TN Whiskey law signed

[AGarrison]

SKU just tweeted this and sure enough, the TN gov has signed the new law defining TN Whiskey (at least inside the state):

Now we can all expect charcoal filtering when buying "Tennessee Whiskey" within the state of TN (with the exception of Prichard's of course who got an exception).

Edited May 13, 2013 by AGarrison

[cowdery]

There seems to be some misunderstanding about the reach of this law. It governs what Tennessee producers can label as Tennessee whiskey for sale anywhere, not just in Tennessee. If someone not located in Tennessee tries to sell a Tennessee whiskey, i.e., a whiskey not made in Tennessee, then that violates TTB rules (place of origin statements must be truthful).

[sku]

There seems to be some misunderstanding about the reach of this law. It governs what Tennessee producers can label as Tennessee whiskey for sale anywhere, not just in Tennessee. If someone not located in Tennessee tries to sell a Tennessee whiskey, i.e., a whiskey not made in Tennessee, then that violates TTB rules (place of origin statements must be truthful).

It could be interpreted that way, though I would think there would be a potential dormant commerce suit if they tried to enforce it solely based on sales outside of Tennessee.

And even with the expansive definition, there is one exception. If a non-Tennessee company buys bulk whiskey made in Tennessee that has not been sugar-maple filtered and then markets it elsewhere in the US, they would be able to call it "Tennessee Whiskey" but not be covered by this law. There is at least one non-Tennessee company that sells bulk Tennessee Whiskey: Capital Brands, the Wisconsin company that bottles Jailer's, though I believe they have said it is maple charcoal filtered.

[kickert]

And even with the expansive definition, there is one exception. If a non-Tennessee company buys bulk whiskey made in Tennessee that has not been sugar-maple filtered and then markets it elsewhere in the US, they would be able to call it "Tennessee Whiskey" but not be covered by this law.

And that would be possible with a company like Corsair who has distilleries in TN and in KY. Presumably, they could make the whiskey in TN, and have it transferred and bottled at their KY distillery. Please note, I am not suggesting that is a plan, just that if you are looking for legal loopholes, you could make it work that way.

[tanstaafl2]

And that would be possible with a company like Corsair who has distilleries in TN and in KY. Presumably, they could make the whiskey in TN, and have it transferred and bottled at their KY distillery. Please note, I am not suggesting that is a plan, just that if you are looking for legal loopholes, you could make it work that way.

I think they do that now anyway, not that they call it Tennessee whiskey to my knowledge. But the whiskey is made in Nashville and I believe all their bottling is done in Bowling Green.

[squire]

I haven't done any research (that would be like work and it's Wednesday) but under the full faith and credit doctrine it seems any whisky distilled in Tennessee would fall under the authority of that State's law for labeling purposes irrespective of where bottled or sold.

[cowdery]

The hypotheticals beg the question, why? What does the perpetrator gain? To some extent, I think, this represents a line in the sand. The world is on notice. They're saying, "Here is what we in the great state of Tennessee mean when we say 'Tennessee whiskey.' You wanna make something of it?"

I suspect Brown-Forman had a pretty good idea what they were doing when they made this happen.