Description

Elmer T. Lee 100 Year Tribute Single Barrel Kentucky Bourbon

The bourbon brand Elmer T. Lee is a part of the portfolio of Age International, a business that Bob Baranaskas and Ferdie Falke founded after serving as directors at Fleischmann’s Distilling, respectively. In the early 1980s, the individuals in question initiated contact with Schenley in order to express interest in acquiring the Old Charter brand. However, Schenley presented an alternative proposition, offering the Ancient Age brand and the George T. Stagg distillery, which manufactured said brand, instead. The transaction was finalized in 1983, a period preceding the retirement of Elmer T. Lee, the master distiller at George T. Stagg. Mr. Lee had dedicated 36 years of service to the company, gradually progressing through the ranks. One of his last notable achievements before to his retirement was the establishment of the Blanton’s brand in 1984, which marked a significant milestone in the mass production of single barrel bourbon. The subsequent year witnessed the distillery’s introduction of the Elmer T. Lee single barrel as a befitting homage to his legacy. At the time of his demise in 2013, Elmer was in a select group of two extant master distillers who had the distinction of having a bourbon named in their honor.

The goods experienced significant success in Japan, which aligned with a market upswing for American whiskey in the 1980s. In 1991, Age International encountered financial difficulties, prompting the intervention of Takaro Shuzo, a Japanese business, which subsequently purchased a 22.5% ownership interest in the organization. In a sequence of events that deviated from the norm, they subsequently thwarted a transaction in the subsequent year, which entailed the sale of the remaining shares to Heublein, a subsidiary of Grand Metropolitan. The previous agreement featured a provision granting them a 30-day opportunity to exercise their prerogative to acquire the shares in the event of their potential sale. With the agreement nearly finalized, the Japanese corporation intervened on the concluding day of the timeframe to obtain complete authority over the company. It was discovered that their exclusive focus lay in the brands, and they utilized the 30-day period to engage in negotiations with the Sazerac Company of New Orleans. In 1999, the American business acquired possession of the distillery, subsequently renaming it Buffalo Trace. Additionally, they obtained the sole rights for the manufacturing and marketing of the Age International brands within the United States. The aforementioned arrangement remains in effect to this day.

It is noteworthy that Age International used the DBA (“doing business as”) moniker to package Elmer T. Lee in the 1980s and 1990s before adopting the name “Buffalo Trace.”

The current release under consideration is the 100 Year Tribute, which has been specifically bottled in commemoration of Elmer’s hypothetical 10th birthday.