling Co. makes the liquor deal of the decade when it acquires all of National Distillers and Chemicals’ liquor portfolio.
Ostensibly, this $545 million deal ($1.5 billion today) was about landing DeKuyper’s Peachtree Schnapps, then the hottest liqueur in America, the second best-selling bar order in the country (after vodka), and the base of such era-trendy cocktails as the Fuzzy Navel and Sex on the Beach.
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Also included in the sale were four American “Olds,” whiskey brands that had seen better days.
There was Old Overholt, a Pennsylvania-distilled rye gathering dust at a time when no one was drinking rye whiskey.
There was Old Grand-Dad, a bonded, bottom-shelf bourbon.
There was Old Taylor, a lower-proof, bottom-shelf bourbon, typically sold in a flask size.
The bourbon industry was, at the time, nearly two decades into a glut period that saw most American drinkers bypassing brown spirits in favor of vodka, tequila, and, yes, peach schnapps. It would take until the turn of the century for bourbon (and rye) to again start selling. And sell it would.
Today, Old Overholt is again back on top as one of the biggest names in American whiskey, a reliable shelf rye that now has line extensions galore including a 92.6-proof, 11-year-old bottling, a 10-year Cask Strength release, and a recent A. Overholt release meant to mimic the Monongahela-style, Pennsylvania rye of yore.
“Old Crow is some of the highest-in-demand liquid from that [pre-Prohibition] era, mainly because it was distilled by W.A. Gaines at the time.”
Today, Old Grand-Dad remains a dive bar favorite and cocktail bar workhorse with gussied-up packaging and rumors of a 16-year-old release to come.
Today, Old Taylor is known as Buffalo Trace’s E.H. Taylor, an allocated whiskey sold at high prices to connoisseurs and bottle hunters, following a 2009 acquisition.
Then there’s the fourth American whiskey brand that was part of that National Distiller mega-deal back in 1987.
Old Crow, however, has become all but forgotten.
The Pinnacle of an Era
It wasn’t easy for me to find a bottle of Old Crow, even in New York City. I guess a lot of folks aren’t drinking ten buck, plastic screw-cap bourbon in Brooklyn. But, eventually I found a bottle of the 80 proofer on the backbar of a local dive I only go to when I want to hear bad political opinions.
It honestly wasn’t bad; sweet corn, a hint of vanilla, a little spice, and a thin, drinkable mouthfeel. Perhaps that’s no surprise, Old Crow has the same low-rye bourbon mashbills as more vaunted Jim Beam products like Baker’s, Knob Creek, and Booker’s.
To my knowledge, that was the first time I’d ever had modern Old Crow — certainly the only time I’d drunk it within the last decade or so. (I was less assiduous about tracking what I was drinking in my 20s, to say the least.)
But, the funny thing is, I’ve had plenty of old Old Crow in recent years, especially while researching my book “Dusty Booze: In Search of Vintage Spirits.” And that’s because many drinkers consider vintage Old Crow some of the best bourbon ever made.
“The pinnacle of that era. It’s some of the tastiest stuff, with huge toasted fennel notes and candy, with a rich and luxurious mouthfeel.”
“It was once a monolith, a pillar of a brand 100 years ago,” says Zev Glesta, whiskey specialist and assistant vice president for Sotheby’s auction house. “Old Crow is some of the highest-in-demand liquid from that [pre-Prohibition] era, mainly because it was distilled by W.A. Gaines at the time.”
Gaines famously built Frankfort, Ky.’s Hermitage distillery in 1868, which was renowned for its sour mash whiskeys, a process often erroneously credited to brand namesake Dr. James C. Crow, a physician, chemist, and distiller who died in 1856.
In January of this year, Sotheby’s auctioned off a 1912 distilled/1918 bottled Old Crow quart for over $8,000, with the catalog calling the brand “among the most renowned names in Kentucky bourbon, respected as far as London and Paris as the pinnacle of American whiskey” prior to Prohibition.
Post-Prohibition, Old Crow was taken over by the aforementioned National Distillers, another much-ballyhooed distiller of yore.
On auction sites and the online secondary market, bottles of National Distillers-made Old Crow regularly go for many thousands of dollars. The crème de la crème of vintage Old Crow is the Old Crow Chessmen set. This one-time 1969 release offered 10-year-old, 86-proof National Distillers-produced bourbon bottled in 32 different ceramic chess piece decanters, sized from 12 to 15.5 inches and glazed in golden bronze for the white pieces and an almost black “Viridian Green” for the opposing side. (A full set also came with a 45-by-45-inch chess board made of deep-pile carpet.)
“The pinnacle of that era,” says Glesta, who currently has two sealed Chessmen sitting on his desk at work. “It’s some of the tastiest stuff, with huge toasted fennel notes and candy, with a rich and luxurious mouthfeel.”
Many vintage collectors who have tried a Chessman, myself included, consider this extremely dark bourbon some of the most exceptional liquid they have ever tasted. Fellow scribe Fred Minnick is another fan, having long claimed it is the finest bourbon he has ever tried (“some [decanters] taste like sublime blissfulness and others taste like shoe leather”).
“It tapers mid-1970s when it starts going down a certain path while its older brothers [Old Grand-Dad, Old Taylor, and Old Overholt] remain way cooler.”
Prices have skyrocketed in recent years — currently around $2,200 at retail — and dusty booze bars like Neat in Louisville or the Fountain Inn in Washington, D.C. are often judged by whether they have some in stock — or empties on display to at least let you know what kind of joint they are operating.
Which begs the question: Why is Jim Beam, and its parent company Suntory Global Spirits, letting such a legendary name just die on bottom shelves?
Tasting Wrong
“Today Old Crow is a bottom-shelf whiskey,” reads a recent Sotheby’s listing for vintage Old Crow, “a shadow of its former self, and this bottle is a testament to how glorious that former self really was.”
So what happened?
Bourbon industry historian Chuck Cowdery claims a former employee told him that, in the 1960s when Old Crow was still one of the country’s best-selling bourbons, National Distillers enlarged the production plant, inadvertently altering the percentage of setback used to condition the mash. (In other words, how much of the previous “spent” mash was added back to the new batch as part of the sour mash process.)
“Everyone, including [the former employee] and the distillery tasting panel, told management it tasted wrong, but at that point they were making it as fast as they could and selling all they could make, so nothing was ever done to fix it,” Cowdery reported in 2011.
Indeed, by the time the 1970s rolled around and the so-called “bourbon glut” began, Old Crow struggled more than many other brands, with massively declining sales for the next two decades, before Beam acquired it and again changed the recipe.
Glesta also sees it falling off in quality and desirability well before the Beam acquisition.
“It tapers mid-1970s when it starts going down a certain path while its older brothers [Old Grand-Dad, Old Taylor, and Old Overholt] remain way cooler,” he says.
Having said that, Glesta thinks Old Crow could see its own revival if Beam simply gave it 20 more proof points (up to 100 proof) and maybe a few line extensions as well. (To be sure, in 2010, Beam introduced a slightly older [4 years], slightly higher-proof [86] Old Crow Reserve, which also flopped. While in June, yet another 86-proof product, dubbed Crow 86, had its label approved by the TTB.)
“At Suntory Global Spirits we are always looking at opportunities across our full brand portfolio that meet a demand and add value to our existing and new consumers; and that continues to include Old Crow,” claims Bradford Lawrence, global brand management at Suntory Global Spirits. He also mentioned how many years of development it took “ensuring executable excellence” in regard to Old Overholt and Old Grand-Dad.
My theory, for what it’s worth, is that Jim Beam wants Old Crow to be a bit overlooked. Remember, it’s the same exact mash bill as Jim Beam White Label, the distillery’s flag-bearer. Having a bottom-shelf, $10 bourbon in the portfolio only improves the standing of the company’s $20ish flagship. I’m not even sure the company cares about the once-legendary past of Old Crow.
Indeed, at a recent press event, a Jim Beam executive grilled me on ideas for selling more White Label, seemingly having no interest in my thoughts on how to sell other brands in its portfolio, but especially Old Crow, which I continued to bring up.
“Have you considered just releasing an all-new Chessmen series?” I finally asked her.
She didn’t know what I was talking about.
