Expert: Paul Wagner - 6/14/2001

Question
I was wondering if you knew why liquor bottles used to be labeled with the 3 "x"s?  I'm writing a musical comedy about pirates and I need to know. My co-author thinks it has something to do with quality (as in, Pillsbury's highest quality flour has 4 "x"s) but for some reason I thought it had something to do with Prohibition (as in, contraband). Can you help us, or perhaps refer me to someone who can? Thanks!

Answer
Dear Tilney: Ah, you have asked about one of the great myths of the business.  One theory:

Years ago, Hennessey developed the nomenclature for their cognac, and it began with VS, better quality was VSOP, and the very best was XO.  Initially, these letters never really meant anything--although now VSOP must have been aged at least four years, and I believe that Hennessey claims the XO is about 40 years old.  AS other companies (and bootleggers, frauds, and scalawags) copied this, the XXX, XXXX, and even XXXXX became their way of pretending to quality.  The letters themselves mean nothing at all.  

An argument against this is that the X as a symbol for quality was used long before Hennessey created the XO product.

This is much like the theory among early steamship passengers that the quality of the ship was visible in the number of smoke stacks--the more the better.  Which is why so many of those ships, including the Titanic, has extra smokestacks...even though they were not connected to an engine!

On the other hand, the system probably never saw more use than during Prohibition, where the use of XXX as a trade name for quality had the additional value of being completely anonymous!

Paul Wagner