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Greg Davis is the new Master Distiller at Maker's Mark, succeeding Kevin Smith who is taking a new job with parent company Beam Global, as reported today by Maker's Mark President Bill Samuels in an email to Maker's Mark Ambassadors.

When Davis left Sazerac's Tom Moore Distillery ten weeks ago to take the job of Director of Distillery Operations at Maker's Mark, reporting to Smith, something about it didn't seem right. Davis is young (40) but he was Master Distiller at Barton/Tom Moore for almost ten years and I just couldn't see him being somebody's assistant for very long. For ten weeks, as it turns out.

Smith is mum about exactly what his new job will be at Beam's flagship distillery at Clermont, Kentucky, but I'm sure that shoe will drop soon.

Atomic Fireball Vodka? Frank Bruni talks about home infusing in The Tipsy Diaries

Porch Crawlers! A summery cocktail to get your Labor Day party started.

Today, I introduce Jason Cretacci, a Fine Spirits Consultant in Western New York as a guest blogger. Jason explores the flavor of things . . .

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My question to the What does John know? readers concerns flavored whisk(e)ys.  I have always enjoyed Compass Box Orangerie, Wild Turkey American Honey & Phillps Union Cherry Whisky.  I have also had the good fortune to try Bird Dog Blackberry Whiskey and Whitetail Caramel Flavored Whiskey.  Now, these are not something I would drink on a regular basis, but they have their place on whiskey rack, the store shelf, and on the back of bars.  These are great ways to introduce people to whiskeys, the same way I would introduce friends to wine with sweeter, more approachable ones before they move on to the dryer varietals.

What flavored whiskeys have you enjoyed? Did you get your start on whiskeys through flavored whiskeys? What other flavors would you like to see on store shelves? What bad experiences have you had from flavored whiskeys?

Good Drinks,

Jason Cretacci
Fine Spirits Consultant
Passport Wine & Spirits
http://www.passportwineandspirits.com

This is a story my father told me. It is about a father and son. The son lives in town, the father lives alone on a farm several miles outside of town. Every day, as is his custom, the father walks into town, purchases a pint of whiskey, and walks back to his farm. For years, the son has enjoyed this daily opportunity to at least observe his father from his office window, but recently he has noticed that time is catching up with the old man. His stride has shortened and his gait has slowed. The daily walk has become a trial for him.

The son, being a devoted son and not wanting to see his father suffer (and having failed for years to persuade his father to abandon the farm and move to town), decides there is at least one small way he can give his poor father some relief. He purchases a half-gallon bottle of his father’s favorite whiskey, drives out to the farm and gives his father the gift. The father, never a demonstrative man, accepts the gift and thanks his son, who returns to town.

The next day the son, still basking in the glow of his thoughtful deed, looks out the window to see his father once again walking into town. Moreover, his father seems to have aged ten years. His skin is pallid, his clothing is disheveled and he is walking with even move difficulty than usual. The son immediately rushes to his father’s side. “Dad,” he cries, “what are you doing? I brought you that bottle of whiskey so you wouldn’t have to make this walk every day.” The father slowly raises his head and looking directly into his sons eyes, whispers in a quiet voice, “son, whiskey don’t keep.”

Ah ginger ale... Makes a comforting cocktail both in the air and on the ground. In this case, the Cloudy Sky, along with sloe gin and lime.

Nearly all liquor websites are terrible for those of us looking for product information, brand history, or recipes. These things, you would think, would be their prime focus. As I spend a lot of time looking for product information, I have to deal with these sites all the time. Without realizing it, I have switched to an operating mode where I won't go to the website but will hunt down the PR contacts for the brand to send me information....

[Visit Alcademics.com for the full post.]

CaJohn's Frostbite is a hot sauce specifically made for cocktails. It's white and it's suuuper hot.

In which I overcome my resistance to stone fruit and mix a fresh sour with the season's last apricots. - When the fat lady sings!

Coconut, raspberry, and lime are the perfect flavor combination to keep cocktail fans in the Summer State of Mind.

Lemon Drop Jello Shots get wedged for a fun and sophisticated look.

Nate Nicoll, blogger at www.whiskywall.wordpress.com, joins “What Do You Know” as today’s guest blogger and opens the whisky war chest.

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While drinking does not always need to be a battle, and hopefully most of the time it is not, of fundamental importance to the savvy and seasoned imbiber of spirits is how one stocks the war chest.  And this isn’t just any war chest, this is the cache of whiskies that must have a proper balance of bottles to fortify one’s abode against any unprecedented or decidedly welcome peril.

Let’s get the obvious out of the way.  One must stock a celebratory-grade whisky.  This is something you tend to ignore, perhaps dusting it off occasionally and admiring it, pondering when the day will arrive when you will be justified in cracking the seal.  This object of your fawning, this grail of sorts imparts to you a sense of purpose.  The mere idea of trying to justify savoring such a pour will inspire you to set the bar higher, to clearly state goals in your mind, the achievement of which will permit you to raise a chalice of this superlative spirit.  Simply possessing the celebratory-grade whisky can make you a better person.  And if you torture yourself for long enough, holding out till the moment when you feel you’ve earned your reward, you will probably be so deranged that the whisky will taste as nectar and in the manner of self-fulfilling prophecies, you will love it no matter what.  Depending on the depths of one’s wealth this prized bottle can be astronomically expensive.  Thoughts of bottles from now long gone distilleries like Port Ellen or Brora come to mind.

Then there is your guest whisky.  This term may be bifurcated depending on your relationship with your guests.  If your guests are limited to solid friends and family, this should be something a cut above.  More importantly, it should be an expression of you.  This whisky is an opportunity to let those you invite into a private setting to get to experience an aspect of yourself that you have come to terms with and that you entrust to those around you.  It is easy to impress a guest with something rare or fine, but to share a whisky with them that reflects something of your own tastes and personality give them insight into who you are, brings them into your inner-circle.  An expression that might surprise them or that you think to yourself “you have to try this.”  As you can see this is a highly personalized choice and will vary from drammer to drammer.  For my purposes I like to have an independent bottling of an Islay or Lowland malt.  

Then there is the other guest whisky.  If you have occasion to suffer guests that aren’t particularly welcome but seem to occasionally wash up on your shore, you might need something to make them feel special while you hide any whisky of real value.  A decent blend serves this purpose well.  Something you can use on your own when you need to inject several ounces of medicinal booze into the system and you don’t have time for sipping. And when you need to serve it you start out with the old, “I stumbled upon a surprisingly decent blend, you’ve got to try it…”  They won’t question you. They are a guest.  Such bottles are not difficult to think of or find as there are many at your local supermarket.

Perhaps the most important component of the war chest, one that is overlooked or under stocked at your own peril, is the table whisky.  The table whisky, like it’s name implies, is your daily dram.  Of supreme importance is to not be lulled in by the somewhat proletariat common-sounding term “table whisky”.  The whisky is easily the most difficult to settle upon and requires far more research then any of the previously mentioned bottles.  This whisky has to be eminently sip-able but also able to be gulped without a tinge of wasteful regret.  This is the whisky you will spend most of your time drinking.  And if you value your time, your quality of life, you will make sure you really like this whisky.  It serves as both comfort and medicine depending on the situation.  It can precede a meal and/or round a meal out.  And unless you are rolling in it, it can be inexpensive.  For a whisky to satisfy all of these things, you usually have to move on to a new table whisky every 3-to-6 months, or so.  Otherwise the familiarity takes away from the overall experience.

Solid table whiskies can be found in the $40-$60 price range, and when you find one you need to keep it well stocked.  The table whisky is the last line of defense.  Failure to properly stock a good supply of table whisky and keep that supply well tended will result in you coming through the door one night and decimating every more rarified, special occasion whisky in your collection in a misevaluated need to get further lit.  Even a few beers can trigger a run on your whisky stash, and to avoid any next-day recriminations over your rare moment of rashness, you need the table whisky to stand up against your temporary lack of judgment. 

Just like a balanced financial portfolio you must maintain a nicely diversified whisky war chest.  One that will be able to competently ride the waves of a fluctuating market of guests and fend off an unexpected run on resources. 

What is your strategy to keeping a diverse whisky war chest and what is currently in it?

George Lee's "A Date with Wine" is a wine stopper with twist-able date rings to help you remember when you opened a bottle.

The Dirty Mojito

Can't get enough watermelon? Margarita de Sandia from Coastal Living to the rescue!

Celery and cilantro cocktails. Fresh, fun and has the most amazing green color.

One day science says drinking will make you live forever. The next day science says it will kill you tomorrow. Good Booze, Bad Booze is an Alcademics category where I put all these stories together. 8/31/10:Heavy Drinkers Outlive Nondrinkers [link] From Time: "But a new paper in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research suggests that — for reasons that aren't entirely clear — abstaining from alcohol does actually tend to increase one's risk of dying even when you exclude...

[Visit Alcademics.com for the full post.]

Make your own Italian liqueur and sample a taste of the Amalfi Coast with this Luscious Limoncello recipe.

Sugarcane and Spice..for this months MxMo - Brown, Bitter and Stirred.

Today’s guest blogger on “What Do You Know?”, Ethan Smith, explores What Killed Michter’s?

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Was it because people, by 1990, no longer associated Pennsylvania with whiskey distilling? Maybe it was because whiskey consumption nationwide was declining? Or could it have been simply history closing the books on the last operating distillery in Penn’s woods? If you’re at all familiar with the distillery, you know well that the last days of Michter’s were not good ones. See Sam Komlenic’s post about his trip in 1989 and how empty the warehouses were. But what actually led to Michter’s shutting down on Valentine’s Day 20 years ago?

Doing a search for Michter’s online yields all sorts of results- most are inaccurate. I’ve found closure dates ranging from 1980 to 1992. And no one seems to fully understand why it closed. They only speculate. I set out several months ago to try and find out what made Michter’s tick and what made it finally wind to a stop (Being unemployed gave me PLENTY of time to do research!). I soon found myself involved with the distillery site itself helping the owner clean up and make the place look somewhat presentable. In our time working together at the abandoned place, Dwight began telling me what he knew and names he had heard. His stories about what happened to the distillery after its closure were fascinating and I quickly found myself scouring the internet for more information. I soon stumbled on a Straightbourbon post by Chuck Cowdery where he had interviewed Michter’s Master Distiller Dick Stoll. Within a few days, I had contact information and was on my way to meeting THE man who could answer a few questions I had. The first time I talked with Mr. Stoll we talked for a few hours. It was fantastic. We discussed everything from the process they used to make the whiskey, to the tourist business (His wife Elaine was a tour guide there), to what products they made, and of course, what killed Michter’s.

Louis Forman created the Michter’s brand back in the 1950’s by merging his two son’s names- Michael and Peter. Dick and Elaine Stoll wrote this to me about early distillery ownership:

“Lou [Forman] never owned the distillery.  In the early 1970s Samuel Glass and Associates bought the distillery from Kirk Foulk.  Sam Glass was the brother-in-law of Lou so Sam made him president.  Lou was the brains behind the Michter’s name and brand.  The plant was contracted by Hiram Walker to make cordials, who brought in new equipment, but the plant did not expand to the level expected. Hiram Walker ended the relationship and took back the equipment. 

“Around 1975(?)  Sam Glass sold the operation to a group of Lebanon businessmen including Stanley Katz, Phil Davis, Dale Yocum, and Abe Grosky (uncle of George Shattls).  Lou was named president, but Charles “Chuck” Romito, a lawyer from the law firm of Katz and Davis was put in charge. Under this group there was a new paint job and landscaping. Business started to boom with the help of Dale Yocum’s sons, Dave and Marty.  Lou was an important part of establishing the distillery on the National Register of Historic Places.  Dave and Marty established the Collectors Society and the tourist business.  The gift store items and decanters started with them, along with lots of press, including The Philadelphia Inquirer Magazine.  Lots of bus tours ended up at Michter’s on their way from the tourist areas of Lancaster to Hershey. 

“Eventually the Lebanon group sold the distillery to Theodore Veru [Around 1979] despite an offer from Austin-Nichols.  Veru’s higher offer won out.  Although the distillery made whiskey bottled as Wild Turkey in the 50s-60s for Austin-Nichols, they were not making it for them when they made the offer.”   Since whiskey drinking was declining, Austin-Nichols was looking to diversify their portfolio in hopes to make up profit where they were starting to lose it. Austin-Nichols was primarily interested in the deep wells on the property. So what did they want with these wells? Water of course. Lots of it. Pure, fresh, 54-degree limestone water. And what were they looking to do with all of it? Bottle it and sell it. Bottled water was just starting to get popular in the early 80’s and Austin-Nichols wanted a piece of the market. But since Veru’s bid was higher, we never got to enjoy bottles of pure limestone water from Michter’s.

Under the Yocum’s management, the distillery became a National Historic Landmark and a wonderful tourist destination. Then of course were the famous Michter’s decanters! Soon there were Michter’s T-shirts, balloons, aprons, ornaments, a Collectors Society, donkey rides for the kids, and many other retail items. But under that glamour and merchandise, there was trouble brewing. After the distillery had been sold to Veru, sales started to slump. Quickly. America lost its love affair with whiskey and the big glut was coming.

Veru had purchased a ceramic manufacturing plant in Ohio to design and manufacture the Michter’s decanters and named it GVI China but it too started to consume more money than it made. Dick said by around 1981, leaking barrels in the warehouses were no longer repaired and were just left to leak dry. The main distilling equipment was also no longer used on a continuous basis.

Then came the bankruptcy. Veru left the scene and the bank (Commonwealth bank, which later became Mellon Bank) took over. Well, sort of. Commonwealth Bank, according the Stoll’s “…Could not run it because they were loaning money to businesses that promoted alcohol, so they hired a holding company not to run the business, but to put a name on the “Business”.” According to Dick, most of these people really had no clue what they were doing and only tried to line their own pockets with the distillery’s meager profits. Finally a man by the name of Frank Pitassi came in and started running Michter’s. By that time, the main distilling equipment was not being used, but the mini pot still was still in use. Pitassi got a few contracts and they even exported some whiskey to Japan and Korea, but it wasn’t enough to keep the place afloat. And of course there was still the bank- who was holding all the debt AND all the bonds on the whiskey aging in the warehouses. Dick said supposedly the bank had asked Pitassi to buy the bonds from them since he was, after all, getting the profits off the distillery. Pitassi refused and on February, 14th 1990, the bank got tired of not being paid and Pitassi made a phone call to shut Michter’s down until they were paid.

The bank payment never happened. Pitassi and all other interested parties vanished. Dick said a few people had come to look at the distillery in the following years, but soon the government got tired of waiting for their tax money and cleaned the place out. The bank sold the whiskey.  All the aging whiskey on site was rumored to be sent to Continental in Philadelphia and re-distilled into pure Ethanol.

So all that said, what led to the rapid decrease in sales of whiskey? First and foremost was, as I had mentioned before, America had fallen out of love with whiskey. Distillers no longer needed the little brown distillery in Schaefferstown to pick up the slack for them, so all the contracts evaporated, which really killed profit. Secondly, years of a lack of vision by management started catching up to the distillery. Veru lived very much for the “here and now” according to Dick, as did the people that followed him. The on-the-road sales team disappeared and suppliers started forgetting about Michter’s. Lastly, the market niche that Michter’s was aiming for was already very full. Jack Daniel’s, Maker’s Mark, and Wild Turkey were all priced lower than or in line with Michter’s and they had much larger names and distribution. And the whole decanter fad was starting to die off in the 80’s, too.

So there you have it. The last days of Pennsylvania’s last distiller, the oldest distillery in the United States, were sad, lonely times. But, if you ask Dick, and his wife Elaine, if they didn’t like working there, they will tell you they enjoyed it all. What hurt them was knowing the end of Michter’s was coming and there was little they could do about it. And don’t think Michter’s ever sacrificed the quality of their products through all of it. Dick said that every last drop that made it into their decanters and bottles was “good stuff.” And now we’re left to speculate about the future of the distillery. There has been interest in recent months from some parties about purchasing the distillery and restarting it- and with the popularity of small “craft” distilleries today, it could be an incredible distillery again. Oh, and it seems Americans have fallen back in love with whiskey again. So even though I couldn’t have my Michter’s open house back in February, it doesn’t mean we can’t still all raise a glass and salute the little distillery on Snitzel Creek.

 If you want to learn more about Michter’s and its history and/or its future, feel free to contact me at ethangsmith@dejazzd.com