Old Fitzgerald Prime Bourbon Whiskey
| Description: | An historic brand, which dates back over 120 years, Old Fitzgerald Bourbon enjoys a nationally recognized reputation as an award winning whiskey with a tradition of extra-aging. Made with a "whisper of wheat" instead of the more traditional rye grain, Old Fitzgerald offers a unique and well-loved taste profile. Today, Master Distillers Parker and Craig Beam have preserved the traditional formula and techniques, while adding the benefits of seven generations of Bourbon distilling expertise. An historic brand, which dates back over 120 years, Old Fitzgerald Prime Bourbon enjoys a nationally recognized reputation. John E. Fitzgerald was among the first to sell his selection of Bourbon as private label according to the Book of Bourbon. Fitzgerald sold exclusively to steamships and railways. The story goes that in 1870, John E. Fitzgerald whiskey was a product named after a distiller working at Old Judge Distillery on Benson Creek, outside of Frankfort, Kentucky. Legend has it that he sold his product exclusively to private clubs, rail and steamship lines before renaming and trademarking it Old Fitzgerald in 1884. Official records show that in 1901, Solomon Charles "s.c." Herbst, a spirits distiller and distributor with businesses in Kentucky and Wisconsin, registered the Fitzgerald brand. So successful was Herbst that he constructed a new bottling plant for the Bourbon in 1904. Two years later, legend claims he bought the Old Judge Distillery to continue making the product in copper pot stills. Fast forward 18 years to find Old Judge Distillery shut down due to Prohibition. Believing the Volstead Act would be repealed, W.l. Weller, a whiskey marketing and distribution firm in Louisville, Kentucky, made the second of a pair of $2,000 payments to Herbst for the rights to the Old Fitzgerald name in 1925. Eight years later, when Prohibition ended, A. Ph. Stitzel Distilleryâ one of four distilleries permitted to make medicinal whiskey during that onerous dry spellâ merged with Weller to form the Stitzel-Weller Distillery. Under new ownership, some bottles of Old Fitzgerald were crudely relabeled by crossing out S.c. Herbsts name and adding W.l. Weller and Sons. Back In The Bourbon Game Energized by Prohibitions repeal, Stitzel-Weller constructed a massive distillery in Shively, Kentucky, where it began making Old Fitzgerald in 1935. Knowing well the quality of Old Fitzgerald, a clever Weller marketer named Julian P. Van Winkle, leaned heavily on its backstory to sell it. Later known as "Pappy," Julian P. Van Winkle helped position Old Fitzgerald as a premium Bourbon known for exceptional softness created by using wheat in its grain mashbill. In 1951, the whiskeys packaging was revised to match that high expectation. That year, the whiskey was packaged in an elegant, heavy glass "diamond decanter," the first of what would become multiple artistic decanters released over the next two decades (and the inspiration for the Old Fitzgerald Bottled-in-Bond Series decanter.) The whiskey would also experience several line extensions under the names Very Old Fitzgerald, Very Very Old Fitzgerald, and Old Fitzgerald Prime, the brands first non-Bottled-in-Bond release. |
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| Price: | $ 98.99 |
| Price in original currency: | None |
Available from MaxLiquor.com
| Address: |
6029 Warner Ave, Huntington Beach, CA 92647 United States |
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First added to 1000 Corks on September 8, 2020.
