I came across a very interesting tidbit today. I was reading Alex Reisner's "History and Taxonomy of Distilled Spirits" in which he lists some of the defining characteristics of just about every distilled spirit that ever existed. Among them, of course, were those with which we are concerned here. I was amazed to learn that, per the Scotch Whiskey Act of 1988, Single-Malt Scotch must be pot distilled to no more than 94.8% ABV, aged in oak for at least three years, diluted with water to bottling strength and with nothing but caramel added for color.
94.8% ABV?
Two tenths of one percent less than neutral spirits?
And yet we have people trying to imply that spirits distilled at 80% ABV should be considered INFERIOR if they can't wear the same "whisky" name?
Come on, folks!
Why should American spirit enthusiasts continue to use "whisky" as a standard against which to measure obviously superior products?
I say, look at what non-standard American distillers are producing (much of it being labeled "vodka" since that's about the only legal labeling category left open to them), and let's see some tasting notes for those products. I predict that, before the next decade is over, "whiskey" enthusiasts will occupy the same restrictive niche that "rye" enthusiasts do today. That is, Mark and Chris will have changed the forum to Spirit Enthusiast (or something similar), and both Bourbon and Rye will simply be subcategories, along with Scotch, Rum, (and perhaps Indian Whisky as a separate category), Tequila, Vodka, Gin, Canadian, Japanese, Chinese, etc.
Or maybe the forum should specialize in American Bourbon (and rye). No one (well, almost no one) said you can only participate in one forum. But in order to be happy participants, we need to agree that Bourbon and Rye ain't the only game in town.
Does that make sense?
And whilst meandering about the great Googleverse just now, I discovered a "vodka" distilled from pure Vermont maple sap. Of course, anyone else would call that "rum", but they can't -- by law -- in America. Pritchard's, the rum distilled in Tennesee, CAN label itself "rum", but only because the distiller agrees to make it out of sugarcane molasses instead of sorghum, which is both local and more accurate, but unacceptable to the Code of Federal Regulations. The more I learn about what's going on right now, the more I feel I could help Lenelle fill her shelves with REAL American product (of course, not all of those would be labeled "whiskey" - but somehow I don't think that would deter Lenell at all).