Partners help Dylan sculpt whiskey line
Celebrity-owned or -branded spirits are a mixed bag.
Case in point: Trump Vodka. The spirit that our now-commander in chief once lent his name to was described by VodkaBuzz. com as the “most bizarre tasting vodka I’ve ever tasted. I can’t pinpoint the flavor, but my taste buds unfortunately associate the flavor with the smell of paint.”
In contrast to that Trumpian money grab are George Clooney’s Casamigos tequila brand, Ryan Reynolds’ Aviation Gin (truth be told, the brand was around for more than a decade before the “Deadpool” star invested in the spirit) or even Matthew McConaughey’s Longbranch Bourbon.
Some celebrities do it right. Some don’t. And the difference often stems from whom celebrities work with to produce their brands, as well as their involvement — or lack thereof — in the brand development.
Take Bob Dylan’s new spirits line, Heaven’s Door, which is produced with Spirits Investment Partnership, a Chicago-based company that develops spirits brands. It’s headed up by CEO Marc Bushala and Chief Operating Officer Ryan Perry.
The pair know whiskey. Bushala was the co-founder and CEO of Angel’s Share Brands until selling the brand to Bacardi Ltd., and Perry spent much of his career developing whiskeys at spirits giant Diageo. The genesis of Heaven’s Door was when Bushala discovered a trademark application for “bootleg whiskey” filed under Dylan’s name. Bushala and Perry spent weeks noodling over how they could leverage their extensive library of whiskeys to collaborate with Dylan on a whiskey line. They relentlessly attempted to contact Dylan’s representatives, and eventually they managed to get Dylan on the phone.
“We shared our background and pitched our vision to collaborate on a line of whiskeys,” Perry says. But there was a catch. Bushala and Perry didn’t want to use the term “bootleg,” which is an allusion to a series of Dylan recordings that the Nobel laureate has released over the past few decades. “Bootleg has a connotation with moonshine,” Perry says. “But our vision was for a superpremium whiskey.”
Instead they sought to persuade Dylan to use another name, Heaven’s Door, which refers to his song “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door.” And rather than focus on his music, they sought to link the brand to his artwork, namely his iron sculptures.
It took time, but the pitch worked. Dylan signed on as a full partner, and they set about creating blends from their library to create complex, unique whiskeys. They created a number of samples of a Tennessee bourbon, a straight rye and double barrel whiskey. Then they’d taste them in Dylan’s welding studio.
“He’s not a whiskey geek, and so his feedback was a little higher-level,” Perry says, noting he would have comments such as a sample was too strong or too bitter. “Then my challenge was to take those notes and tweak the blends.”
The approach resulted in whiskeys that are distinct and complex. To start, the Tennessee bourbon is indeed a bourbon, not charcoal-filtered in line with a Tennessee whiskey like Jack Daniel’s. And it features a floral, delicate aroma and a taste that melds caramel, coriander and vanilla.
The double barrel has a complicated aroma that melds candied almonds and wheat, as well as a flavor full of dark fruit, nutmeg and spice. And the straight rye is smooth and easy-drinking, with bright citrus, coriander and spice notes.
Remove Dylan from the company’s branding, and it wouldn’t matter. The whiskeys still would be worth seeking out. That’s the clearest sign the approach works.