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Further Reading- Derby connection provides cup of success From the Vault
It's one thing to see a picture of a $1,000 or $2,000 mint julep cup. It's another to see it live and take it home with you.
Woodford Reserve master distiller Chris Morris told me that on Saturday afternoon, as we stood inside a tent-turned-bar at Churchill Downs.
Louisville-based Brown-Forman Corp. (NYSE: BFB) sells the cups to benefit Old Friends Inc., a nonprofit retirement center for Thoroughbreds.
The 89 mint julep cups were sold online during the last month for the most part, though Morris said company officials arrived at Churchill this morning with six unsold cups.
Morris was in the tent to present them to buyers. He'd even mix them up a mint julep on request.
"A lot of (the buyers) are just Woodford Reserve fans," Morris said. Others are just happy to put money towards a noble cause.
Chuck Wieting, with Hillcrest Farm Racing Stable in Louisville, was one such individual. He's been buying the cups each year since 2006, he said.
"He makes a mean mint julep," Wieting said, referring to Morris.
Seventy-nine of the cups sell for $1,000 each. They are made from polished pewter with a gold-plated, hand-engraved medallion of a Thoroughbred wearing a Kentucky Derby rose garland.
Another 10 cups referred to as the royal rose cups sell for $2,000 each. Those are crafted from sterling silver and plated with gold and have a sterling silver Thoroughbred medallion. In Friday's print edition, I did a story about the St. Matthews company that makes them. (There's a link to that story in the related content section.)
Morris said it took only three hours for the $2,000 cups to sell out online last month. The last of the $1,000 cups sold at about 12:15 Saturday, he said.
David A. Mann covers these beats: Health care, health insurance, distribution/logistics (UPS), manufacturing (GE, Ford), environment, travel, minority/womens affairs and Southern Indiana.
Source: http://www.bizjournals.com/louisville/feature/kentucky-derby-2014/2014/05/woodford-reserve-master-distiller-makes-a-mean.html
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