Old Grommes

This is the story of Old Grommes Very Very Rare Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey.

Old Grommes was a brand used for a series of Japan-market bottlings from the late 1980s to the mid 1990s. This brand is well known among whiskey enthusiasts in Japan, but is almost unknown in the United States.

In all, there were eight bottlings of Old Grommes. The 12 year 101 proof  is by far the most common.

Name	Age	Proof	Bottler Listed on Label
Old Grommes Very Very Rare	10 Years	90	Original Grommes Co.
Old Grommes Very Very Rare	12 Years	101	Original Grommes Co.
Old Grommes Barrel Proof	12 Years	121	Original Grommes Co.
Old Grommes Very Very Rare	12 Years	125	Original Grommes Co.
Old Grommes Very Very Rare	16 Years	101	Old Grommes Co.
Old Grommes Very Very Rare	17 Years	101	Original Grommes Co.
Old Grommes Very Very Rare	19 Years	80	Original Grommes Co.
Old Grommes Very Very Rare	20 Years	80	Original Grommes Co.

Who made Old Grommes? This turns out to be a very difficult question with many answers.

Old Grommes 16 Year

I'll address the easiest bottle first. Old Grommes Very Very Rare 16 Year is different from the other bottlings. It lists a different bottler on the label than the other releases - "Old Grommes Co." instead of "Original Grommes Co." - and the label design and bottle shape are different.

Old Grommes 16 Year is a Julian Van Winkle bottling of the same whiskey that went into A.H. Hirsch. "Old Grommes Co.," the bottler listed on the label, is a trade name registered by Julian Van Winkle. Chuck Cowdery confirms in his book on A.H. Hirsch, and this forum post, that Julian Van Winkle bottled some of the A.H. Hirsch whiskey using the name Old Grommes.  In addition, Shot Bar Bourbon, a now-shuttered bourbon bar in Ginza, also confirms that Old Grommes 12 Year and Old Grommes 16 Year are different bourbon.

Now for the remaining bottlings.

The bottler name listed on the other bottlings is "Original Grommes Co." of Chicago, Illinois. At first, this suggests an association with the firm Grommes & Ulrich, a pre-prohibition grocer and liquor wholesaler in Chicago. The brand Grommes & Ulrich continued in use after prohibition by various companies with no connection to original brand. From 1963 to 2004, the name "Grommes & Ulrich" was trademarked by Consolidated Distilled Products.

A search of the Illinois Secretary of State's business name database for "Original Grommes Co." does not return any results. This means that Original Grommes Co. was not the actual name of the bottler and, instead, was a trade name. Normally, trade names would also have to be registered with the Illinois Secretary of State, but I have found that trade names used for export bottlings are often not registered.

Old Grommes 12y

The first solid lead on the source of Old Grommes comes from a blogger who mentions that Old Grommes was distilled by Jim Beam and aged in Chicago by Consolidated Rectifying. Given that this is an unsourced assertion by a blogger, I think a little more research is necessary.

I'll start with the claim that Old Grommes 12 Year is bottled by Consolidated Rectifying. A search of the TTB's public COLA registry reveals that the holder of DSP-IL-26 registered several COLAs for Old Grommes. Based on other COLA filings, I can determine that Consolidated Rectifying is the holder of DSP-IL-26. Unfortunately, pre-2003 COLAs are not available online. I submitted a Freedom of Information Act request for these COLAs, but was told that the records were no longer legible.

This, of course, leads to the question "Who is Consolidated Rectifying?"

Consolidated Rectifying was a subsidiary of Consolidated Distilled Products, the former owner of the Grommes & Ulrich trademark, until it was sold to National Wine and Spirits in 1991.  At that time, National Wine and Spirits also purchased Union Liquor Company (now Union Beverage Company), another subsidiary of Consolidated Distilled Products. Consolidated Distilled Products specialized in liquors, cordials, wine, vodka, gin and (non-bourbon) whiskey.

According to the public COLA registry, Consolidated Rectifying (Vendor ID 001951) was responsible for about 20 other bourbon bottlings, including G&U, Hannah & Hogg and Charter & Oak. I've never heard of any of these other bottlings.

Now, Consolidated Rectifying didn't distill the bourbon in Old Grommes. This is clear both from the company's name (i.e., rectifiers don't distill) and from the fact that there is no evidence that Consolidated Rectifying owned a distillery. Further, Consolidated Distilled Products, the parent company, began as a beer distributor after prohibition and later expanded to distributing other types of alcohol, most notably fine wine. If Consolidated Rectifying didn't make the bourbon, then who did?

This where things become even more complicated. There are two batches of Old Grommes. One was released sometime in the 1990s and is Stizel-Weller bourbon. The other, was released sometime in the 2000s and is Beam bourbon. I don't know which bottlings were part of each batch, but I do know that Old Grommes 12 (the most common Old Grommes) was released as part of both batches. For Old Grommes 12, there is no way to tell the difference between these batches based on the front label, but the back label will be different.

Old Grommes that is Stizel-Weller bourbon will have a similar back label to other Japan-only Van Winkle bottlings. It will look something like the picture to the right. I have tasted this batch of Old Grommes 12 101 and 125 proof side by side with Stizel-Weller bottlings from the early 1990s and the taste was nearly identical.  In addition, the owner of the bar with one of the largest bourbon collections in Japan has he stated that he believes Old Grommes to be from Stitzel-Weller.

For the other batch, the back label will be as pictured to the left. This one states that it was distilled in Frankfort, KY and aged in Chicago, just like most descriptions I have found. Beam is the most likely candidate for the distiller and, based on the flavor of the bourbon, I think this is a good bet.

There isn't a satisfying conclusion to this post. Some Old Grommes is A.H. Hirsch, some Old Gromes is Stizel-Weller and some is Beam.

Old Grommes 10y; Old Grommes 12y 120 proof; Old Grommes 12y 125 proof; Old Grommes 20y

Very Olde St. Nick Summer Rye

Distillery:		Olde St. Nick
Age:		"Many Summers Old" (NAS)
Proof:		80 (40% ABV)
Price:		JPY 5000

Olde St. Nick Distillery is an assumed name of Kentucky Bourbon Distillers. Kentucky Bourbon Distillers, despite the name, is a non-distiller producer, meaning that the company does not actually produce the bourbon that it bottles. It is also a export-only bottling for the Japanese market. For those interested, I have written more extensively about the brand elsewhere.

In addition to various bourbons, Olde St. Nick Distillery also bottles two ryes - a summery rye and a winter rye. As is normally the case with non-distiller producers, the origin of the rye is unknown.

"Winter rye" is a general term to refer to any type of rye that is planted during the winter. Because rye is more resilient, it can be grown in climates and at temperatures where other grains would perish. Some Canadian whiskeys are marketed as being made from winter rye and, therefore, more flavorful. While it is true that better wine normally comes from seemingly inhospitable soil, I am not sure where this is true when it comes to rye. "Summer rye," on the other hand, has no accepted meaning.

Although the distiller is unknown, I tasted it side-by-side with Rittenhouse Rye 80 proof and they tasted dramatically different. This leads me to believe that the producer is Midwestern Grain Products instead of Heaven Hill.

The nose has very strong notes of lychee and other citrus fruits as well as hints of mint and pineapple. The flavor delivers on the nose, starting out peppery and moving to sweet with lychee continuing throughout. The mouth feel is rather thin, but this is something that I find to be a characteristic of ryes. The finish is dry and smooth with very little heat.

I note that there are other bottlings that are higher proof and some that are age stated. As stated above, this was a non-age stated 80 proof bottling.

Verdict: Interesting if you like ryes or Japanese-export bottlings, but no need to seek this one out.

Van Winkle Family Reserve Rye

Distillery:		Medley, Cream of Kentucky
Age:		13-19 Years
Proof:		98 (49% ABV)
Price:		N/A

Van Winkle Family Reserve Rye is age stated as 13 years old, but is in fact between 13 and 18 years old depending on the date of the bottle. It's the Pappy of ryes, or so the story goes. In fact, Van Winkle Family Reserve Rye was not actually distilled at Stitzel-Weller or even by the Van Winkle family.  No matter the origin, it's one good rye.

As I said before, this rye, depending on the year of bottling, is 13-18 years old. When first bottled in 1999, it was 13 years old. The age increased with each successive bottling until 2004 when the rye was taken out of the barrel, mixed with Cream of Kentucky Rye from Old Bernheim and put in a steel tank to arrest the aging process. From 2004-2016, the the rye was 19-years-old.

The distillery from which the rye comes also depends on the year of bottling. From 1998-2003 this rye was 100% from the Medley distillery in Owensboro. In 2004, when the rye was moved to stainless steel tanks, it was blended with rye distilled at Cream of Kentucky (Old Bernheim). There is some rumor that Buffalo Trace distilled rye was added to the blend in 2012, but this rumor is unsubstantiated.

In 2016, the last of the blend of Medley and Cream of Kentucky were bottled. In 2018, Van Winkle Family Reserve Rye returned to the market, but is now a 100% Buffalo Trace product. This blog post only covers the historical Van Winkle Family Reserve Rye.


BOTTLING YEAR

As you can tell, determining the specific year of bottling is essential to figuring out exactly what's in the bottle. The year of bottling can be determined with the following information: (i) bottle number, (ii) place of bottling. For later bottlings, the printed date code can be used.

Bottle Number

At the top of each label is a handwritten bottle number that is normally preceded by a letter (A-I). For the very first bottling, however, the bottle number was not preceded by a letter. This bottling was only available in the Japanese market.

Original Bottling for Japanese Market (un-Lettered)

The next bottling (the first US bottling) was in 1999. In this release the bottle number was preceded by the letter "A." For subsequent yearly US releases, the letter code continued through the alphabet, ending with "I" in 2007.

In late 2008, the letter code again changed. For this bottling, the letter code started back at "A" and, unlike in the previous system, the lettering did not increase each year. Instead, the lettering was increased approximately every two years (i.e., "B" labeled bottles began in 2010).

For the 2016 bottling, the letter code changed to "Z." This was to designate the end of the blend of Cream of Kentucky and Medley that had been tanked in 2004.

Place of Bottling

Because the numbering started over with "A" in 2008, it is also necessary to check the place of bottling in order to determine the age of the bottle. From 1998 - 2002, this rye was bottled in Lawrenceburg. Sometime in 2002, the bottling was moved to Buffalo Trace in Frankfort. The front of the bottle will state the place of bottling. Therefore, the newer "A," "B" and "C" bottlings will state that they are from Lawrenceburg. For "D" bottlings that were bottled in Frankfort, the best way to disambiguate is to check whether a date code is printed on the bottle. Only the second "D" bottling had a date code.

For a collection of posts by Julian Van Winkle confirming most of this information click here.

The table below summarizes the above information.

Year	Letter Code	Age	Notes
1998	None	13	Japan Only; 100% Medley
1999	A	14	First US Release
2000	B	15
2001	C	16
2002	D	17	Bottling moved from Lawrenceburg to Frankfort
2003	E	18
2004	F	19	Moved into stainless steel tanks; Cream of Kentucky blended with Medley
2005	G	19
2006	H	19
2007	I	19
2008	A	19	Letter code starts over with "A"
2009	A	19
2010	B	19
2011	B	19
2012	C	≥13	Rumored that Buffalo Trace distilled rye was added to the blend
2013	D	≥13
2014	E	≥13
2015	F	≥13
2016	Z	≥13	End of tanked Medely/Bernheim blend

A.H. Hirsch 16 Year

Distillery:		Michters
Age:		16 Years
Proof:		Varies
Price:		JPY 6500 (at retail)

A.H. Hirsch 16 Year (print label)

A.H. Hirsch 16 Year may very well be the best bourbon you'll never taste and is certainly one of the most hyped.

A.H. Hirsch was produced in 1974 at the Pennco Distillery (later Michter's) in Shaefferstown, PA under contract for Adolph Hirsch. It was aged on the grounds of the distillery until the distillery went bankrupt in 1989. The bourbon was then rescued before the sale of the distillery's assets and sold to Gordon Hue.

Hue's plan was to sell the bourbon under the brand A.H. Hirsch in the Japanese market. At this time, Japan was booming as a bourbon market and extra-aged bottlings commanded quite a premium. Unfamiliar with whiskey, the Japanese thought that if Scotch can be 18 or 20 years old why shouldn't bourbon? Hue didn't bottle the bourbon himself, but instead enlisted the help of Julian Van Winkle. This whiskey was slowly bottled over the next two decades at different proof and ages.

A.H. Hirsch 20 Year

The first bottling was a 15-year-old expression bottled in 1989/1990 and the first batch of the 16-year-old expression was bottled a year later.  At this point, the majority of the bourbon was placed in stainless steel vats to arrest the aging process, though a small amount continued to age for up to 20 years. The labels of these early bottlings used a scripted font (see left) and were sold almost exclusively in Japan.

The most widely available bottling by far was the A.H. Hirsch 16 Year. This bourbon was released seven different times over the next two decades. The largest bottling (by far) was the Gold Foil version released in 2003. For the final bottling in 2009, 1000 bottles of the Gold Foil bottles were decanted into hand-blown crystal bottles and packed in wooden humidors. The details of the various bottlings are as follows:

Enclosure	Label	Bottle	Proof
Blue Wax	Script	Standard	95.6
Gold Wax	Script	Scotch	95.6
Black Wax	Script	Scotch	91.6
Dripping Gold Wax	Print	Standard	91.6
Gold Wax	Print	Standard	91.6
Gold Foil	Print	Standard	91.6
Humidor Edition	Print	Hand-Blown Crystal	91.6

In the above table, a "script" label is similar to the A.H. Hirsch 20 Year (above) and the "print" label is similar to the label of A.H. Hirsch 16 Year (above). A "standard" bottle is a normal shaped tall bourbon bottle with sloped shoulders and a "scotch" bottle is a shorter bottle with a neck bulge.

I'm not going to provide tasting notes because the A.H. Hirsch I've had tasted flat and I suspect was the victim of oxidation and honestly, at this point, the taste is irrelevant. This is a bourbon you buy for the story.

Verdict: You already know whether you want a bottle.