Old Taylor Spiritus Frumenti Prohibition Medicinal Whiskey

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Old Taylor Spiritus Frumenti Prohibition Medicinal Whiskey

Unread postby Kinsey Worker » Sat Jul 18, 2009 11:34 pm

Old Taylor Spiritus Frumenti 100 Proof Bottled In Bond! Well today walking around a large out door flee market I found some real good Medicine for my Health? A Bottle of Old Taylor Prohibition " Unexcelled for Medicinal Use" Whiskey.
I paid the Fellow $10. for a 3/4 full Quart never opened Bottle. I will post Pictures of It and here are my notes on its taste. My Friend from NY and I went to a real Bad Reading Phils Game tonight so when I got home I felt sick and knew I needed some Medicinal Whiskey so here are the taste notes on this fine Prohibiton Whiskey

Nice woody taste with notes of Caramel and sweet Vanilla it is just what the Doctor Ordered for your Health! It is smooth and refreshing in your Mouth and it goes down smooth as silk. This is one Dam Good Whiskey and I wish my Doctor could get me more of this.
Distillery No. 53 The American Medicinal Spirits Company Permit No. KY P-19
I will now post my Pictures before I go, I have to take a little more Medicinal Whiskey I don't feel so good!

One Question Can anyone here give me an idea what year during Prohibition this would have been made I am guessing it is around 80 yrs Old.
Kinsey Worker - Dave

I'll Take this Kind of Medical treatment any Day!!
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Box for Old taylor
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Old Taylor
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Old Taylor Prohibition Whiskey
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Re: Old Taylor Spiritus Frumenti Prohibition Medicinal Whiskey

Unread postby bourbonv » Sun Jul 19, 2009 3:10 pm

The tax stamp should tell you when the bourbon was bottled and who made it. It is a good chance that the whiskey was made by someone other than Taylor. I suspect it is from then post prohibition time because 99% of the whiskey bottled during prohibition was pints - very few full quart bottles. I also suspect that is some of the whiskey made to replenish stocks at the end of prohibition.
Mike Veach
"Our people live almost exclusively on whiskey" - E H Taylor, Jr. 25 April 1873
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Re: Old Taylor Spiritus Frumenti Prohibition Medicinal Whiskey

Unread postby bourbonv » Sun Jul 19, 2009 5:20 pm

As I said above, There were very few quart bottles sold during prohibition since most states only allowed the sale of pint bottles, so it is unlikely to be a bottle from prohibition. Just looking at the whiskey, it does not look dark enough to be 17 or more years old, so I would then place it as some of the whiskey made in 1929 and after to replace dwindling stocks. Now, having looked up Taylor's DSP number, I would change my guess to some bourbon made at Taylor before prohibition and the bottle was either a rare prohibition bottle or more likely a pre-prohibition bottle. If it was prohibition then it was early prohibition. Most of the Old Taylor bottles from late prohibition were filled with whiskey from other distilleries because Taylor's whiskey was gone and the distillery was sold during prohibition by the family. It was several years after prohibition before National Distillers was able to get the distillery and they had to break the will of E H Taylor, Jr. because it said that no whiskey could ever be made there again.
Mike Veach
"Our people live almost exclusively on whiskey" - E H Taylor, Jr. 25 April 1873
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Re: Old Taylor Spiritus Frumenti Prohibition Medicinal Whiskey

Unread postby Kinsey Worker » Sun Jul 19, 2009 7:12 pm

Mike I think the Whiskey is from preprohibition and bottled later because it is a very nice dark Caramel color and it is not a young Whiskey it is Very Full Bodied and has a wonderful taste.!
All I know is that it is some of the finest Whiskey I have ever drank and working for Publicker I had some really fine Whiskies. Also it is strange it does it have the word Bourbon on it anywhere.

Thanks for your help Mike and Be Well!
Kinsey Worker
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Re: Old Taylor Spiritus Frumenti Prohibition Medicinal Whiskey

Unread postby bourbonv » Sun Jul 19, 2009 8:04 pm

Taylor did not use the term "bourbon" to describe his whiskey - he thought it was a step above what everyone else was calling "bourbon". You have to remember he was for the most part, doing business before the Taft decision and his straight whiskey was a step above what the rectifiers were calling "bourbon".
Mike Veach
"Our people live almost exclusively on whiskey" - E H Taylor, Jr. 25 April 1873
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Re: Old Taylor Spiritus Frumenti Prohibition Medicinal Whiskey

Unread postby gillmang » Mon Jul 20, 2009 10:23 am

Very interesting, nice find. I think too about the bourbon naming, that many producers never used it before the first laws of the 1900's on terminology and labeling. Why? Because until quite late, the term bourbon was regarded as semi-official. You see it in quotations sometimes in mid-1800's articles about bourbon whiskey. The Scots-Irish of course would have called it simply whiskey - old or new, new barrel aged or not - as they had in the old country (i.e., what is now Ulster in Ireland or Scotland direct for some people). Whiskey full stop is still the term commonly used in Britain to describe a grain-based spirit distilled at a proof low enough to retain character from its materials.

Many other famous labels up to the 1930's, based on my historical readings, also did not use the term bourbon. Even straight rye was considered for a time a kind of bourbon, wasn't it, Mike? It was rye-mash whiskey not corn-mash whiskey - straight whiskey I hasten to add - but it was whiskey foremost.

I think the name bourbon, which initially had a regional significance - became more common later as a way to distinguish from the indifferent whiskey, some called bourbon as Mike said, produced by the blenders.

Anyway in the end, it was the maker and his methods that assured to the buyer quality or not - then as now. Taylor was a great name, and into the 1980's remained an excellent product, even at 86 and 80 proof. Since the ND sale in 1987 (well, technically from the mid-90's since Old Taylor to that time would still have been ND-made or part of it) it has been much less interesting in my opinion. With the current label purchase by BT, one hopes the brand will be restored to top quality. Colonel Taylor comes home in a manner of speaking.

Gary
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