I just posted the following on the Filson Bourbon Academy facebook page and I am curious as to what you think about it'
"At the turn of the 20th century the distilleries worked very hard to make straight whiskey a separate category of whiskey from blended whiskey. In 1897 they had Congress pass the Bottled-in-Bond Act of 1897. Bonded whiskey is by law straight whiskey, distinguished from blends by the strict regulations involved in the 1897 Act. The Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 and the Taft Decision of 1909 further distinguished straight bourbon from “rectified” whiskey, defining the terms “straight whiskey”, “blended whiskey” and “imitation or artificial whiskey”.
The end of the 20th century saw these gains reversed. First de-regulation in the Reagan era took the teeth out of the Bottled-in-Bond Act of 1897. No longer was there a tax stamp required with the information as to the season and year the whiskey was made and bottled so there was no way the consumer would know for sure the age and vintage of the whiskey. Then the government started allowing products to be called “Bourbon” after being put into used wine barrels for a period of time. Then they started to allow flavors to be added to whiskey and still call the product “Bourbon”. It seems the meaning of “Straight Bourbon” is being attacked from within and the person most harmed is the consumer. At the present rate Bourbon whiskey may be nothing more than another blended whiskey."
Is Bourbon slowly becoming just another blended whiskey?