The 6 Finest Bottled-in-Bond Whiskeys

The historical past of American whiskey is stuffed with nefarious characters, legal acts, and sordid tales. It may be a thrill to check. Studying whiskey historical past is a good way to grasp why sure elements of the business function the best way they do right now. Some of the seen ways in which historical past has formed fashionable whiskey may be seen in bottled-in-bond expressions. 

Spirits labeled bottled-in-bond should adhere to strict manufacturing requirements. The whiskey should be aged at the very least 4 years in a federally bonded warehouse, bottled at 100 proof, and distilled in a single distillation season. The bottle’s label additionally should disclose the distillery the place the whiskey was distilled.

These laws return to the Bottled-In-Bond Act of 1897, thought-about one of many first items of shopper safety laws handed by Congress. The regulation was designed to fight the issue of harmful whiskey rectification and counterfeiting.

“Within the Nineties, moonshine and counterfeit whiskey have been flooding the market,” says Marie Ferrand, bartender at Wolf & Crane in Los Angeles. “Some folks didn’t cease at merely including taste and colour. They’d add different toxic liquids to the moonshine and label it as whiskey.” 

Led by Col. E.H. Taylor, Jr, founding father of the legendary O.F.C. distillery (now referred to as Buffalo Hint), the Bottled-In-Bond Act was lobbied for as a strategy to separate high-quality, historically made whiskey from harmful counterfeit rotgut offered by bootleggers and brigands. Primarily, the bottled-in-bond title meant that the whiskey was licensed by the federal authorities to be a reputable product made with excessive manufacturing requirements.

So why does it matter if a whiskey is bottled-in-bond right now, when the business is as regulated and protected because it’s ever been? 

It seems that the labeling remains to be a stable indicator of high quality. “When you’re at a bar and unfamiliar with the whiskeys, playing on a bonded is definitely a reasonably clever alternative,” says Ferrand. “Whereas every bonded whiskey is completely different, in fact, the bonded necessities, such because the age assertion and proof, specifically, offer you a basic concept of what you possibly can count on.”

Bottled-in-bond whiskeys additionally present distinctive utility for bartenders. “A bartender may go for a bottled-in-bond whiskey as a result of the standard is dependable,” says Scott Ruggiero, bartender at Denver’s Loss of life & Co. “At the next proof than regular whiskey, the cocktail being combined will spotlight extra flavors from the spirit and never be misplaced to different juices or combined elements.”

Greater than a century later, the bottled-in-bond designation remains to be a marker of high quality.