Old Grand-Dad - 1984 Release

Old Grand-Dad is an historic bourbon created in 1882 by Raymond Hayden at his R.B. Hayden Distillery in Hobbs, Kentucky. Hayden named the whiskey in honour of his grandfather, Basil Hayden, who had founded the family distilling business and whose image still appears on the famous orange label. Raymond Hayden died in 1885 and his distillery was later renamed Old Grand-Dad by new owners Wathen’s, who took over in 1899.

Old Grand-Dad continued trading during Prohibition as part of Wathen’s American Medicinal Spirits Company, but AMSC was sold to National Distillers in 1929 and the original distillery was not reopened after Repeal. National later renamed their K Taylor distillery Old Grand-Dad in 1940 and this distillery remained the home of the brand until 1987, when National Distillers were taken over by Jim Beam. Old Grand-Dad distillery was subsequently closed and Jim Beam now produce the brand at their distilleries in Clermont and Boston, Kentucky.

Distillery bottlings are, as the name suggests, bottled by or for the distillery from which the whisky has originated and are thus often referred to as Official Bottlings or OBs. Distillery bottlings are generally more desirable for collectors and usually fetch higher prices at auction than independent bottlings. They are officially-endorsed versions of the whisky from a particular distillery and are therefore considered the truest expression of the distillery’s character.

This ideal of the distillery character is regarded so seriously by the distilleries and brand owners that casks of whisky that are considered to vary too far from the archetype are frequently sold on to whisky brokers and independent bottlers. When this happens, it is often with the proviso that the distillery’s name is not allowed to be used when the cask is bottled for fear of diminishing or damaging the distillery’s character and status.