MPCC Branded Bourbon

How has this idea enhanced your club's operation, etc.?

Our Clubhouse Manager and Sommelier discussed ideas to get our membership more engaged in our beverage program here at the Club, and got in contact with Old Forrester to create a bourbon solely for Myers Park Country Club. This initiative created a draw for a more premium bourbon for our members that also came at a slightly higher price point than our house bourbon. The program has given our members a sense of pride and ownership of a truly unique and personalized offering nobody else in the world would get to experience outside of Myers Park Country Club. We are currently in the process of selecting a second barrel for private label bottling and also have a beer that will age for 10 months in the bourbon barrel before serving.

How was this idea implemented, and what have been the club members' reactions?

Our Sommelier and Clubhouse Manager had the opportunity to fly to Louisville and sample a dozen different barrels of bourbon with Old Forrester’s Master Distiller. Once they selected the barrels, a decision based on location and duration of aging, they were able to select the bourbon they felt would be most enjoyed by our membership. They had the opportunity to taste the barrel strength bourbon against Old Forrester’s most premier bourbon, the “Birthday Bourbon” as a baseline comparison. The result was 227 bottles of Private Label, Single Barrel Bourbon that we served to our members for 10 months, (until we ran out). We had such great success with the bourbon and had the actual barrel as a memento, so we paired with local brewery, The Olde Mecklenburg Brewery, who aged their gold medal winning “Mecktoberfest Lager” for 3 months to create our own personal label beer.

The “grand unveiling” happened at our Spring Open House where we had the Master Distiller come to the club and do a sampling of the new bourbon for our members. After the members sampled the new bourbon they signed the barrel in which it was aged. Both the bourbon and the bourbon barrel aged beer were a huge success, selling out much faster than we could have anticipated. The membership is looking forward to our new private label bottling and our next bourbon aged beer.