HELP needed ID'ing a unique, old bottle of Bourbon !

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HELP needed ID'ing a unique, old bottle of Bourbon !

Unread postby simon » Wed Sep 26, 2007 10:25 pm

Hello, fellow Bourbon enthusiasts !

I write today in the hopes someone can offer a bit of background on an odd bottling I found this week sitting in an antique shop, of all places. It is described as follows:

A bottle of "Kentucky's Finest", with a simple, cream-colored label and red & black, late 40's / early 50's Kentucky tax decal on the shoulder.

The black plastic neck seal has a Roman-esque, gold horse's head in profile, and the heavy, "Full Quart" bottle itself is nearly indistinguishable from a fine, bottle-shaped, ground-pontil decanter.

The legend on the label states that the contents are a blend of 6, 7, and 8-year old Whiskies, emanating from the "John Stewart Distillery" in Frankfort, KY. The back label shows this bottle's unique serial number to be in the 21,000-range.

Finally, the front label conspicuously states that this bottling was done exclusively for "The Honorable Sam Rayburn", almost certainly a reference to the United States Congressman from Texas who died in 1961, after serving for 5 or 6 decades in the US House, and who (according to the Internet bio) was LBJ's political mentor. (The same bio also defines Mr. Rayburn as "perhaps the most underappreciated, unrecognized public servant that the modern-era United States ever had as a US Congressman".)

An oddball bottling, indeed. My curiosity revolves around just where this Kentucky-based "John Stewart Distillery" disappeared to (as nothing seems to exist about it according to a Goggle search, outside of the eponymous, Single Malt distillery in Scotland), how long it was in business, and what other products it might have put into the U.S. Bourbon marketplace. lol...I'd also be very keen to lay my hands on another, sealed bottle of this stuff so opening one for tasting would thereby become a bit less of a dilemma !

Many thanks in advance for any insights on this bottling that the Bourbon Enthusiast community might be able to offer.

Cheers ! Simon
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Unread postby cowdery » Thu Sep 27, 2007 12:59 am

I can certainly imagine Sam Rayburn having a special bottling done as a gift for aides and associates. He once famously told Johnson, about lobbyists, "If you can't take their money, drink their whiskey, screw their women, and still vote against them, then you have no business being in the United States Senate."

Perhaps it was the politician in him that caused him to choose a generic name and, probably, a fictional distillery for his special bottling, lest he show favoritism to any actual producers. He probably had them done by a constituent in the business, probably some small Texas rectifier.

I've never heard of a John Stewart Distillery, in the USA or Scotland. Maybe on Comedy Central?
- Chuck Cowdery

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Sam Rayburn Bourbon

Unread postby simon » Thu Sep 27, 2007 7:57 am

Hello, Chuck, and thanks so much for your engaging reply to my open query RE: this bottling. Now I know why LBJ was such a, ahem, "unique" and headstrong figure on the American political scene. Maybe he fueled himself with ol' Sam's Bourbon on a regular basis ?

One quick note: the John Stewart Distillery in Scotland has a long, prolific history of producing Single Malts, although each time a brother or heir took the reigns they were prone to changing the spelling of the family name from "Stewart" to "Stuart", and back again.

Many thanks for your input !

Cheers, Simon

PS ~ Though I'm a conservative, albeit one thoroughly embarrassed by Mr. Bush, I'm a big John Stewart/Comedy Central fan. Even he has his moments, though, when I think he almost surely has had too much to drink or, conversely, would seem to be much in need of one.
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Unread postby Bourbon HQ » Thu Sep 27, 2007 9:48 am

Hey Simon. Let's leave politics off this site!
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Re: HELP needed ID'ing a unique, old bottle of Bourbon !

Unread postby _CL » Sat Jul 04, 2015 2:28 am

My grandfather, Holman Bryant, has his name on one of these bottles. He worked in Lawrenceburg, KY, from 1951 through 1962, first at Old Joe (Bonds Mill), then JTS Brown.

I can't find any information tonight on Google about the John Stewart Distillery either.

Attached is a photo I took of the bottle in 2003 at the Getz Museum. My grandmother and I were visiting to see the items that she donated after his death in 1998.

CL
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Re: HELP needed ID'ing a unique, old bottle of Bourbon !

Unread postby Squire » Sat Jul 18, 2015 10:06 pm

That's really interesting, I love these old bottles and their history. I notice the address changed to Lawrenceburg but the overall motif seems similar to the same as described in the opening post 8 years ago. It appears to me the John Stewart Distillery may have been a d/b/a of one of the majors, but reflecting on the fact the photo label clearly states the contents are a "Blend of Straight Whiskies", then it's more likely we're talking about a Non Distilling Producer who purchased (or had bought for him) Bourbon from different sources which were then blended together into a final product to be custom labeled according to order.

Of course John Stewart could've been one of Sam Rayburn's political contributors but I wouldn't suggest such a crass idea.
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