Back to School Edition: Bottled-In-Bond 100

School is back in session and it’s time for a quiz.

What congressional act in 1897 guarantees consistency in quality, taste, and safety when drinking bourbon whiskey?
What congressional act is most often credited as the first consumer protection of its kind?

If you answered the Bottled-In-Bond Act of 1897, you passed the quiz and should reward yourself with a nice glass of well, you know the answer question to that as well. Let’s have a little history lesson.

Here is the rundown of the problems within the industry in the late 1800’s. The quality of straight whiskey had gotten downright bad and unsafe. The reality was that straight whiskey was possibly anything but whiskey in attempts to cut corners and save a little money by adding fillers into “whiskey” to adjust the color and other characteristics while keeping costs down. Consumers were digesting iodine, tobacco, and believe it or not, some say gunpowder, therefore there was a true need for some good ol’ quality assurance in the name of public safety. Distilleries also made false claims about the medicinal effects of their product without any verifiable evidence to back their claims up. Shady production and marketing was giving the good guys and their livelihood a bad name.

To attempt to grab the reigns of the wagon that was out of control, Colonel E. H. Taylor Jr. (of Buffalo Trace fame) was an instrumental player in working with US Secretary of the Treasury, John G. Carlisle to help create the Bottled-In-Bond Act of 1897 to ensure any whiskey bearing the name Bottled-In-Bond was produced by the same distiller, at the same distillery, during the same distilling season, aged for at least four years, unadulterated (except for dilution with pure water), and bottled at exactly 100 proof. Each bottle would be sealed with a green label over the cork identifying the distillery who bottled it and adorned with a picture of Secretary Carlisle.

Brands today that still carry the Bottled-In-Bond moniker include Early Times Bottled-In-Bond, Old Grand Dad, Henry McKenna, Col. E. H. Taylor (Small Batch, Single Barrel, and Straight Rye), Old Forester 1897, Old Fitzgerald, Mellow Corn, and many others. Some even still carry the picture of Secretary Carlisle on the label over the cork. The end result is that consumers today can have the same confidence when buying a whiskey labeled as Bottled-In-Bond that they are assured a consistent pour bottled at high standards.

Now for tonight’s homework assignment, go find your favorite Bottled-In-Bond whiskey in your liquor cabinet and enjoy a good bourbon like Colonel Taylor would have appreciated.

Cheers Y’all!