What Does It Mean When Whiskey Is Bottled-In-Bond?

Before Prohibition, counterfeit whiskey flooded the unregulated market, at best swindling people and, at worst, killing them. Unscrupulous people trying to make a buck would add coloring and flavoring to moonshine, or worse, tobacco and turpentine, iodine, kerosene, and other poisonous liquids and sell it as whiskey.

In 1897, Secretary of Treasury John G. Carlisle, a Kentuckian supported by Colonel Edmund Haynes Taylor, Jr, created the Bottled-in-Bond Act to protect whiskey drinkers and straight whiskey distillers from inferior "whiskey." They set the standard for what would be considered real whiskey, allowing drinkers to know they were getting consistency, authenticity, and purity. The Bottled-in-Bond Act is often credited with being the first consumer protection act in United States history.

The Bottled-in-Bond Act gave distillers a tax incentive to keep their whiskey pure bottling whiskeys in Bond ensured that distilleries could hold off on paying excise tax until the whiskey was at least four years old, as opposed to paying taxes upfront for unbonded whiskeys.

Central to the Bottled in Bond Act are these rules:

1. The whiskey must be produced at the same distillery by the same distiller within the same distilling season
2. It must be aged for at least four years in wood containers in a federally bonded warehouse
3. It must be unaltered from its original condition or character by the addition or subtraction of any substance other than by filtration, chill or otherwise, or other physical treatments. Only water may be added, and no additional colorants or flavors may be added.
4. It must be bottled at precisely 100 proof

Today, distillers who use the Bottle in Bond label represent a commitment to transparency. Many distilleries have adopted multiple extra steps to ensure authenticity and appreciation in their whiskey production.

At Bourbon Awareness, you can learn more about America's native spirit. Bourbon Awareness and Whiskey University's sole mission is to educate the public about the history and virtues of Bourbon, Tennessee Whiskey, and other various whiskeys.

See our website at bourbonaware.com and whiskeyuniv.com/nj-central-new-jersey-area. You can contact us at harrycasazza@bourbonaware.com