Liter glass bottle of Old Forester |
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| Type | Bourbon whiskey |
|---|---|
| Manufacturer | Brown-Forman |
| Country of origin | Kentucky, United States |
| Alcohol by volume | 43.00% |
| Proof | 86 |
| Related products | Brown-Forman |
Old Forester is a brand of Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey produced by the Brown-Forman Corporation.[1] It has been continuously on the market longer than any other brand of bourbon (approximately 140 years as of 2011), and it was the first bourbon sold exclusively in sealed bottles. It was first bottled and marketed in 1873[2] by the former pharmaceutical salesman turned bourbon-merchant George Garvin Brown – the founder of the Brown-Forman Corporation (whose descendants still manage the company).[3] During the Prohibition period from 1920 to 1933, it was one of only 10 brands authorized for lawful production (for medicinal purposes).[4]
Old Forester is produced under the supervision of Master Distiller Chris Morris (as of 2006)[2] at the Brown-Forman distillery in Shively, Kentucky (which is located directly adjacent to the Southwest boundary of Louisville) using a mash bill of 72% corn (maize), 18% rye, and 10% malted barley[3] (the same mash bill used for Woodford Reserve[5]). Its mash bill has been described as “pretty standard”[3] and “richer in rye than most bourbons”.[6]
Bottling variations include Old Forester Classic (86 proof / 43% abv, 4 years old), Old Forester Signature (100 proof / 50% abv), and Old Forester Birthday Bourbon (introduced in 2002, 95 proof / 47.5% abv in 2010 bottling).[1]
Contents |
When the product was introduced in the 1870s, bottles of Old Forester were sealed as a way to guard against adulteration and substitution of the contents, and were initially sold in pharmacies as a medicinal product. The innovation introduced with Old Forester was not that it was available in such bottles, but that it was the first bourbon to be exclusively available in this fashion – providing a greater level of assurance of quality for that brand relative to other products in the market.[2] This innovation was enabled and further fueled by emerging advances in the mass production of glass bottles, such as those soon to be developed by Michael Owens.[3] The sealed bottle approach was popular with doctors and with the pharmacists that sold the product, and their approval was touted in advertisements of the product to the general public.[3]
Originally, the product name was spelled “Old Forrester”, with a double ‘r’. The product is reported to have been named after a physician Dr. William Forrester[2] who endorsed its consumption, and the renaming is conjectured to have been a way to avoid direct reference to the physician's name.[1] Originally formed by George Garvin Brown and his half-brother John Thompson Street Brown (J.T.S. Brown, who would also later figure into the history of the Four Roses Distillery and inspire the naming of a brand of bourbon produced by Heaven Hill Distilleries), the company that produces the product was originally registered as J.T.S. Brown & Bro., and became Brown-Forman in 1902 after several partnerships and name changes involving partners James Thompson (who was also involved in the Glenmore Distillery Company and created the Old Thompson brand), Henry Chambers, and George Forman.[7][2] George Garvin Brown became sole owner by 1902,[8][7] and although Brown-Forman is now a publicly-traded company on the New York Stock Exchange, the Brown family still controls more than 70% of the voting shares (as of 2010).[9]
To produce his Old Forester product, Brown would initially purchase whiskies from distillers such as John Atherton and Ben Mattingly, and blend them together. In 1902, he then purchased Mattingly's distillery in Saint Mary (a town in Marion County, Kentucky).[3][10]
Until Prohibition in the United States began in 1920, Old Forester was the leading brand produced by Brown's company.[3] Since then, other brands acquired later by the company, such as Early Times (purchased in 1923, which became America's best-selling bourbon and maintained high sales for 30 years[11]) and Jack Daniel's (purchased in 1956[8] and currently the best-selling whiskey of any kind in the world, as of 2007[12]), have become its leading products.[3]
Some awards and recognitions for the brand include the following: