WT Rye 81 proof?!

[cowdery]

I'll give you a "hear hear" for that.

Do you think the switch to NAS is so that the producers can be as ambiguous with the age per batch?

That's one way to put it. They want the flexibility and figure that as long as the taste doesn't change significantly, they won't lose their regular drinkers.

[Enoch]

A couple other points: Wikipedia doesn't count, sorry... and regarding straight whiskeys, you're absolutely wrong. "Straight" simply means that it has aged at least 2 years in new, charred oak barrels, and that it is the product of one state. That's it.

I think the bottle must state the age if it is less than four years, but I may be wrong.

[cowdery]

It doesn't necessarily suggest that all Baby Saz produced in 2012 or even 2011 is/was 6 years old. It confirms the strongest possibility that Baby Saz was 6yrs old in 2007.

It most certainly does no such thing. You're thinking about this the wrong way. At any given moment, Buffalo Trace has barrels of rye aging that are one month old, and it has barrels that are ten years (or more) old, and every age in between. If they go to sell a customer some rye, it can be any of those ages, and that bears no relationship to what they choose to bottle as Baby Saz or anything else.

The prolem with distilleries telling us ages when it's not on the label is:

They can lie (though they usually don't).

The age can change (this is more common).

Those claims can be misreported, since it's always somebody-told-somebody who posted it someplace.

It confuses people who want to interpret it the same as a label statement. I'm glad when the distilleries will tell me about how old an NAS product is, that's information I'm glad to have, but I'm not going to give it the same weight as an label statement.

I suggest that we should quote ages of NAS products with the full source disclaimer or not quote them at all. I haven't always felt that way but I have seen the confusion it can cause, as people try to find a definitive answer to something that cannot be answered definitively.

[Restaurant man]

Here here. If you want to be taken seriously about age statement's, put em on the label and remove all doubt. It's like believing a woman about her age or a man about his "shoe" size.

[Josh]

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/...-say-hear-hear

[trumpstylz]

Here here. If you want to be taken seriously about age statement's, put em on the label and remove all doubt. It's like believing a woman about her age or a man about his "shoe" size.

Or a woman's weight.

[ethangsmith]

FWIW, my response from WT/Campari:

"Dear Ethan,

Thank you for taking the time to e-mail us about Wild Turkey 101 RYE.

There is no Wild Turkey 101 Rye in current production or scheduled for the next months, as there is a shortage of Rye. Wild Turkey 81 Rye was already in the pipeline and is out there. We have allocated what we have available of 101 Rye across the country. As the shortage improves, 101 Rye will be back, but probably not for 2012. We don’t have any shortage of Bourbon, so this allocation doesn't affect Wild Turkey 101 or 81 Bourbon. As an FYI, Russell's Reserve Bourbon and Rye are both in good supply.

Thank you again for contacting Campari America"

This is consistent with what Chuck has already posted on here, along with a few others. Looks like we just have to weather a shortage for a while!

[Josh]

FWIW, my response from WT/Campari:

"Dear Ethan,

Thank you for taking the time to e-mail us about Wild Turkey 101 RYE.

There is no Wild Turkey 101 Rye in current production or scheduled for the next months, as there is a shortage of Rye. Wild Turkey 81 Rye was already in the pipeline and is out there. We have allocated what we have available of 101 Rye across the country. As the shortage improves, 101 Rye will be back, but probably not for 2012. We don’t have any shortage of Bourbon, so this allocation doesn't affect Wild Turkey 101 or 81 Bourbon. As an FYI, Russell's Reserve Bourbon and Rye are both in good supply.

Thank you again for contacting Campari America"

This is consistent with what Chuck has already posted on here, along with a few others. Looks like we just have to weather a shortage for a while!

The big question is, was it Jodi who wrote you that email?

[ethangsmith]

It was not. It's from Janice in Consumer Relations.

[smokinjoe]

Jodi had been...reassigned...

"We are happy to..."---Dingbat...