MGP Ingredients is the distiller that bourbon lovers seem to love to hate. But now the once mostly anonymous name behind some of the biggest brands in bourbon is ready to own its place on the liquor shelf.
It’s a coming out that wasn’t entirely planned. A couple years ago, consumers caught on that the massive distillery in Lawrenceburg, Indiana, was the source for some of their favorite bourbons and ryes, bottles they wrongly assumed were crafted in the back woods of Kentucky. Do you enjoy Bulleit, Angel’s Envy, George Dickel, Jefferson, Redemption or Smooth Ambler? Then you enjoy MGP-made whiskeys.
Welcome to the era of contract distilling. It works much like store brand canned tomatoes do in the grocery industry. A handful of large producers distill alcohol, then sell it to companies who resell it under private labels. Some companies further age or filter the liquor, but many bottle it as it comes from MGP. And nearly all go to great trouble to craft elaborate stories about how their product was distilled, usually failing to mention that they didn’t actually distill it.
But now MGP is ready to get into the game on its own merits and with its own name. This month the company launches Metze’s Select, the first time in more than two decades MGP will sell direct to consumers. The 93-proof high rye bourbon (made from a blend of three whiskeys from 2006 and 2008) is named for the company’s master distiller, Greg Metze, and is limited to a 6,000-bottle run with a suggested price of $74.99.
“It just seemed like the perfect time,” Gus Griffin, MGP president and CEO, said in a telephone interview. “We had the inventory. We had the expertise. We had the craftsmanship. We waited until we had the concept.”
The concept actually was born a year ago, when the company bottled a similar blend called Metze’s Medley, a giveaway that was offered as an incentive to donors to a local charity. “That was really the genesis of the idea. We said, ‘Wow! That felt really great. We can do this and it really showcases what MGP can really do,” Griffin said.
The result is a round, smooth bourbon with a pleasant heat from the rye and a clean, caramel finish.
And lessons were learned from the fallout over MGP’s role in the industry. Though buyers weren’t so much upset with MGP — whatever a label may say, a good whiskey is a good whiskey — they did feel misled by individual sellers. So with Metze’s Select, MGP favored label transparency, right down to printing the ages and mash bills of the three bourbons used in the blend on the front of the bottle.
“We’ll be very interested to see the consumer reaction not just to the product itself, but the idea of MGP having its own and also of giving them more information,” Griffin said.
J.M. Hirsch is the food editor for The Associated Press. He blogs at https://www.LunchBoxBlues.com and tweets at https://twitter.com/JM_Hirsch . Email him at jhirsch@ap.org