Cases of Whiskey

Some words on a whiskey label tell us a lot about what's in the bottle. In the United States, if a whiskey is labeled a "straight" whiskey, then it must meet certain legal requirements, such as at least two years of aging in a barrel. Other words on a label, however, don't tell us much at all. How old is Jefferson's Reserve's "very old" bourbon? Maker's Mark says its bourbon is "handmade" - do its workers really stir the mash by hand? A recent legal case involving Angel's Envy put the spotlight on distillers' use of these vague descriptions.  Mario Aliano, a restaurant owner, sued Louisville Distilling Company, which owns Angel's Envy, asserting that Louisville Distilling deceptively marketed Angel's Envy's rye whiskey finished in rum casks. Aliano said he purchased the rye whiskey for his restaurant because its label and website implied it was "hand crafted" in small batches in Kentucky. However, Aliano cl...

The image of a buffalo alone might bring to mind the American frontier or Native Americans. But, add in the word "bourbon" and put both on a bottle of alcohol, and many will likely think of Buffalo Trace Distillery and its namesake bourbon, Buffalo Trace, which was introduced back in 1999. In 2014, Fetzer Vineyards, a wine producer, launched its "1000 Stories" brand, a California red zinfandel wine aged in bourbon barrels. Although produced by Fetzer, Fetzer's name was nowhere on the label for 1000 Stories. The wine's bottle prominently featured a large buffalo in the center of the label and smaller buffalos on the bottle's neck. Underneath the large buffalo, and before any mention of wine, appeared the description "Bourbon Barrel-Aged." The bottle also included the term "Small Batch" on the label, a term commonly associated with bourbon but not wine. The label was written in gold and white font. Sazerac Company, which owns Buffalo T...

As whiskey ages in a barrel, some of it evaporates into the atmosphere. The amount lost is called the "angels' share" of the whiskey. Some estimate that heaven gets about two to five percent of the whiskey each year. While the economic (and heartbreaking) toll of the angels' share is well-known by distillers and consumers, the legal consequences are a different story.   Diageo Americas Supply, Inc. ages whiskey in Louisville, Kentucky at the former site of the famous Stitzel-Weller distillery. In 2012, a group of landowners who lived near Stitzel-Weller sued Diageo in federal court in Louisville based on Diageo's angels' share. Specifically, the landowners claimed that the ethanol in the angels' share combined with condensation and caused a "black, sooty" fungus to grow on their property. This fungus is commonly referred to as "whiskey fungus" and can be seen, for example, on Heaven Hill Distillery's white rickhouses where barrels o...

I'm a lawyer by profession, and I will admit that the law can be pretty dull at times. But, as many of us know, whiskey has a tendency to brighten things up, and the law is no exception. Although I have been a whiskey enthusiast for a while, I only recently discovered that there are dozens of modern legal cases centered around whiskey. They involve some of the most popular brands (Maker's Mark and Buffalo Trace, just to name a couple) and arise from countless problems like trademark infringement, environmental concerns, and false advertising.   I believe there are important and interesting stories about whiskey to be told from these modern legal cases. The law governs everything about our society, and likewise the law governs everything about our whiskey - how it is defined, produced, marketed, and distributed. Therefore, to fully appreciate whiskey, we must understand the law that currently governs it.   In addition, modern legal cases allow us to view whiskey in a new way - ...