Notorious 1930s bank robber John Dillinger allegedly wrote a letter to Henry Ford stating, “Your slogan should be: Drive a Ford and Watch the Other Cars Fall Behind You.” We think Ray Bristol might agree.

H.F. “Gus” Schroeder told us this story about Ray and his new Ford V-8 getaway car:

A fellow by the name of Ray Bristol did all that hooch-making at dad’s place. You could write a story just about his adventures, that’s a fact. He would load up eight 10-gallon kegs of whiskey and run it to Omaha for shipment to Chicago.

He was hijacked that one time in Missouri Valley in 1933 — he had a ‘33 Chevy and it wasn’t fast enough. They took his eight barrels of whiskey (that was 80 gallons) and when he got home he traded the Chevy off for a new Ford. The Fords had just come out with the new V-8s and they were fast. He never got hijacked again after that.

Got a TR story of your own to share? Please leave a comment below, or click here to tell us all about it.

Gene Wiese from Manning, Iowa, shared this story about the popularity of Templeton Rye in Chicago back in the late 1940s:

When I was a kid, we just accepted Templeton Rye in our area as commonplace. We thought everybody might have something similar to Templeton Rye, that there was nothing unusual about it.

Soon after WWII in 1947, I exhibited cattle at the Great Chicago International Stock Show. My parents warned me, South State and Halsted Streets, that is a tough end of town. As I was sitting with my cattle, all these different ethnic groups would come.

When people asked you where you were from they would say, “Where is that from Des Moines?” or “Where is that from Sioux City?” Well, these folks in Chicago would look at the sign I painted and often ask, “Where is that from Templeton?” Now, this is Chicago, and they acquainted any town in Iowa with where it was from Templeton. The next question was “Did you bring any Templeton Rye with you?” The stories about its popularity in Chicago are very, very true.

You can listen to Gene talk about the Chicago International Stock Show and getting asked about Templeton Rye in the video below:

View more stories on YouTube at our Templeton Rye channel.

Got a TR story of your own to share? Please leave a comment below, or click here to tell us all about it.

As a surprise belated Father’s Day present for her father John Pederson, our friend Libby Crimmings invited a handful her dad’s closest friends for Father’s Day Templeton style.

The group loaded into the Templeton Rye (Nadas) bus and made their way to the distillery for an all-access tour. After an entertaining and informative tour, including hand-labeling some bottles and sampling a bit of The Good Stuff, the crew moved on to lunch and libations.

The afternoon consisted of a good old-fashioned Western Iowa Bar Crawl at Coon Bowl and the North Side Pub in Coon Rapids, Shack’s in Bayard, TOJO’s and the Dew Drop in Jamaica, the River House Barn, a historic speakeasy in the White Rock Conservancy, and a final stop at the Waveland in Des Moines. It was a perfect Father’s Day for a wonderful dad and great friend of Templeton Rye. We were pleased to help make it a special day.

To set up your own Templeton Rye Distillery tour, contact kevin@templetonrye.com

We are pleased to announce that Templeton Rye was chosen as “Best of Category Whisky/Whiskey” at the Los Angeles International Wine and Spirits Competition. This is a huge honor for us and we’re very excited about it.

To view our official press release, please click here. A list of all the winners can be found here.

We have now sold several dozen used whiskey barrels from Batch I and II and are curious what folks have done with them. Have you done anything creative with your barrel? We’d love to hear your stories.

Please leave a comment below telling us what you did with your barrel. If you have pictures, you can send them to info@templetonrye.com, and we’ll post the best entries in the blog. You can also share you pictures and stories on our Facebook page.

Pictured in this post is a bar made using a barrel from Batch I, by none other than TR Bottler Meryln “Sparky” Zubrod.

Hi friends,

I will be spending the week in Southern Illinois visiting accounts with our partners at Judge & Dolph. The plan is to visit the Arcola/Charleston, Carbondale, Alton and Belleville/Fairview/O’Fallon markets, so if you see me roaming around lost, please say hello. Stay tuned for an update.

Michael Killmer
Brand Manager at Templeton Rye

It wasn’t exactly the U.S. Open, but we had a wonderful day at Pleasant Valley Golf Course in Iowa City for our golf event on the 11th. We would like to thank Tom Hein, Johnita Quinlan and the entire staff for the great event and dinner. Players from all over the state took part in the event, along with the Templeton Rye team. Congratulations to our friend Dan Dove, who won the authentic Templeton Rye barrel signed by Master Distiller Meryl Kerkhoff.

We had a great bottle signing event on Thursday, July 10th at John’s Grocery in Iowa City. For all of you who did not go to the University of Iowa, John’s Grocery is a legend there that was started by John and Erma Alberhasky in 1948. With the help of their seven children and countless grandchildren, John and Erma turned a fledgling business into an Iowa City icon.

John’s is known for their extremely knowledgeable staff and impressive selection of high end wine, spirits and beer. It was a particularly neat event for me, as my dad often talks about going to Dirty John’s when he was in college and I told the staff that the last time I was there I was not buying fine spirits but beer by the 30-pack.

The event was a great success with an enthusiastic and eclectic crowd. Marjorite Mintle did a double take upon seeing our sign and said she had not seen Templeton Rye since she was a young girl in Manning, Iowa, and said both her father and older brother were involved in the rye trade.

Dr. Jim Hanson is a huge supporter of our product and asked us to sign several bottles for his friends. As we dug through the case we came upon a special bottle that Keith had put his personal touch on at the distillery as our “last bottle of the day.” Keith sent one of these bottles to Iowa and one to Illinois. Has anyone seen the bottle in Illinois? The labels ended up a bit off kilter, and it is signed by all of our bottlers.

Scott Bush
President of Templeton Rye