Expert: Paul Wagner - 10/20/2010

Question
I just saw Deborah's question from Jan. 9, 2010 about her inheritance of a bar-full of liquor.  I'm hoping you can pass along my email address to ask if she ever tried the Dowling Deluxe, or if the bottle is still unopened.  I'm curious what she would want for it.  I am from Texas, but came across that brand of bonded bourbon in the mid-1980s when I started dating my wife, who had attended a few Kentucky Derbies, and still had a bottle that had been opened in the 1970s.  We also attended a few derbies, and I routinely brought back bottles of the bourbon, since it was a "small-batch" variety, with just a few thousand cases bottled each year, and the last owners of the distillery sold it only in Kentucky.  I've since learned the distillery has burned down.  I found it to be a very smooth sipping whiskey, and will only drink it straight up or on the rocks.  I still have one unopened bottle left from the late 1980s.  Since it was bottled in bond, I coveted the brand mainly because that was virtually the only type of bourbon consumed by my grandfather, who died in 1985 and knew the era of Prohibition.  My question, today, is about the practice of maintaining government bond whiskey warehouses.  In general, what is the market for bonded bourbons, which brands are still sold nationally, and is this an area in which small-batch bourbons thrive economically?  Thanks for your good work.  --  Thomas

Answer
Hi Thomas

I can't pass on anyone's address through this system, so I can't help you with that one.  I do think your point about "bottled in bond" products is interesting.  I've attached the Wikipedia notes on this, as they are a great foundation on the topic.  I don't think that this is a big part of the business today, and you'll see from the brands that they aren't major players in the market.  

Still, it is these artisan distillers that can really produce something outside of the traditional products of the big boys!

"Bottled in bond
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:  Bottled in bond refers to American-made spirit that has been aged and bottled according to a set of legal regulations contained in the United States government's Standards of Identity for Distilled Spirits (27 C.F.R. 5.21, et. seq.), as originally laid out in the Bottled-in-Bond Act of 1897

To be labeled as "Bottled-in-Bond" or "Bonded," the spirit must be the product of one distillation season and one distiller at one distillery. It must have been stored (i.e., aged) in a federally bonded warehouse under U.S. government supervision for at least four years and bottled at 100 (U.S.) proof (50% alcohol by volume). The bottled product's label must identify the distillery (by DSP number) where it was distilled and, if different, where it was bottled.

While the regulations apply to all spirits, in practice, most bonded spirits are whiskeys.

A reaction to adulteration among spirits, the Bottled-in-Bond Act made the United States government the guarantor of the whiskey's authenticity. Although without assurance of quality, "bottled-in-bond" whiskey came to be regarded as "the good stuff."

[edit] History of the Bottled-in-Bond Act
The primary purpose of the Bottled-in-Bond Act of 1897 was to guarantee that the product the consumer was buying was really whiskey, according to a standardized definition. To ensure compliance, Treasury agents were assigned to control access to so-called bonded warehouses at the distilleries.

Prior to the Act's passage, much of the whiskey sold as "straight whiskey" was anything but. So much of it was adulterated in the name of greed - flavored and colored with iodine, tobacco, and other substances - that a group of reputable whiskey distillers, led by Colonel Edmund Haynes Taylor, Jr. (creator of Old Taylor bourbon), joined with then Secretary of the Treasury John G. Carlisle to fight for the Bottled-in-Bond Act.

To this day, some consumers consider the term as an endorsement of quality, but many producers consider it archaic and do not use it, even on products that qualify for the designation. However, since bottled-in-bond whiskey must be the product of one distillation season, one distillery and one distiller, whereas ordinary straight whiskey may be a product of the mingling of straight whiskeys of differing ages and producers, it can be regarded as a better indication of the distiller's skill.

The types of American whiskey typically labeled as "Bonds" are Bourbon whiskey, rye whiskey, and corn whiskey. Laird's also makes an Apple Brandy that is Bottled in Bond.

[edit] Bonded Spirits Currently in Production
Evan Williams Bourbon
JTS Brown Bourbon
J.W. Dant Bourbon
Heaven Hill Bourbon (4 and 6 year old versions)
Henry McKenna 10 year old
Laird's Apple Brandy
Mellow Corn Corn Whiskey
Old Fitzgerald Bourbon
Old Granddad Bourbon
Old Potrero Hoatling's Rye Whiskey
Rittenhouse 100 Rye Whiskey
Wild Turkey American Spirit Bourbon"


Thanks for writing, and for your kind words!

Paul Wagner