LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – Brown-Forman Corp. will sell its Early Times and Canadian Mist whiskey brands to family-owned Sazerac Co., the parent company of Buffalo Trace bourbon, the companies said in a press release Monday.
Louisville-based Brown-Forman said the sale reflects the “continued evolution of the company’s portfolio strategy to focus on premium brands.”
Early Times is a bottom-shelf Kentucky whiskey that is not bourbon only because it’s aged in used, rather than new, charred-oak barrels.
From 1987 to 2014, Early Times was the booze in the mint juleps sold at Churchill Downs on Kentucky Derby day. But in 2015, Brown-Forman substituted Old Forester, a bourbon brand it has been reviving in recent years by, among other steps, building the $45 million Old Forester Distillery in downtown Louisville.
Early Times, which dates to 1860, was the first brand Brown-Forman purchased in 1923, the company said Monday. Brown-Forman acquired Canadian Mist in 1971, marking the company’s first production operations outside the United States. The Canadian Mist production facility is also part of the sale.
Sazerac and Brown-Forman did not disclose the terms of the sale, which is expected to close “later this summer.”
The two companies have traded brands before. In 2016, Sazerac bought Southern Comfort, a sweet-tasting liqueur, from Brown-Forman.
