Want this ‘Riff Pitino’ bourbon? Well, you can’t have it. Here’s why.
A whiskey label featuring basketball coach Rick Pitino is stirring up fans of the University of Kentucky and the University of Louisville, and a few bourbon fans as well.
The label has an illustration of Pitino as Two-Face/Harvey Dent, a classic Batman villain.
One side features the UK Wildcat team in hoisting an NCAA trophy amid confetti.
The other the U of L Cardinals around a woman dancing on a stripper pole, with dollar bills instead of confetti.
Pitino coached the Kentucky team from 1989-97 and the Louisville squad from 2001-17. He led both schools to a NCAA championship but his 2013 title at U of L was vacated by the NCAA because of lack of oversight in an escort sex scandal.
The label surfaced on Monday on social media when handicapper and bourbon fan Ed DeRosa tweeted it out, saying “This label for the Riff Pitino bourbon (@NewRiff pick from Ryan McGuire) is absolutely incredible.”
Kentucky Sports Radio’s Drew Franklin wrote about it, calling the artwork “wild” and “ruthless.”
KSR host Matt Jones also picked up on the artwork, retweeting it and saying “This is apparently the label for the @NewRiff Riff Pitino Bourbon that will be released soon Oh My ...”
While Kentucky fans chimed in approval, Louisville fans were incensed, particularly because the label features a player in a wheelchair wearing the number 5, an allusion to Kevin Ware, who suffered a horrific broken leg during a game.
While Louisville fans began attacking the New Riff Distillery online, Kentucky fans were asking where clamoring to buy a bottle.
Here’s the deal: You can’t.
The label apparently was placed on a “barrel pick,” not a bottle released by the distillery in Northern Kentucky. The 200 or so bottles will not be in stores.
New Riff, which is in Newport and is affiliated with Party Source, has no control over what customers do to its bottles after they are delivered, said Amy Tobin, distillery spokeswoman. The distillery opened in 2014 and released its first bourbon in 2018, all with streamlined labeling.
“We are so proud of our beautiful bottle and the branding we’ve worked on and the last thing we’re going to do is throw a sticker on it,” Tobin said.
McGuire, who purchased the barrel, declined to comment.
Tobin said the practice is common with private barrel purchases.
“It’s a phenomenon among whiskey clubs. There’s not a brand out there that isn’t getting stickered. It’s a source of pride amongst the clubs to be creative,” she said. “It gets a lot of play on social media.”
That it does.
On Twitter, although many were quick to point out the private nature of the label, the backlash was swift and harsh.
“Why is this funny?,” tweeted donnie @clemmons_me. “He was our coach that saw us through a really bad time in the program. He might be terribly flawed, but who are we to want to further this crap? And honestly who the hell wants to associate or do business with people who want this ‘private label.’”
Apparently many people do.
Barstool Sports picked up the story, with the headline, “The Label For This ‘Pitino Bourbon’ Is Quite Literally The Greatest Piece Of Art That’s Ever Existed.”
Tobin confirmed that they’d had a lot of calls. “The funniest thing is people want to buy it ... they want to collect it,” she said.
This story was originally published January 21, 2020 at 11:22 AM.
