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PROFILE B ill Goldring is on a quest. “I’m in search of the Holy Grail,” he says, with a mischievous grin. But unlike the stuff of Arthurian legends —where the Holy Grail is usually a cup filled with food in infinite abundance— Goldring’s vessel would be brimming with the perfect whiskey, ideally one that would come from one of the many distilleries that are in his own current portfolio. William Goldring, known to everyone as “Bill,” is from the third generation to lead the family in the beverage alcohol business. His grandfather, Newman Goldring, was in the business in 1898 in Florida before Prohibition. Newman’s son, Stephen, was born in Pensacola, Florida in 1908 and moved with his family to Chicago during Prohibition. Following the repeal of Prohibition in December 1933, the second generation Goldring returned to Florida in 1939, opening a small wholesale liquor distributorship. In 1944, Stephen Goldring expanded his business into New Orleans, a city known for its love of all things spirits, founding the Magnolia Liquor Company, a wholesale liquor company, with his long-time business partner,MalcolmWoldenberg.The two had become acquainted when the Canadian- bornWoldenberg, one of the first employees of Seagram’s distillers in the United States, paid a sales call to Goldring. Seagram was Montreal-based at the time. Among the partners’ earliest acquisitions was the Sazerac Company in 1949, one of the oldest family-owned business in New Orleans, dating back to 1850s. Both men, steeped in the philosophy that to whom much is given, much is expected, created foundations to support civic endeavors to serve the greater good. Look for at Rouses We stock and sell more spirits than anyone on the Gulf Coast. Sazerac brands including Buffalo Trace and Benchmark Bourbons, Fireball Whisky, Taaka Vodka and Southern Comfort, are among our biggest sellers. ​

Bill Goldring and Donald Rouse

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