Sazerac has revived the Kentucky whiskey brand Glenmore, introducing two new products.
One of the releases – Glenmore Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey – is available to US retailers, bars and restaurants through Sazerac’s distributor network.
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Glenmore Rye Whiskey is set for launch later this month.
Founded in Kentucky in 1869, the Glenmore distillery stopped producing whisky in 1992.
Sazerac acquired the facility in 2009 and has since relied on the site for production support, barrel maturation and bottling across multiple spirits segments.
Lauren Selman, the global growth and innovation director at Sazerac, said: “As the owners and operators of The Glenmore distillery, we have long desired to bring this brand back to life. There is an entrepreneurial spirit and willingness to innovate that define the Distillery’s history and we saw an opportunity to give those qualities new life.”
Each of the new whiskies carry a suggested retail price of $19.99 per 75cl bottle.
They add to Sazerac’s existing whiskey portfolio, which includes brands Buffalo Trace, Fireball, Benchmark and Southern Comfort.
In April, Sazerac made a takeover bid for fellow US distiller Brown-Forman. It offered about $15bn for the Jack Daniel’s whisky maker, according to a report at the time by The Wall Street Journal (WSJ).
The proposal, reportedly valuing the target at $32 a share, was rejected by Brown-Forman the following month.
Sazerac made a fresh offer in July, but Brown-Forman dismissed the new “unsolicited” bid, saying it was “not actionable”.
Earlier this year, Sazerac purchased a Kentucky site belonging to former Bourbon distiller Garrard County Distilling. Sazerac’s subsidiary, Tom Collins Distilling, secured the property as the sole bidder at a court-ordered auction in June.
In March, local news outlet the Lexington Herald Leader reported that Garrard County Distilling closed and entered receivership in April last year. According to court filings cited by the outlet, Sazerac’s subsidiary also bought debt owed by Garrard County to Truist Bank.
Data from the National Alcohol Beverage Control Association (NABCA), which captures sales in 18 control states in the US that directly regulate alcohol distribution within their borders, highlights declining sales of domestic whiskey.
For the rolling 12-month period ending July, domestic whiskey volumes in those states fell 2.8% to around 10.5 million nine-litre cases, while dollar sales slipped 2.1% to $3.02bn.
