I had a moment of panic earlier today when I saw that the blog Bourbon Dork reported yesterday that Buffalo Trace was putting an end to Old Weller Antique, the 107 proof bourbon that makes life worth living. Here’s Greg at BD:
Breaking news: Harlen Wheatley, the Buffalo Trace Master Distiller let the cat out of the bag while attending an event in Dallas recently. According to him, it’s been decided that Old Weller Antique (OWA) is being retired.
This was just reported by a fellow member of the board who attended the event. Harlan gave the reason as limited supply of stock. If you remember back in 2009, BT made the decision to drop the age statement and I commented about it here. I said privately among my fellow enthusiasts that the next possible turn of events was the label being retired. I hate being almost right…..almost because it hasn’t happened yet.
First, I freaked out. Then I gathered my wits and emailed Amy Preske, the PR Manager for Buffalo Trace; here’s what she had to say:
Thanks for reaching out to me, I do appreciate it. I had not heard that about Old Weller Antique, so I thought I would just go straight to the top and ask our President/CEO. And the answer is NO. There are no plans to discontinue it at all, it’s never even been discussed.
That’s about as categorical denial as you’re going to read. So breathe easy, fans of Weller 107: Our ambrosia isn’t headed anywhere.
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Well, let’s hope that’s the case. But why in hades would Harlen make that statement in public? BTW, his comments were quickly rebuffed by a BT executive who happened to be in attendance by blurting out “uh, that hasn’t entirely been decided yet” meaning, we’ve been talking about it, maybe it’s been decided but hasn’t been made public. Having the joy of sippin on whiskey for a number of years, this is a replay of previous labels that were retired; e.g. Old Charter Proprietors Reserve, Old Charter Classic 90 and Weller Centennial to just name a few. I’m sure Mark Brown made the statement but whether that statement stands the test of time……well, we shall see.