This increasing and ongoing issue led to a group of whiskey distillers led by Colonel Edmund Haynes Taylor, Jr. joined with then-Secretary of the Treasury John G. Carlisle, to fight for the Bottled-in-Bond Act of 1897. This federally backed regulation was designed regain the public’s confidence that what they purchased was of good quality, free of artificial additives, coloring, and flavoring.
These requirements are:
• Must be the same kind of spirits distilled from the same class of materials.
• Must be distilled in the same distilling season (Spring or Fall) by the same distiller at the same distillery.• It must be bottled and stored in a bonded warehouses under the U.S. government supervision for no less than 4 years.
• Prohibits the addition or subtraction of any substance to process or alter in any way the original condition or character of the product, except the reduction to proof with water.
• Reduced in proof and bottled by the addition of only pure water to 100 proof (50%ABV).
• The label must clearly state the distillery who made it.
• If it was bottled at a location other than the distillery it must also clearly state its bottling location.
This act was a win-win for both the consumer and the distiller. An added incentive for the distillery was that they weren’t required to pay taxes on the bonded spirits until after the four year aging period, as opposed to when the distillate was produced.
Though Bottled-in-Bond is synonymous with whiskey, any spirit can be bonded. The rule for vodka has an added provision that says it can be labeled as Bottled-in-Bond, so long as it’s stored in a wooden container coated or lined with paraffin and is stored for at least four years.
Up until the 1980’s a green government tax stamp on the bottle assured consumers that the whiskey was bonded. But today it’s left up to the distiller to put Bottled-in-Bond on the label if they wish, regardless if the bottle meets all the requirements. Though it’s mainly used as a marketing tool, Bottle-in-Bond still represents a product that meets a trusted quality standard in a market that includes many whiskeys with vague labeling from undisclosed sources.
