By Chris Morris • Photos Provided by Old Forester
Kentucky Bourbon connoisseurs will recognize his name, certainly Louisvillians should. His visage looms over the 100 block of W. Main Street as a Hometown Hero. His name graces several public venues such as a walk in River Fields nature sanctuary on the Ohio River. And of course, the brand he founded in 1870, every bottle still bearing his signature, is sold across the country. His name? George Garvin Brown.
Brown was born on September 2, 1846, in Munfordville, Kentucky, in the south-central part of the state. He moved to Louisville in 1863 and began working as a pharmaceutical salesman in 1867. Included among the products he sold to physicians, dentists and druggists was whiskey by the barrel. In 1870 he forever changed the Kentucky Bourbon industry and ultimately enriched the Louisville community itself when he formed Brown-Forman and its founding brand, Old Forester.
This story is not a biography of Mr. Brown nor is it a history of his Old Forester Kentucky Straight Bourbon brand. It is the story of how Old Forester was reborn in 2002.
Old Forester, introduced as a distiller bottled exclusive medicinal whiskey in 1870 reached its sales peak in 1978 at 1.08 million cases. A steady decline of the brand began the following year foreshadowing the Bourbon category’s decline which began in 1982.
As Brown-Forman’s portfolio of brands expanded dramatically, beginning in 1979, the importance of Old Forester to the company began to diminish and as a result so did its volume. By early 2000 there was some talk of discontinuing it. This set off alarm bells among the brand’s loyalists in the company. A work group was convened to address the state of the brand. The group met off-site at the Peterson- Dumesnil House on November 12 and 13, 2001.
As noted previously the Kentucky Bourbon category was in decline at this time as well. Many credit a change in consumer tastes, the growth of vodka or the introduction of fruity “coolers’ like California Cooler among the reasons for the decline of Kentucky Bourbon. While those certainly were factors in the decline often overlooked is the fact that the category had become complacent, stagnant, and irrelevant. Many brands traced or claimed that their origins began in the 19th century. Very few new products had been introduced since the 1950’s and those that were copied the same old themes of past generations. Pricing was standard at best – Kentucky Bourbon simply wasn’t perceived or marketed as a premium spirit. The early generation of spirits writers (there weren’t many) sang the praises of Single Malt Scotch while declaring that Bourbon would eventually become extinct. The worst cut in my opinion was when they wrote that Bourbon couldn’t innovate because of its standards of identity.
These were the challenges facing Old Forester in the Fall of 2001. In essence it was no longer relevant to the consumer or the trade. How to fix that was the challenge. As Master Distiller in Training, I had been included in the working group. Most of the work going forward would be in my hands and those of the brand manager. Fortunately, I had a great partner to work with, the new Old Forester brand manager and longtime Brown-Forman veteran.
The working group had decided that the brand needed to tell its rich history and that of its founder in a contemporary way – in other words to make Old Forester relevant in the modern era. But how to do that was the problem. There was virtually no budget so that meant that there was no sales force support, no advertising, no PR agency, no creative agency – there was nothing but the creativity of the brand manager and Distiller to draw upon.
In my role as Distiller, I turned to the industry for inspiration. What was popular with the consumer? What resonated with the trade press? What made a product noteworthy? Two product types caught my attention – Beaujolais Nouveau and Vintage Single Malt Whiskies.
Beaujolais Nouveau was one of the hottest stories in the industry at that time. The precise release of Beaujolais Nouveau is mandated by the French government. Under French law, Beaujolais Nouveau is released on the third Thursday of every November at 12:01 am, just weeks after September’s “vendage”, when grapes are harvested. It is a thin, young, sweet, fruit forward wine that is meant to be consumed immediately but a great concept and very well executed. It electrified the press, consumers and trade for a few years and then ran its course as most hot stories do. I tried some and was not impressed with the product but the concept of releasing an entire vintage on the same day intrigued me.
Vintage dating was another product feature that interested me. Single Malt Scotch, Port, Sherries, Champagne and still wine were some of the categories that featured vintage dating. Today the term “Vintage” refers to an old bottle of, usually, a whiskey of some type. You might also call that a “Dusty” bottle. In 2001 the term “Vintage” had an entirely different meaning.
The word vintage refers to the year in which the grapes were harvested for wine production. Most still wines come from a single vintage, meaning the wine inside the bottle was made using fruit harvested in that given year. In some cases, however, still, fortified, and sparkling wines will be crafted using a blend of different vintages.
Vintage dated Champagne and Port are the exceptions here – in some years, where the vintage has been particularly good, the producer may decide to declare a vintage. In this instance they won’t blend vintages, instead bottling from a single vintage and labeling it as such.
The same practice is used in creating a Vintage dated Single Malt Whisky. The distiller will identify a specific date of production that created an exceptional flavor profile. This Whisky will be bottled alone, it is still a blend, but a blend of barrels from that same time within a single year. It is not a Single Barrel because those are not representative of an entire production period.
I proposed that we combine the two concepts to create a new expression of Old Forester. At that time, the brand had only two expressions, 100⁰ and 86⁰. To emulate the Beaujolais Nouveau concept the new Old Forester would be released to the trade on a single day, September 2, the birthday of George Garvin Brown. For the vintage aspect I would search the barrel inventory for a single day’s production that had both an interesting story and unique, exceptional flavor. No Kentucky Bourbon brand to my knowledge had ever batched barrels from a single production date and noted that fact on the label.
Going through the Old Forester barrel inventory I discovered that Lot # 23C89 (March 23, 1989) had an interesting pedigree. Filled on an unusually warm March day the full barrels had been drenched by a thunderstorm on their way to the maturation warehouse. These barrels were soaking up liquid from both the inside and outside in the crucial first day which helped slow any leaks before they self-sealed. Therefore, these barrels were able to age longer than was the norm. There were 23 barrels remaining of this 12+ years old Old Forester. To showcase its rich flavor, I chose 95⁰ as the bottling presentation. I had found our first Vintage for release in 2002 – 1989!
Once I had the Bourbon selection and the single day of release concept approved brand management got to work on the expression name and packaging. Since we were honoring the founder of the brand and company the working names were not that exciting, being more traditional and very predictable. “Founder’s Reserve,” “Distiller’s Pride,” “Family Reserve” and so on. These were not what we wanted if this new expression was going to generate some excitement for Old Forester. Fortunately, trademark searches proved that these were in use or were too close to existing marks and therefore were rejected. I will never forget answering my office phone and hearing the brand manager exclaim, “I have the name!” What is it? “It is Birthday Bourbon.” Using some colorful language, I told him that was the worst name I had ever heard. His response? “Too bad – it’s been approved.” To me “birthday” implied that the Bourbon was young, just produced, green or raw. He had taken the birthday date release concept literally. Obviously, I was wrong, it is a great name.
The suggested retail price for this new expression was $35 for a 750ml. That was three times the price of a bottle of Old Forester 86⁰. Distribution was largely confined to the Louisville market and sales to say the least were disappointing. The loyal Old Forester consumer just couldn’t bear to spend that much on a bottle even if it was 12 years old. Now 22 years later long lines form at retail when Birthday Bourbon is released. Priced at $199.99 per bottle, it sells for far more in the aftermarket. Old Forester is now the fastest growing brand at Brown-Forman and according to Shanken’s Impact Newsletter it is the 10th largest Bourbon sold in the US. I like to think that Mr. Brown would be proud of this.
What better brand than Old Forester to end with the following classic close to this story, “As they say, the rest is history.”