a nice bourbon article

[bullitt]

http://www.wsj.com/articles/author-ann-hood-on-michters-10-year-single-barrel-bourbon-1448306061

Enjoyable, well written article about bourbon memories (tries to be about Michter's 10yr but doesn't really get there).

[Tucker]

"Bourbon is actually governed by bourbon laws, which were set in the Bottle in Bond Act of 1897 to keep distillers from diluting or tampering with it."

I thought it was the "Bottled-in-Bond Act of 1897" and I don't recall that it either defined bourbon or specifically set "bourbon laws". Am I wrong?

[Harry in WashDC]

Tuck, et al -- It's a little more complicated than that.

Here's a quick and dirty discussion - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bottled_in_bond. Also, visit http://filsonhistorical.org/. It even involves a decision by Pres. Taft. SEE, http://gobourbon.com/the-taft-decision/

For more info, pull out your copies of books by Chuck, Clay, MikeV, Reid, etc., and check the indexes. You have at least one of each, don't you??:searching:

[Tucker]

I haz the google and I haz the books. But I'm lazy. Does the "B-i-B" act contain the word "bourbon"? I don't think so.

[Paddy]

I haz the google and I haz the books. But I'm lazy. Does the "B-i-B" act contain the word "bourbon"? I don't think so.

You are correct, applies to any American-made distilled beverage that has been aged and bottled according to a set of legal regulations contained in the United States government's Standards of Identity for Distilled Spirits, as originally laid out in the Bottled-in-Bond Act of 1897.

[Harry in WashDC]

Couldn't find the actual text (Cornell's LII is my normal quick-to-check place, and it didn't have it) but I think you are right, Tuck. It deals with "straight" and "bonded" and age of "whiskey" and doesn't address "bourbon". When I get home, . . .

[Tucker]

Disregarding my minor technical dispute, it's a nice feel-good whiskey piece (that just needed a little editing). My father drank gin, even though he was a Kentuckian, so I lack the nostalgia she has for the brown liquid. It was at Georgia Tech where I learned to drink my whiskey clear, and possibly one day an offspring of mine will learn to appreciate whiskey as I do. The bunker awaits.

[bullitt]

“If-by-whiskey” speech to the Mississippi legislature in 1953, state representative Noah “Soggy” Sweat said: “If when you say whiskey you mean the stimulating drink that puts the spring in the old gentleman’s step on a frosty, crispy morning; if you mean the drink which enables a man to magnify his joy, and his happiness, and to forget, if only for a little while, life’s great tragedies, and heartaches, and sorrows, then I stand by it.”

[tanstaafl2]

Couldn't find the actual text (Cornell's LII is my normal quick-to-check place, and it didn't have it) but I think you are right, Tuck. It deals with "straight" and "bonded" and age of "whiskey" and doesn't address "bourbon". When I get home, . . .

It is more general than just whiskey. It refers to distilled spirits in general (such as Lairds BIB apple brandy).

[Flyfish]

“If-by-whiskey†speech to the Mississippi legislature in 1953, state representative Noah “Soggy†Sweat said: “If when you say whiskey you mean the stimulating drink that puts the spring in the old gentleman’s step on a frosty, crispy morning; if you mean the drink which enables a man to magnify his joy, and his happiness, and to forget, if only for a little while, life’s great tragedies, and heartaches, and sorrows, then I stand by it.â€

Squire, what is the rest of Soggy's speech? Was he the politician who defined whiskey so as to appeal to both sides of the issue?

[bullitt]

Squire, what is the rest of Soggy's speech? Was he the politician who defined whiskey so as to appeal to both sides of the issue?

That was the last line from the article I posted to support my reasons for sharing, which was about the stories behind the drink. After a little search I found this about the Soggy speech.

http://andspeakingofwhich.blogspot.com/2014/07/this-is-my-stand-soggy-sweats-whiskey.html