Collectors of antique whiskeys are familiar with the name W.A. Haller & Co., mostly due to the company’s “County Fair” brand of bourbon whiskey. Haller’s County Fair bourbon was bottled […]
Cyrus Noble’s Three Sworn Enemies.
When you read this newspaper ad from 1913, your first thought might be, “Well, this person hates whiskey and promotes the temperance movement.” But oddly enough, it’s a sales ad […]
Why Don’t Distilleries Re-Use Barrels?
I have always found it odd that American distillers are prohibited from re-using barrels. It’s not as if the practice of “secondary aging” with used barrels isn’t completely commonplace today! […]
Claims of False Advertising in 1871 Provides Insight into the History of Rectifiers.
July 1871- Trouble was brewing in Lancaster, PA between competing rectifiers, and one of the rivals took his grievance to the local paper- the Intelligencer Journal. These clippings reveal that […]
What is the “Correct Whiskey”?
A little excerpt from a discussion in British Parliament in 1909- debates over whether blends should be considered legitimate, “correct whiskies.” American blenders using Islay malts to blend out American […]
History of Carstairs Rye Whiskey – A Philadelphia Story.
Carstairs “White Seal” Blended Whiskey has become a bit of a sad, bottom shelf brand, but when people realize that it’s a whiskey with a bourbon base made by Barton […]
What happened to Maryland’s Hunter Rye?
Once one of the most popular brands of rye whiskey in the country, if not the world, Hunter Rye Whiskey, was a product of Maryland. The brand was first introduced […]
When Bottled in Bond Was Not Actually “Bottled in Bond”
The Bottled in Bond Act is something that most whiskey enthusiasts can recite the basics on fairly easily. A whiskey that’s bottled-in-bond is a 100 proof, four-year-old whiskey that’s been […]
Why Was the Taft Decision Necessary?
(Hint: It’s Not Necessarily Why You’d Think…) Rectifiers VS. Straight Whiskey Interests To understand why the Taft Decision was so important to the whiskey industry, one must first understand why […]
An Opinion on Metallica’s Blackened American Whiskey
So…Metallica has its own whiskey now. Ugh. Everyone has their own whiskey, it seems. Nothing new, of course. Celebrity sells. There have been celebrities moving distilled products since advertising’s […]