The Best Value Bourbon You’ve Never Heard Of

Merchants and retailers are at the origin of almost every major blended Scotch label. Before glass bottles became prolific, regional merchants throughout Scotland purchased whisky from distillers and kept it in barrel, often creating their own recipes and blends for local clients. To give you a few examples, the Chivas Brothers grocery dates back to 1801 in Aberdeen and provided goods to Queen Victoria in the 1840s. George Ballentine started as a grocer in Edinburgh back in 1827, later expanding into Glasgow and creating blends that were sold out of his store. Johnnie Walker started as a grocer in Ayrshire back in 1824. His son and grandson expanded on the popularity of his merchant blends and created the famous square bottle in 1870. Today, all of those labels belong to gigantic corporations.

Yet, not all existing merchant labels from that era are in the hands of drinks industry behemoths. Cyrus Noble Bourbon is a historic merchant blend from California that is still owned by the family that founded it. Back in the 19th century, the Bourbons were purchased from both Ohio and Kentucky, then sent to San Francisco where they were bottled and sold by Haas Brothers merchants—the same Haas family that helped revive Levi-Strauss denim in the early 1920s. First delivered to the west coast by ship in 1871, the label is still owned by Haas Brothers over 150 years later, carried on by the great, great grandson of its original founders.

While the original source at Freiberg & Workum distillery no longer exists, the whiskey has been contracted from a number of Kentucky producers over the last century and—other than during Prohibition—has never ceased production. The recipe has also remained the same: 78% corn, 10% rye, 12% malted barley. Up until recently, it was contracted from Heaven Hill Distillery in Bardstown, but a new 5+ year iteration from Bardstown Bourbon Company just down the road had my taste buds excited this past week upon sampling it.

With plenty of sweet baking spices upfront, the newest version of Cyrus Noble is balanced by toffee and peanut brittle notes with just the right amount of pepper. It’s a simple 90 proof specimen, but it’s supremely satisfying considering I paid just $34.99 at my local retailer. Yet, beyond the basic Bourbon talk, what really inspires me about the whiskey is its birthright. While other throwback labels are a fabrication and have little to do with the brand’s authentic history, Cyrus Noble is still contracted and bottled today by the same family that started it.

So why don’t more people know about it? Because, for Haas Brothers owner Steven Burrows, Cyrus Noble is more a responsibility of legacy than anything else. “I didn’t want to be the generation that dropped the ball and ended the historic run,” Steven said to me during a recent conversation; “Other than during Prohibition, Cyrus Noble Bourbon has been bottled and sold by my family for over 150 years. It’s my duty as the Haas Brothers steward to keep it alive; my obligation to my inheritance and those who did the same before me.”

Steven’s commitment to quality and price has been stronger than his commitment to marketing over the years, which is why the brand has gone relatively unnoticed in an overcrowded market. With so many choices available to consumers today, it can be difficult to break through that noise and resonate with Bourbon’s continually-expanding audience. When I spoke with Steven recently about marketing, I told him flat out: the story you need to tell is not about Cyrus Noble the person. The overarching constant in the history of the label is Haas Brothers, one of California’s original merchant bottlers. That’s the hook.

As I mentioned before, grocers were the original marketers of great whiskey and Haas Brothers was San Francisco’s premier merchant in the late 19th century. During these formative years, the business of rectifying whiskey became popular with reputable wholesalers buying whiskey from different distilleries and blending them together to arrive at a consistent product they could call their own. Bavarian-born Kalman Haas settled in San Francisco after earning enough money in California’s gold fields both as a prospector and as an itinerant peddler selling everyday goods to miners. In 1851, he established a brick and mortar grocery business and was later joined by his brothers, Charles and Sam.

Over time, Haas Brothers grew into a multifaceted business that sold a broad range of consumer goods, including books and stationery, machinery and musical instruments, sewing machines, pianos, and organs; as well as sugar, coffee, mustard, sardines, spices, teas, and countless other foodstuffs and household wares. By the 1890s, Haas Brothers was one of the largest dealers of imported fruits in the city, as well as Bourbon.

However, things became more difficult for merchants in the 1920s. When Prohibition hit, all of the Haas Brothers’ Bourbon inventory was eventually depleted and the whiskey needed to be sourced from a new distillery once the ban was eventually lifted. Luckily, the firm’s diversification of business had weathered the storm and the family was financially prepared to reinvest in new stock. Armed with the original recipe and a brand awareness, production began in Kentucky once again. The initial shipments of post-Prohibition Cyrus Noble were younger than what pre-Prohibition aficionados had known, but holiday shoppers could buy new Cyrus Noble as early as Christmas in 1934.

Obviously, Cyrus Noble’s liquid has not remained constant over its 150 year history. What has endured, however, is the Haas Brothers commitment to quality and value. When Heaven Hill notified the brand it could no longer fulfill its contract, Steven Burrows was ready for the pivot towards Bardstown Bourbon Company. Should BBC ever falter in its ability to deliver quality whiskey at a fair price, Haas Brothers will be prepared once again to find the right home for its ever-evolving label. Cyrus Noble Bourbon started as a merchant bottling in San Francisco and remains a merchant bottling in the Bay Area today, through thick and thin.

The origin story of the Cyrus Noble name is also interesting, but it’s classic legend and myth stuff about the man himself. Given the whiskey is no longer made at the original distillery (which is long gone at this point), I don’t see the point in selling consumers an enigmatic history that is no longer relevant to the current whiskey in the bottle. Plenty of operators in today’s market have dug up a romantic tale from Bourbon’s past and tried exhaustively to connect it with their modern distillate in the public eye. Those stories have always struck me as desperate and inauthentic, which is why focusing on Cyrus Noble’s history as a merchant blend is so refreshing.

I’ve spent an ungodly amount of time over the last decade tasting with avaricious upstarts, listening to them wax poetically about heritage, when it’s clear they simply rummaged through a box of Bourbon history and pulled out an old-timey name. While those brands continue to sell inauthenticity in the hope of success, I can’t help but be inspired by Steven’s low-key family history project: a brand with more authentic whiskey history than any of these newcomers could dream of, yet almost no compulsion to talk about it.

-David Driscoll