IW Harper

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IW Harper is an American whiskey brand for bourbon whiskey . The brand was founded in 1879 by the brothers Isaac Wolf Bernheim and Bernhard Bernheim. Today it belongs to the Diageo Group. It is not known where the whiskey is distilled. Presumably, however, it is stock from the Barton 1792 Distillery . The grain composition from which IW Harper is distilled is one of the bourbon mixtures with the lowest rye content with a rye content of 8%.

history

Originally from Germany, the Bernheims founded their alcohol trade Bernheim Brothers in Paducah in 1872 . In 1879 they registered the brand name IW Harper. The whiskey won a gold medal at the New Orleans Exhibition in 1885, as well as at the Chicago World's Fair in 1893. Their business grew and they moved from little Paducah to the city of Louisville , Kentucky . Due to their success, the Bernheims first built their own distillery in the suburb of Shively and then a larger, more representative distillery in Louisville itself. This building was demolished in 1991 by United Distillers , a forerunner of Diageo. The newly built building with warehouses for whiskey is now owned by Heaven Hill , which has its headquarters there.

The IW in the name comes from the first name of the German Jew Isaac Wolf Bernheim, while instead of his family name, the English Harper, which is probably better selling, was chosen as the second part of the name. In 1966, Bernheim explained that the Harper part of the name was inspired by John Harper, a horse trainer popular at the time.

IW Harper was one of the few whiskeys that could be legally produced during the Prohibition era, as the Bernheim Brothers had one of the handful of exemptions to make medicinal whiskey . In 1937 the Bernheims sold their company and with it IW Harper to the two traders Leo Gerngross and Emil Schwarzhaupt, who immediately after the end of Prohibition bought several distilleries that were in economic trouble. They sold their distilleries, including the Bernheim Distillery and the IW Harper brand, to Schenley Industries in 1937 , which in the following decades became the multinational Diageo .

IW Harper was a successful whiskey for several decades, which was sold in 110 states around the world at its best in 1966. The owners advertised it as a whiskey for the traveling gentleman . For example, it was very present on cruise ships and ocean liners that crossed the Atlantic.

In the following decades the American market turned away from bourbon and IW Harper was one of the brands that was hit particularly hard. In the USA, IW Harper was only of minor importance and was sold in the low price segment. At the same time, however, Japan experienced a bourbon boom and IW Harper developed into a bestseller there, which was sold in Japan at premium prices. The difference in prices ensured that there were numerous gray imports, with dealers in the USA buying the cheap IW Harper in stores and selling them again in Japan. To prevent this, Diageo withdrew the brand from the US market in early 1990.

For a short time, IW Harper was on sale in the USA as a limited and expensive IW Harper Gold Medal in the late 1990s , where it was part of Diageo's Bourbon Heritage Collection . After Diageo withdrew completely from the bourbon business in 1999, it also discontinued this brand. IW Harper was one of the two Bourbon brands to which Diageo at least retained the trademark rights, alongside George Dickel .

A new bourbon boom has developed in the USA since the 2010s, which led to the establishment of dozens of small and several new large distilleries. With Bulleit -Bourbon, Diageo has established one of the most important brands in the higher-priced segment. Under these conditions, Diageo decided in March 2015 to re-introduce IW Harper as a premium whiskey on the US market.

literature

  • Gilbert Delos: Les Whiskeys du Monde. Translation from French: Karin-Jutta Hofmann: Whiskey from all over the world. Karl Müller, Erlangen 1998, ISBN 3-86070-442-7 , p. 136.

Remarks

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Chuck Cowdery : IW Harper Bourbon Is Returning to the USA . In: The Chuck Cowdery Blog. March 15, 2015.
  2. ↑ CK Cowdery: Bourbon, Straight - The Uncut and Unfiltered Story of American Whiskey. Made and Bottled in Kentucky. Chicago, Illinois 2004, ISBN 0-9758703-0-0 , p. 155.
  3. ^ A b Reid Mitenbuler: The Jewish Origins of Kentucky Bourbon . In: The Atlantic. May 12, 2015.