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Templeton Rye

Overturned truck in southern Missouri destroys thousands of bottles of whiskey

Jake Kurtz
Des Moines Register

DES MOINES – Whiskey drinkers might want to look away.

A truck hauling 12,000 bottles of Templeton Rye overturned around 5 a.m. Wednesday on a highway in southern Missouri near the Arkansas border.

News of the wreck, first reported by local media, left Templeton Rye co-founder Keith Kerkhoff asking a question Thursday with a wry laugh, "It makes you wonder: What else can go wrong in 2020?"

But "thank God, nobody got hurt," Kerkhoff said.

According to Kevin Boersma, Templeton Rye's processing manager, the load of four-year-old whiskey belonged to a distributor and was picked up Tuesday afternoon in Templeton, Iowa, bound for a warehouse in Fort Smith, Arkansas.

Boersma, who has been with Templeton since 2007 and oversees areas such as bottling, shipping and logistics, said Wednesday's incident is unlike any he has seen during his tenure.

"It's definitely the strangest thing I've ever had happen with a truckload or shipment," he said.

Kerkhoff and Boersma said the early feedback they received from the distributor and trucking company indicated that the truck, trailer and cargo are considered a total loss. The retail value of the whiskey is north of $325,000.

"You could see on the (news) video that maybe some cases might have made it," Boersma said when asked if he knew of any salvageable spirits, "but I haven't heard anything official."

Templeton Rye was introduced to the public in 2006 but traces its roots to the bootleg era when Iowa farmers, like Kerkhoff's relatives, produced whiskey to supplement their income during Prohibition. The company opened a $35 million distillery in 2018 after years spent sourcing its whiskey from Indiana.

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