‘Far-reaching consequences’ for Kentucky bourbon after LCBO strips U.S. spirits off shelves
‘Far-reaching consequences’ for Kentucky bourbon after LCBO strips U.S. spirits off shelves
I would bet that even once American brands are back on the store shelves, a lot of people are not going to go back to buying them.
“That means hard-working Americans—corn farmers, truckers, distillery workers, barrel makers, bartenders, servers and the communities and businesses built around Kentucky Bourbon will suffer.”
I think this part was supposed to make us feel sorry for them, but to me this says: "That means that REPUBLICANS will suffer." Give us some credit, you might know shit about Canada, but Canadians know the demographics of Trump voters.
Getting on the shelf is no simple task. Getting BACK on the shelf? A lot worse. And all because two spoiled toddlers think their inheritance plus time creating more money means they aren't dumb motherfucks.
I think youre underestimating the amount of toddler minds behind all this. But yeah, the main two most visible ones.
There just a lot more of those toddlers, lot greedier and almost even intelligent idiots behind them curtains who don't want to be known in any association to the the two most prominent toddlers
They didn't "create" money. They "extracted" it from the working class.
God dammit, I hate this deflection. Oh no, you aren't hurting the company, your hurting the workers.
Fuck that noise. If our government was doing its job, it would have protections in place for workers.
One time I saw a commercial where a Hollywood employee was like “when you download movies for free on the internet, you aren’t hurting the big executives, you’re hurting me.” I thought “wow I had no idea. I had no idea you could download movies for free on the internet.”
Full stop!
Exactly. When it’s a loss of profit to the top it’s “boo hoo think of the workers.” And when it’s profit in surplus it’s “money for the top no money for the workers sry :)”
Thankfully many Americans are starting to see the pattern. The programming is insane and it’s a lot for most to break free from.
Like, you’re exactly right. If you’re worried about labor rights lobby to government for labor rights. Oh what’s that you don’t want that? You just want to guilt Canadians for protecting themselves?
It’s abuse tactics on an international scale. Fuck these assholes. Leck mich im Arsch.
A lot of those hard-working 'Muricans voted for Krasnov, so I wouldn't worry about ever buying American again. Unfortunately, I'm in the USA, so my options seem to be getting more and more limited. Unless I win a lottery. But I'd have to drive like 100+ km to another state to buy lottery tickets.
Soooo that means it'll be cheaper in america right? You know supply is higher. /s
Prices in america never go down
I think you’re right. The statement from the Kentucky Distillers Association is absolutely meant to make you feel bad. It’s apologist slop that shifts the blame to potential foreign consumers.
It should be known that Kentucky’s largest city is deep blue and voraciously in favor of civil liberties and representative democracy. The Louisville subreddit had a thread on this and most people talking called the Association out for this terrible letter.
The general consensus in blue Kentucky is that: Feeling bad just enables the assholes like the Distillers Association. It’s unfortunate that those who tried to stop all this from happening will be hurt by the few who made it happen.
But as someone who will be personally be hurt and impacted by the loss of bourbon sales—give us hell. Don’t buy Bourbon. Don’t buy American. Thank you for not enable this bullshit.
Deep blue cities in deep red states can be pretty great places. Austin's another example.
Maybe I'm dreaming, but I hope that all these people suffering because of the GOP makes some red states shift to purple, and some purple ones go solidly blue. But, I really wonder if it's a lost cause.
Under every GOP president in the 21st century, Canada has been attacked. Under Bush Jr it was because Canada refused to join the US in attacking Iraq after 9/11. Canada sent soldiers to Afghanistan (a step-cousin of mine died there), but thought the justification for attacking Iraq just wasn't there. That led to months of tension with Americans boycotting Canadian goods. Of course it wasn't just Canada, it was Europe too (the famous "freedom fries" BS).
Then the US elected Trump, not just once but twice. A quarter century of this kind of thing means it's more than just a fluke This is who the US is, and the country really can't be trusted anymore. Sure, under the next democratic president things might get back to normal for a while, but it's just a matter of time before the country elects someone like Ivanka Trump or Meghan McCain or something.
I don't know if the US will ever win back the world's trust.
As an American whiskey drinker, good.
I've also committed to buying only Blue State whiskey. My last two bottles were CA and WA.
I'd love recommendations for what to seek out next.
Canadian Club
I think this recommendation is a good segue into how important it is to think about where your money is going.
First of all, it seems obvious to buy Canadian whisky to support Canada. However we're slapping big tariffs on them. That means that when you buy them that's giving that tariff money to the US government, which I think we want to avoid.
Further, we're in a very global economy. Damn-near every brand you've ever heard of is owned by the subsidiary of a subsidiary or some other company.
Canadian club is now owned by Suntory Global Spirits (Formerly Beam-Suntory, as in Jim Beam, they actually consider it to be a part of the Jim Beam brand portfolio) an American company, that is itself a subsidiary of Suntory, a Japanese company.
So an American company is getting a good slice of the profits from Canadian club.
And of course Suntory owns a lot of American brands (like Jim Beam since I already mentioned them) and they might well decide to take some of that Canadian Club money they take in and use it to prop up one of their Kentucky Bourbon brands which ends up funneling money towards whatever crazy right wing nut jobs there stand to profit from that.
So yes, Canadian Club is in fact made in Canada, presumably by Canadian employees, and contributing to the Canadian economy, paying Canadian taxes, etc. but a lot of it is also going to other places, and not necessarily places you want it to go, so it would be wise to weigh that into your decision-making here.
And I'm not trying to badmouth Suntory in particular, in the scheme of terrible megacorps I don't think they're the worst by a longshot (not that they're necessarily at all good either) that's just where I found a jumping off point. I enjoy a lot of their brands, and at least the handful of them that I make some effort to follow still seem to at least be paying lip service to some half decent ideas about things like DEI and sustainability, where some other companies have totally bent the knee to Krasnov.
EDIT: Out of curiosity I just spent a little time researching a few different Canadian whisky brands to see if any of the names I recognize are actually wholly Canadian-owned. It doesn't look like it, it's all huge multinational corporations based in other countries when you dig into them. The only thing I could personally come up with is Glen Breton, which is a Canadian single malt, not a Rye, so it fits the bill as a whisky made in Canada, but it's a totally different style than what most people think of as a "Canadian Whisky." I'm certain there are some smaller craft distillers that are fully owned by Canadians, but I couldn't come up with any big brands that fit the bill. Do what you will with that information. I'm not trying to suggest that anyone should or should not buy Canadian whisky, just that if they want to be mindful about which companies and countries are getting their money, it's a complicated web.
Colkegan from Santa Fe Spirits in pretty interesting. NM is blue for now.
I'll keep an eye out!
Texas has some great whiskey, but we're petulant dumb-fucks, so you'll have to wait until we fix our shit to try it.
I don't drink at all anymore due to nightmarish acid reflux, but we'll say it's in protest.
Stranahans in CO Woodinville in WA
Are both 2 solid choices from blue states.
Some folks also like 291 distillery in CO, they’re ok. Not as good in my mind as the other 2
CO seems a bit complicated for me, being fairly purple.
Looks like 291 is in Colorado Springs, a place further ruined for me by memories of Focus on the Family and Dr. Dobson from my childhood. But at least it isn't Boebert's district I guess.
Stranahan's is Denver though, so that's definitely fair game.
Now you got me thinking about trawling open secrets for donor information by owners...
Local stuff. I'm a gin drinker. There's a distillery that's getting into bourbon around the corner. They are making gin now as well. So I buy that. I love Hendricks gin... But nows not the time.
I’m a simple guy who likes Jim Beam Black label, Jack, Woodford Reserve, etc. I’ve been swearing off American whiskeys since this tariff shit started. I just bought Bushmills for the first time and have been enjoying it.
I’m all for some suggestions. I’m not picky, so single malt, blended or whatever is fine. I just like to drink on the rocks or neat and want to enjoy the flavors. I’d be open to blue state whiskeys otherwise anything else is good.
I finished a giant bottle of that niagra whiskey last week and it was decent.
Thinking of trying a Japanese brand next week
Japanese whiskeys are great, but they can get expensive. Whiskeys made in blue states are likely to be more craft-oriented and also be expensive.
https://californiawineryadvisor.com/california-distilleries-visit/
Most of those are in Napa/Sonoma/Paso, which are expensive wine areas. They mostly have $75/bottle bourbons.
https://www.distilleryrowpdx.com/
Those are in Portland, and they are also quite expensive compared to Jack and Woodford.
Woodinville is from WA and is pretty good. A bit more expensive than your normal bourbons, but not crazy.
Thanks for the heads up. I’m willing to spend a little to try something!
Check out your local distilleries, they likely have some good stuff.
Absolutely. I always forget about local distilleries.
❤️ Much thanks!
What do they with the liquor they take off the shelves? Stick it in a warehouse somewhere and wait?
A lot of it is likely on consignment, especially distributors and liquor stores, so the distiller doesn’t get paid for it until it’s sold. So it can either sit in a warehouse or the distiller can take it back, it’s their choice. In cases where it isn’t on consignment, warehousing it rather than selling what you’re already paid for at least ensures that the distiller is impacted by the entire duration of the tariff, as people can’t still buy their product for a while while it lasts and then the seller just immediately resupplies when the tariff is over. Storing it means when the tariff is over there’s still a supply to sell before they purchase more from the distiller. This would be the situation for bars and such, but it’s a big liability sitting on their books, so I imagine most will probably sell their remaining stock, which I can understand.
It's sold on consignment, so they just ship it all back to the producers.
Welp, bourbon is about to get cheaper... Sadly I don't drink bourbon, but instead I'll drink Irish whiskey or scotch because they are IMO better drinks
we voted overwhelmingly for trump 3 times, with the exception of 2 counties. the commonwealth voted for this.
hit us harder. this is what the commonwealth obviously wants despite jefferson (louisville) and fayette (lexington) counties knowing better.
Lagavulin or Bear Fight.
You’re welcome.
An entire thread about the consequences of voting Republican, without a leopards eating faces meme? Did we think that only applies to humans? Or did no one tell me that meme is over and gone?
Well, the meme is now tired out. Not because it's old or irrelevant, but because it's happening every day. lol
Yeah, in my head the 🤏🎻 is playing reading this article.
GOOD! Irish whiskey was always the win anyways
“That niche, that space in bourbon is a pretty specialized product. They can try and fill it but they can’t do it in any legitimate way and call it bourbon, it would be illegal,” Bricker said.
Uhh. Tell that to Cheddar, Moz, Champagne.. And a million other protected trademarks that the US has just used.
Canada can put fermented maple syrup in a bucket and call it bourbon if they want to.
I mean... I've had my fair share of bourbon... they'll get over it.