362 - 25 Years of Jefferson's Bourbon with Trey Zoeller

Bourbon Pursuit

Hobbies, Food, Arts, Leisure

4.9 • 866 Ratings

🗓️ 16 June 2022

⏱️ 60 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

If you saw a market that was a sinking ship, would you jump on board? That was bourbon 25 years ago when clear spirits were winning. Trey Zoeller joins the show once again to reflect on the past 25 years. We dive into what it was like trying to break into a community that didn't want newcomers and the hurdles that came along with it. Not to mention, how he could get great barrels of bourbon for a steal because no one wanted them. Lastly, we talk about the lightbulb moment of Ocean that has truly become his signature on the industry and if we will ever see Jefferson's Space Aged. Show Notes: Above the Char with Fred Minnick (@fredminnick) talks about looking for flavors on white dog You were 28 years old when you started Jefferson's in 1997, tell us about that time. How did you know that there was a bunch of aged whiskey sitting around to buy? What was is like trying to sell whiskey between 1997 and 2002? Did you ever think about closing up shop and quit selling whiskey? Were you welcome to whiskey festivals? Why did Brown Forman and Heaven Hill send you a cease and desist? What hurdles did you have with sourcing early on and how did you get ahead of it? How did you handle the call when it came to buying the 17yr Stitzel-Weller barrels? When did you realize you were running out of 17yr barrels and you had to do something different? Tell us the background on Ocean and the lightbulb moment At any given time, how many barrels do you have at sea or on river? How many voyages are you up to now? When can we expect Jefferson's Space Aged? @jeffersonsbourbon Support this podcast on Patreon

Transcript

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0:00.0	we need to go ahead and saddle them up
0:02.4	so what you got to do. That's what you got to do for your barrel pig.
0:07.2	See how far you can take it.
0:09.0	Well, at least you're not throwing me in the sharks, so we're good.
0:35.2	This is Bourbon Pursuit, the official podcast of Bourbon, bringing to you the best in news, reviews, and interviews, with people making the bourbon whiskey industry happen, and I'm one of your hosts, Kenny Coleman.
0:38.5	If you saw a sinking ship, would you jump on board?
0:44.3	Well, that was bourbon 25 years ago when clear spirits were winning the game. And Trey Zoller,
0:50.7	he joins the show once again to reflect on the past 25 years as we celebrate his 25th anniversary of starting Jefferson's bourbon. We dive into what it was like trying to break into
0:55.4	a community that didn't want newcomers and the hurdles that came along with it, not to mention
1:00.1	how he could get great barrels of bourbon for a steel because no one wanted them. And lastly,
1:05.8	we talk about that light bulb moment of oceans and how that has truly become his signature on the industry,
1:11.7	and if we'll ever see a Jefferson's space-aged release.
1:16.0	With that, enjoy this week's episode, and now here's Fred Minnick with Above the Char.
1:22.0	I'm Fred Minnick, and this is Above the Char.
1:26.4	This week's idea comes from Patreon member T.M. Leonard, who writes,
1:31.6	When tasting distillate or white dog, what is a distiller looking for?
1:35.4	What flavors can they identify, or is it more to eliminate strong flavors?
1:40.8	Great question, great question.
1:43.4	And I go back to a conversation I had with Bourbon
1:45.8	Hall of Famer, Jim Rutledge, many years ago. And then I later had that same conversation with
1:54.2	now passed away and also Bourbon Hall of Famer, Lincoln Henderson. And it was entirely about how you make white dog to put in the
2:04.8	barrel. If you made it to drink right off of the still, you would be making it completely
	...

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