The Whiskey Reviewer A World of Whiskey, Poured Every Weekday
By Richard Thomas
Templeton Rye, the Iowa-based whiskey bottler that has been accused of deceptive marketing for several years, has finally pledged to come clean according to a story in the Des Moines Register last week.
In 2006 the company began bottling and selling whiskey from the 95% rye whiskey stock of MGP, the Lawrenceburg, Indiana industrial distillery, while claiming the whiskey was made by them using a bootlegger era recipe. Templeton Rye has been an important target for the pundits and fans who became deceptive whiskey hawks over the years that followed.
Pressure on Templeton Rye continued to grow as the company’s dissembling became more widely known. The company responded by admitting their whiskey came from MGP while continuing to repeat their bootlegger claims, while stories of their mendacity moved out of whiskey circles and into the mainstream, as the charges were repeated in books and in articles such as this Daily Beast piece from last month.
Only recently did the Des Moines Register, Iowa’s leading newspaper, join the critics. Whether it was that or the Daily Beast article that prompted Templeton Rye’s owners to take action is unknown, but company Chairman Vern Underwood and President Scott Bush came clean with the newspaper last week.
The pair once again clarified that their whiskey comes from Indiana, which is nothing new because Templeton Rye has admitted as much for years while continuing to repeat their bootlegger origin marketing story. What makes this declaration so different is that they have also pledged to come into full (and voluntary) compliance with Federal regulations by stating that their whiskey is made in Indiana on their labels.
Whether the company will amend its marketing story as it appears on the label and their website remains to be seen. Templeton Rye’s currently marketing claims it as a legacy product of the town’s history as a center for Prohibiton-era bootlegging. At the time of publication, their website still splits the difference by both admitting the whiskey is made by their Lawrenceburg “partners,” while also claiming it is made to an authentic Templeton recipe.
