Talk:Rebel (bourbon)

Company ownership history
The article says "The original company that produced the brand was ...", but it does not name the company. It then says "The 'Rebel Yell' brand was created ... around the 100th anniversary of the company", but again does not name the company. The article also says "The brand name is currently owned and marketed by Luxco", but does not say what company originally or previously owned the brand. Can someone please help clarify the company history? —BarrelProof (talk) 21:17, 4 May 2013 (UTC)
 * The company seems to have been the Stitzel-Weller Distilling Company. According to some info that I found, the Stitzel-Weller distillery was founded in 1872. I don't know where the 1849 claim comes from. Companies often tinker with dates, so we shouldn't just take it on faith that the company claim is true. According to one remark I found, the brand was trademarked in 1937, and a label archive has a label from 1948, and a book was produced by the distillery in 1946 with a likely-related title. Mike Veach is quoted there, and he seems like about the most reliable source for this sort of thing. —BarrelProof (talk) 21:43, 4 May 2013 (UTC)
 * See also W. L. Weller, Old Fitzgerald, and Pappy Van Winkle's Family Reserve. —BarrelProof (talk) 21:55, 4 May 2013 (UTC)

1972–2000 production location
Two things to realize regarding the question. Firstly, that Stitzel–Weller wasn't shut down until 1992. 1972 was when it was sold to new ownership, winding up in the hands of Diageo's predecessor United Distillers, but they continued to operate the S-W distillery until they opened Bernheim as a consolidation of operations at a single location. Bernheim was sold to Heaven Hill a few years later (Heaven Hill had been looking for a permanent facility after a fire destroyed their still house in Bardstown, and the grabbed Bernheim when United Distillers put it up for sale). The brand was sold to what became Luxco in 1984 (who took it national), but was probably still produced at S-W then Bernheim by United Distillers under contract to Luxco until Heaven Hill took over the contract when they bought Bernheim (along with inheriting the Old Fitzgerald brand as part of the deal). It is difficult to source these dealings, though, because many if these sorts of contract arrangements are not widely publicized, a result of non-distiller producers (which Lixco was until opening Lux Row) wanting to keep their use of sourced whiskey quiet. Heck, it has been Al hard enough to find a firm date as to when (and why) they dropped the "Yell" from the name as it wasn't heavily publicized, even though some passing mentions of the fact have been noted. oknazevad (talk) 15:47, 11 October 2023 (UTC)