curator:   By no means a period worthy of expertise, I’ve been sipping good brown liquor for about a decade.  That said,  I’ve got a good palate, a strong sense of smell, some training and now reaching 40 – I know what I like.  My choice, like many other business-guys out there, small-batch wheat vs. rye Kentucky Bourbon.  

About six years back, some good friends and I went down to what has become the grand daddy of Kentucky distiller success – Buffalo Trace in Frankfort, KY.  If you’re not as familiar with Buffalo Trace, they’re the maker of now iconic Kentucky Bourbon whiskey – Pappy Van Winkle .  We toured the processing facilities, mash-room, the grand stills, aging rooms, chemistry lab, the executive offices, museum and more. A full day spent sipping and talking fine Bourbon. Proof (potency pun intended) is in the pudding with this smooth sipping stuff, where Billy D Williams legendary advert for Colt45 “don’t let the smooth taste fool you” has come to mind more than once while drinking my fair share of the Pappy aged varieties.  While in Frankfort, after sharing a full bottle of the 23 year-old “nectar of the gods”, a moniker offered up by Buffalo Trace master-taster Nigel, we let the afternoon pass on the back porch of Buffalo Trace’s lodge sharing stories of years past and plans of those to come in the company of great friends. More drink, more beer ads enveloped our influenced minds, and the power of a persuasive lifestyle marketing campaign “it doesn’t get much better than this” was slurred by a few yankees that day at an uber-hospitable Kentucky distiller.  The staff must have had some laughs watching our interactions, but had the opportunity to witness first hand why their amrita would skyrocket to global acclaim.  

Virtually unattainable thanks to recent product demand, scarcity and price, I’ve had to discover alternative GMO-free Bourbons other than Pappy Van Winkle to melt my two ice-cubes during the holiday season (true purest will tell you neat, but the owner and maker says the best way to enjoy Pappy is the way you like it).  You see, Bourbon vs. other Whiskies by law must be 1. from Kentucky (similar to classification of Scotch from Scotland vs. other whiskey, or for sparkling wines from the French Champagne region vs. other bubbly headache potion), and 2. be at least 51% corn.  The latter has forced the increasingly higher-end US corn-spirit world into a state of flux as the last bottles of small batch “aged-Kentucky-Gold” has reached the maturity of the onset of GMO corn in the late 1990s.  Other top makers of Corn/Wheat Bourbons, i.e. Maker’s Mark, have a different view than Buffalo Trace re: engineered crops compromising their products.   As a past Maker’s drinker who looks at these remarks as only justification to save money at the expense of addressing consumer’s evolving interests, they’ve lost me as a customer, and probably many more to come/go.

Simply, we need more companies like Buffalo Trace to stick to their authentic practices and to those of their raw material producers for the benefit of their master-crafted products and for the benefit their consumers. For others to stop compromising the value of their products, and invest in the retention of those consumer advocates – we must return to the proof truly being in the pudding where the reality of our taste buds, our sense of smell and our commitment to ecological best practices cannot be fooled!  If more businesses start again to listen to the interests of their customers, we’ll see more wonderful success stories like Buffalo Trace from other spirit makers, food producers and vendors meeting the needs of an evolving world.

Alas, this success has been nearly too great.  Buffalo Trace couldn’t have planned for this type of demand 23, 20 or 15 years ago – and between the heavy-hand of the angel’s share and trying to plan accordingly to operate a pragmatic business through the years when demand wasn’t so overwhelming – there isn’t enough Pappy to go around!  Here are a few GMO-free options alternative to Olde Grand Dad, and further evidence & rationale to why the influence of modified seed vendors continue to hurt industries, negatively influence lifestyle choices, and tarnish the authentic spirit of the American Business.  

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For purpose of an informed consumer, and brand loyalty – just label it! If the government won’t – smart businesses will find ways to promote their commitment to their customer desires.

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As an American, corn-based spirit, bourbon has changed rapidly in recent decades. Now, the question is: How long do we have until it’s all made with genetically engineered grain?  more…