The Tasting Panel magazine

April 2013

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BRAND IN HISTORY PHOTO COURTESY OF YOUNG'S MARKET COMPANY Templeton Rye soon gained the admiration and attention of a number of prominent individuals, including Alphonse Gabriel "Al" Capone, who had been declared Public Enemy Number One by the Chicago Crime Commission. Capone had a special fondness for Templeton Rye, using it as the foundation for his bootlegging operations and referring to it as "the good stuff." He even arranged—so the story goes—to have it smuggled in while he was "vacationing" at Alcatraz. "Uncle Al and my grandfather [Capone's older brother and business partner, Ralph, who was Public Enemy Number Three] always had a whiskey in their hands," remembers Deirdre Marie Capone, grandniece of Al Capone, and whose book, Uncle Al Capone: The Untold Story from Inside His Family is available, autographed, at www. unclealcapone.com. "After every meal they would drink Templeton at poker games and I would sit on their laps and see all this money and smell all this cigar smoke. My grandfather said that the best rye whisky in the word was distilled for them in Iowa and it was called Templeton." Today it is once again possible to get "the good stuff," but without the threat of government agents smashing whiskey barrels. Templeton Small Batch Rye is produced based on the original recipe and has been brought out from the bootlegger's shadows and into the legitimate light of the 21st century by Templeton Rye Spirits LLC founders 44 / the tasting panel / april 2013 which is currently distilled at MPG Scott Bush as President and Keith in Lawrenceburg, Indiana, strictly Kerkhoff as Executive Vice President, adhering to the Templeton recipe, thus along with Vernon Underwood, insuring that Meryl Kerkhoff's legacy, Chairman of the Board and CEO of and that of Alphonse Kerkhoff and Templeton Rye Spirits. Frank Schroeder, lives on. From there Infinium Spirits will be exclusively the whiskey is shipped to a recently marketing and distributing Templeton built distillery in the town of Templeton, Rye, thereby insuring its success, where the barrels are aged from four along with the fact that it was Keith to five years before being bottled, and Kerkhoff's grandfather, Alphonse, plus Deirdre Capone's signature appears Frank Schroeder (Scott Bush's great on every back label. In time, distillation grandfather) who originally made Templeton Rye. During Prohibition Templeton Rye sold for $5.50 a gallon but now carries an SRP of $39.99 for a 750 ml. bottle. "My great grandfather, Frank Schroeder, along with Keith's grandfather, Alphonse, were 'entrepreneurs' during Prohibition," recalls Bush, "and I had heard stories of 'dad's whiskey' from my grandparents and their siblings. One day we were all home over the holidays and my Templeton Rye Spirits LLC founder and President brothers, a few cousins Scott Bush. and I went up to visit Uncle Gus. He has a great bar in his basement and he reached under the bar and pulled out a bottle of Templeton Rye. He gave us all a taste and started telling the old family stories. "At this time Templeton was virtually extinct, but I was determined to bring it back. I asked Uncle Gus for the recipe, and he said the only family he knew of that might still have it would be the Kerkhoff's. Keith Kerkhoff (right), founder and Executive Vice I called Alphonse's son, President, Templeton Rye Spirits LLC with his father, Meryl, who thought I was the late Meryl Kerkoff, former Master Distiller. a revenue agent, wanted will be done at the Templeton distillery nothing to do with me and hung up in Iowa. the phone. I finally had Uncle Gus Templeton has no corn in its recipe convince him that I was not a revenue and uses an extremely high quality rye agent and very slowly a relationship with malted barley. As a result, when formed. Meryl had grown up making poured, a candied fresh floral aroma fills whiskey with his dad and knew how the room, and its medium-full, lemonto make Templeton, and as Master oak flavor contains a hint of char and Distiller, worked with our partners to cherries caressed by a long, silky finish. get it right." "Back in 2006, when we had a Although Meryl passed away in 2010 website but not much else, including at the age of 81, Keith, Scott and their distribution or meaningful amounts team continue to make Templeton Rye,

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