History of bottled-in-bond whiskey

With a full one hundred years of existence as a nation, American consumers still had little assurance that the products they purchase were pure. During America’s first century, the distillers sold barrels of whiskey to rectifiers, wholesalers and merchants who took control of the whiskey and often but not always, bottled it.

In the late 1880s and early 1890s distillers who likely were tired of the impurities added to their whiskey started to bottle for themselves. The method bottled-in-bond came into being in 1897 when the federal government permitted distillers to keep their barrels in government supervised warehouse for the four year minimum aging period.
The concept of bottling in bond refers to spirits that have been produced and bottled in accordance with a set of legal regulations meant to ensure authenticity and quality.

The regulations signed into laws as the 1897 Bottled-in-Bond Act were that the spirit must be at least four years old, have been bottled at one hundred proof, be the product of one distillery and one distiller in one season, and be unadulterated (only pure water could be added) and that the labels on both the bottle and the shipping case must clearly identify the distillery where it was distilled and if different the distillery where it was bottled.

President Grover Cleveland signed the act into law and bourbon distiller celebrated while the liquor dealers were relieved that they could continue to rectify bourbon whiskey.

It took a number of years for the concept of bottled-in-bond water whiskey to become well known among the general public, even though public attention had been first drawn to the practice by Hiram Walker and Sons’ 1893 Chicago World’s Fair exhibit which spotlighted the Canadian bottle-in-bond law, which had been passed in 1883.
History of bottled-in-bond whiskey