Gains Approval of Label For Rye Blended With Sorgho Whiskey

May 16, 2019 - In an April 30th Update we announced we had filed an application with TTB for a Certificate of Label Approval (COLA) for a new James FC Hyde Blended Rye product.   And we added "A note of due caution, getting the approval of any federal bureaucracy is always an unpredictable process.  Wish us luck". 

We're thrilled to announce, with a lot of good work by a lot of good people, we have navigated our way through TTB and gained approval for our BLENDED RYE label (see ablove).

The Attraction of the Rye Market

The American whiskey market remains hot (2018 volume up nearly 6%) and within the American whiskey market, rye (2018 volume up nearly 16%) is the hottest.  But, in spite of Rye's growth rate it remains a relatively small slice of the overall market. While Rye cracked the 1 million case mark for the first time in 2018 it remains only 4% of American whiskey market. Another attractive feature of the Rye market, there are no dominant brands like Jack Daniels or Jim Beam.

Another attractive feature of the Rye market is the existence of a robust, unbranded, wholesale market of high quality barrel aged Rye. Still in the barrel, affording buyers the option to continue to age it, or to proceed immediately to bottling and sale. In our unique case, it is economical for us to acquire aged Rye and to blend it with our proprietary and strategic asset, aged Sorgho Whiskey - creating the most unique Rye on the market - "A Rye Like No Other".

The Operational Benefits

We've invested substantial sums (and continue to invest) to:

Build up our barrel aging Sorgho Whiskey inventory pipeline; and

Build out our distribution channel (now in 10 states)

Operationally, by entering the Rye market we can leverage the value and return on investment of both.  By blending a limited amount of our Sorgho Whiskey (leaving at least 51% Rye) with acquired high quality unbranded wholesale barrel aged Rye we can generate 4 times the revenue potential from our existing Sorgho Whiskey inventory; and by adding a second tightly related James FC Hyde whiskey product (a Blended Rye) we can move our "Rye Like No Other" through our distribution channel with relative ease.

In broad general terms, we see the addition of our "Rye Like No Other" as a potential capital light growth accelerator. Shipments to distribution are scheduled to begin on July 1, 2019.  For our whiskey loving owners (especially fans of Rye Whiskey) please go out and ask for.  And once it arrives go out and try it.  We think you'll be proud of your new product.  Thanks for all your support.