Ten To One And The Tricky Math Of Sourced Liquor

Yours truly, looking giddy and a little pudgy of face, with Ten To One Founders Reserve Rum. (I forget who took the pic but thank you. Awesome graphics courtesy of Alcohol Professor.)

In the latest installment of What’s Tony Drinking? (thanks as always to the fine humans at Alcohol Professor, the link to read it is right -> HERE <-), I wax rhapsodic about Ten To One’s new 26 Year Old Founders Reserve Rum. Which is a pretty impressive feat, especially when you consider that Ten To One was only founded in 2018, a mere five years ago as I type this. Some booze aficionados would use that as their “gotcha” moment to prove that something fishy is going on with the product. Did founder Marc Farrell stick rum in a barrel 26 years ago, somehow knowing that two decades and change down the road he’d be founding a rum brand? Of course not. In fact, there’s no Ten To One distillery. Like the rest of their rum, Founders Reserve is sourced, meaning that Farrell bought it from another distillery or, in this case, a third party that sells to brands which don’t make their own rum. It’s a practice that’s far more common than you might think, and as long as the brands are above-board about the fact that they didn’t make it themselves, there’s nothing sketchy about it.

Not that long ago, brands that sourced their booze were mildly scandalous. Michter’s, today arguably the most sought-after American whiskey brand, was looked down on for sourcing its whiskeys — never mind that those whiskeys, like their legendary 25 year old bourbon and rye, were and are spectacular, no matter who distilled them. Many a “craft spirits” brand tried to conceal the fact that they got their booze from the MGP distillery in Indiana, but within a year or two of the open secret being brought to light in 2014, they were making a point of sourcing MGP hooch, using the Indiana provenance as a trademark of quality.

Some of my favorite rums — I’m looking at you, Holmes Cay and Rolling Fork — are proudly sourced and open and honest about where the stuff comes from. Other brands require a little more digging to figure out the provenance. My attitude about the whole thing is, unless you’re out-and-out lying and saying you made the stuff in your garage using your grandpappy’s old still, I’ll judge your booze based on how it tastes and not where or who you got it from. If you feel different (or if you want to enthusiastically agree with me), don’t be shy, leave a comment!