The Legal Consequences of the Angels' Share
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