Dear friends,

Greetings from Templeton. We are a ways into a long winter here in Iowa, but spring is in sight and it is officially 2010, the year when our expanded inventory starts to come on-line.

As many of you know, our product is aged in oak barrels for more than four years so we are only able to sell today what we distilled in 2006. We refused to rush our product or sacrifice quality, which has led to a long game of hurry-up-and-wait.

We started to expand production at the end of 2006 and that product begins to come on-line late this year. The bad news is that inventory will continue to be very lean until then. The good news is that we hope and expect to have a much larger and more stable inventory in place for Iowa and Illinois in time for Christmas and after the first of next year.

Until then, we will continue to ask for your patience. We currently sell about 70% of our product in Iowa and will continue to send product to the State Liquor Warehouse each month. You can see our actual Iowa case allocation for 2010 and early 2011 below. And, yes, we’ll be giving thanks in November that December and beyond looks much better.

Thank you all for your continued support. We are just getting started and are very excited about the future of Templeton Rye.

All the best,
Scott Bush
President, Templeton Rye

Hello, Templeton Rye fans,

Kevin Boersma, Distillery Manager, here with a little winter storm news. Not only has this been a long, snowy winter, but we were recently pummeled with a crippling ice storm. This storm left thousands without power for several days including the distillery, which was out of power for nearly four days. We received close to an inch of ice in the area, which led to downed power lines, poles and many, many trees. Crews from Missouri, Kansas, Illinois and Nebraska were in the area trying to restore power so everyone could try and get back to normal. Clean-up of trees is still going on and will continue into the spring. I thought I would share a few photos with you from around the distillery. Here’s to warmer weather!

Cheers,
Kevin

A view of the distillery from behind the snow piles.

Snowfall totals in Iowa have exceeded 3.5 feet this winter (that’s twice as much as the average snowfall per year)

Power lines outside of the distillery were coated with an inch of ice.

Tree branches covered in ice after the freezing rain ice storm.

Many of you have been asking about our increased allocation during the holidays so I wanted to take a minute to explain this to you. As you may know, our product spends at least four years aging in the barrel. We can’t go back in time and make more so we “have what we have” until some of our scaled-up production becomes available late next year. We’ve chosen to allocate the product we have until then, and we send product to Iowa and Illinois at the beginning of every month. In Iowa, we have basically sent 400 cases per month to the State from Jan-Sep of 2009. We backloaded our allocation around the holidays and sent 1,200 cases to the State for October last week, and we’re following that up with another 1,200 cases in November and 600 cases in December. The good news is that it should be a little bit easier to find a bottle of The Good Stuff for the next few months. We will return to a lower allocation in January but are quickly approaching November of 2010, the date when our scaled-up production starts to come on line. We sincerely appreciate your patience as we move toward that milestone date.

Cheers,
Scott Bush
President, Templeton Rye

We recently hosted some of our friends from Wirtz Beverage in Templeton. They were treated to a uniquely Iowa experience complete with golf carts, apple pie and bowling. You can see some highlights of the visit here:

We are proud to report that we have successfully grown and harvested our first crop of rye in Templeton. While this was a small crop grown for testing purposes and will likely not go into our whiskey, we are one step closer to our goal of growing a portion of raw materials locally and bringing back a traditional Iowa crop

Want to see more videos? Please visit our YouTube channel.

Back in April, our blogger friends Marshall Fawley and SeanMike Whipkey announced a contest on Scofflaw’s Den that challenged their readers to create and submit spring-inspired rye whiskey cocktail recipes. Each submission was graded on a ten point scale for the following categories:

-Does the cocktail have a spring theme?
-Is it a rye whiskey base?
-Taste
-Color/Presentation
-Uniqueness

A big congratulations to to the winners, Craig, Jeff, and Gabe. See all three winning cocktail recipes here. We’d like to thank Marshall and SeanMike for creating the contest in our honor and for sharing The Good Stuff with their first place winner, Craig “Dr. Bamboo” Mrusek, who received a bottle of “Marshall’s Mountain Moonshine Bitters” and a bottle of Templeton Rye. Here’s his winning cocktail recipe.

Jetpack by Craig “Dr. Bamboo” Mrusek

1 oz Rye
1 oz Zubrowka Bison Grass vodka
.5 oz Schladerer Kirschwasser (I used Clear Creek)
.5 oz simple syrup
.5 oz lime juice
1 dash Fee’s Mint Bitters

Shake all with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

For more Templeton Rye recipes, be sure to check out the Barkeep page on our website.

On June 22, 2009, Steve Cannon will begin an 11-day, 300-mile run across Iowa to celebrate life. During those 11 days, he will run with children battling cancer, cancer survivors and those wanting to honor the memory of a family member or friend. The purpose of The Run To Cure Cancer is to create awareness, raise money for the Lance Armstrong Foundation and to give hope.

When we heard Steve’s story, we thought it was great that he was doing something so unique and cool in Iowa for such a good cause, and we wanted to help in any way. The Templeton Rye bus will be the official support vehicle of The Run To Cure Cancer. Check out Steve’s blog post about supporting “The Run” to learn how you can climb aboard the Templeton Rye bus for a day or a week to help support his cause.

Please join us in supporting Steve at the Fundraising Party on Friday, June 26th at Colby Park in Windsor Heights, Iowa. We will celebrate with an evening of BBQ, beer, pop, and free massages for anyone who runs or bikes to the party.

Templeton Rye intern Claire Bisanz with Meryl & Keith Kerkhoff

The Templeton Rye team is pleased to welcome our new summer intern, Claire Bisanz. Claire is originally from the Twin Cities and is a student at Iowa State University studying Marketing and Spanish.

We are happy to have Claire on the team and look forward to her work helping us continue to develop and execute various strategic plans.

Hi folks,

We are very excited about our new landscaping project at the distillery. We have planted a variety of native flowers and grasses around the distillery, including Indian Grass, Big and Little Bluestem, Butterfly Milkweed, Black Eyed Susan, Spider Wort, Purple Coneflower and Aromatic Aster.

A special thanks to our friends Liz Garst and Elizabeth Hill at Whiterock Conservancy, Gloria from Windy Ridge Flowers in Coon Rapids and Linda and Tobin Bush for all of their great work.

Like most things in our business, it will probably take a few years to be ready, but we are very excited about our collection of native Iowa flowers and grasses. Please come visit us and see for yourself.

All the best,

Scott Bush
President, Templeton Rye

Iowa Governor Chet Culver was in Carroll County over the weekend for the annual Governor’s Pheasant Hunt, and he stopped by the distillery to say hello. We gave Governor Culver a tour, discussed the history of TR, and chatted about opportunities and challenges facing our company. Our team really appreciated the Governor making time to visit us.

Pictured, from left to right: Assistant Master Distiller Keith Kerkhoff, Brand Manager Mike Killmer, President Scott Bush, Governor Chet Culver

Iowa Liquor Commissioner Lynn Walding lends a hand on the bottling line.

Lynn Walding, Administrator of the Iowa Alcoholic Beverages Division, recently visited the Templeton Rye distillery and toured our updated production, laboratory, warehouse, bottling and storage facilities. Commissioner Walding was joined by Steve Kuzynowski, Design Engineer for the Iowa ABD.

The tour concluded with lunch at the legendary Corner Station in Templeton, where we discussed distilleries in Iowa and how the Iowa ABD division operates. Distilleries are relatively new to Iowa, so we’re all learning as we go. We really appreciate Commissioner Walding taking the time to visit and tour our new-and-improved facility. Lynn is a former NABCA President and is well-known in the industry.

The Templeton Rye team has been hard at work filling up the calendar with events for September, so celebrate the kids going back to school and join us this month.

Jameson’s Public House
Date: Thursday, Sept 4th
Location: Jameson’s, 310 East 4th St, Waterloo, IA

Join TR President Scott Bush, Brand Manager Michael Killmer and various celebrity bartenders at the famous Jameson’s pub. They will be preparing various classic Templeton Rye cocktails during the evening and then heading to the Hub for the Nadas show.

Call 319-233-0701 for more information.

Gatsby Gala at the Salisbury House
Date: Friday, Sept 5th
Location: Salisbury House, Des Moines, IA

Templeton Rye will be supporting the annual Gatsby Gala at the beautiful and historic Salisbury House. The classic cocktail bar will be set up on the Salisbury House lawn and guest will enjoy a combination of classic cocktails and classic cars.

The scene includes modern day socialites dressed in 1920s-style spats and suspenders, beads and boas, fedoras and feathers. Guests enjoy luscious, lavish cuisine and fine wine and spirits. They dance to the music of lively bands, and climb aboard vintage autos for a spin around the block. If that sounds as fun to you as it does to us please plan to attend the 4th Annual Gatsby Gala and be sure to keep your eyes out for a first of its kind Templeton Rye auction item.

Tickets are $200, or $125 for ages 35 and under. To order tickets call 515-274-1777.

For more information, visit: www.salisburyhouse.org

Randall’s Wine and Spirits Pre-Holiday Show
Date: Saturday, September 6th.
Location: 10800 Lincoln Trail Road, Fairview Heights, IL

Templeton Rye is proud to join Randall’s Wine and Spirits for their huge pre-holiday show. Randall’s is by far one of the most impressive stores we have ever seen. If you are in the area stop by for a sample of The Good Stuff and many other interesting samples. Randall’s is also one of our internet sources for those of you outside of the Iowa and Illinois markets.

For orders, visit: www.internetwines.com

Farmer’s Market
Date: Saturday, September 6th
Location: Downtown Des Moines, IA

Emerging Artist Showcase
Date: Saturday, September 6th
Location: Subterranean, 2011 W. North Ave., Chicago, IL

TR is one of the proud sponsors supporting live music and new, emerging artists. Stop by, check out the music, and enjoy a little of The Good Stuff.

For more information, visit: www.platform-1.com

Templeton Rye-inspired Dinner at Sage the Restaurant
Date: September 8th and 9th
Location: Sage the Restaurant, Des Moines, IA

Our friends at Sage the Restaurant will be featuring a Templeton Rye-themed menu on September 8th and 9th with a cash bar starting at 6:00 p.m. and dinner beginning promptly at 7:00 with communal seating. Click here for more information.

Our friends at Sage the Restaurant will be featuring a Templeton Rye-themed menu on September 8th and 9th with a cash bar starting at 6:00 p.m. and dinner beginning promptly at 7:00 with communal seating. A Templeton Rye cocktail will be paired with each course. Cost per person is $65 plus tax and gratuity. To make your reservations, please contact Sage directly at 515-255-7722. The complete menu is posted below.

Salad
Templeton Rye poached grilled Missouri peaches, with baby greens, carmelized pecans, red onions and Maytag Blue Cheese.

Fish
Templeton Rye marinated and cherrywood smoked seabass with a frisee and radish salad with a horse radish vinagrettte.

Meat
Braised Niman Ranch Pork atop an Iowa sweet corn spoonbread and a Templeton Rye apricot glaze.

Dessert
Templeton Rye bread pudding with a TR chocolate sauce.

Photo credit: Joe Crimmings Photography

Many of you have been asking about Templeton Rye distillery tours. We are pleased to announce that we’ll be offering several tour dates through the end of the year! For a complete schedule, visit our distillery tours page.

Please contact kevin@templetonrye.com with your questions or to secure a spot.

Recently, we were honored to host United States Senator Tom Harkin for a VIP distillery tour. Senator Harkin has long known about Templeton Rye from his travels across our great state, and he was very excited to see the distillery.

The Templeton Rye team discussed many issues with the senator, including rural development, renewable energy and specific challenges facing our company. Below are photos that we captured during the tour.

From left to right: Master Distiller Meryl Kerkhoff, Senator Tom Harkin and Assistant Master Distiller Keith Kerkhoff in front of the Templeton Rye still.

Master Distiller Meryl Kerkhoff and Gene Wiese of Manning discuss historic photos in the tasting room.

Assistant Master Distiller Keith Kerkhoff explaining the finer points of whiskey filtering.

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.

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

Below is a personal message from Scott Bush, President of Templeton Rye, regarding the Iowa Native Distillery Bill currently being debated in the Iowa Legislature.

We built the Templeton Rye Distillery in Templeton, Iowa. Currently we are expanding from 1,500 to nearly 12,000 square feet. An integral piece of our expansion plans is to be able to sell Templeton Rye to distillery visitors. In order for this to happen, the Iowa Native Distillery Bill will need to pass through the Iowa Legislature.

This bill will allow craft distilleries located in Iowa to sell up to 5,000 proof gallons of spirits to tourists visiting their distillery for home consumption. Distillers would pay a fixed $14.50 per proof gallon directly to the State of Iowa.

Currently in the U.S., there are 17 states that allow (or are considering allowing) native distilleries to sell product on-site, including our neighbors Nebraska and Wisconsin.

Lynchburg, Tennessee, has a population of 350 people and receives 250,000 visitors annually due to the presence of the Jack Daniel Distillery. At Templeton Rye, we feel the State of Iowa should support native distilleries, or risk missing out on a great tourism, economic development and value-added agricultural opportunity.

You may show your support of the Iowa Native Distillery Bill by contacting your legislator today.