Tales of the Cocktail 2015

The great Sourced Whiskey Scandal tells the story of independent bottlers or Non-Distiller Producers purchasing bulk whiskey from a former Seagram’s distillery and covertly bottling it for phony-backstory brands.

Although industry insiders have known about sourced whiskey for years and it has been reported in trade publications, consumers perceived many so-called NDP brands to be dishonest and reported them to the federal government for Tax & Trade Bureau (TTB) regulation violations, while class-action lawyers are suing them. Lumped in the middle of this controversy, dozens of honest sourced whiskey bottlers saw their business greatly impacted from the negative publicity despite never hiding the whiskey's origins.

In “The Audacity of Sourced Whiskey,” the seminar explores the business of sourced whiskey, detailing the storied history of Kentucky distilleries selling barrels to each other. The seminar will detail what distilleries sell sourced whiskey and give attendees an idea of where the whiskey is coming from, while explaining what and why distilleries require confidentiality in their sourced whiskey contracts.

While this seminar may be deemed controversial, it’s time people learn the truth about Sourced Whiskey. It’s not a dirty word, and independent bottlers should not be punished for practicing a 200-year-old American whiskey business model. Or should they?