With the popularity of whisky today one can easily be overwhelmed by the sheer number of choices available in the whisky section of the liquor store. A person new to whisky can easily be swayed to buy one bottle over another solely based on its label. This often leads to people getting disappointed with whisky in general because a lot of things written on bottle labels are just marketing terms that say nothing about the quality of the product. This post seeks to help you make an informed decision by identifying popular whisky terms that matter and those to avoid. Hopefully at the end of the post, you are able to make informed purchase decisions based on the bottle facts.
Whisky
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| Source: crownroyal.com |
Let us start with the basics - what is Whisky? When a bottle carries the word Whisky that means it is a spirit distilled from a fermented mash of grain at less than 95% alcohol by volume (190 proof) having the taste, aroma and characteristics generally attributed to whisky and bottled at not less than 40% alcohol by volume (80 proof) (source). From this very basic definition of Whisky comes different types that are determined by either the grain used and/or the country of origin. To give you an example; If a whisky is distilled from malted barley and produced in Scotland it is allowed to carry the label Scotch Whisky. If the exact same whisky is produced in a different country it cannot be called Scotch. Let me give you another one; if a whisky is distilled in the USA using at least 51% corn and aged in charred new oak containers, it is called Bourbon. If that same whisky is produced in Canada, it cannot even carry the word Bourbon on its label. This is exactly what happened to Crown Royal’s release called “Bourbon Mash”. Crown Royal received a big backlash from US whisky consumers and the regulators had to step in and forced Crown Royal to change the label for their next batch of the same product. Today it is sold as Crown Royal "Blender's Batch". If you see a bottle with the term Whisky, you can be assured that it is from grains, it is a minimum of 40 proof and if it carries a geographically protected designation (Scotch, Irish, Bourbon) it meets the legal requirements for that designation.
Small Batch
You will see this term mostly in American whiskies and it is very misleading. When you see the word small batch, you immediately get a picture of a small amount of barrels being used to produce the whisky. The idea behind small batch is that using a small amount of barrels to produce the finished product will result in a more consistent and unique flavor. This may be true but when you ask distillers what they mean by small batch you may get different answers. The problem with this label is that there is no legal definition for Small Batch. How many barrels need to be in a batch to be called small batch? Nobody knows and for that I consider this term as fluff. Consider two of the most popular small batch bourbons out there: Maker's Mark and Elijah Craig Small batch. These two distilleries have two completely different definitions of Small Batch. Maker's Mark claims the bourbon in their standard bottle is comprised of around 20 barrels, while Heaven Hill claims that the whisky in their Elijah Craig Small batch bourbon is comprised of not more than 200 barrels. That is a huge difference in definition of small batch which is why I do not trust this term. Does this mean you have to avoid every bottle that says Small Batch? Not at all, but you must not let this term be the sole basis for purchasing a bottle. Try it at a bar first and then decide if you want to buy a bottle.
Straight
Another word you see a lot in American whisky bottles is Straight. What is Straight Whisky? This is a federally regulated term for an American whisky that has met all of the following requirements:
Whisky produced from a
fermented mash of less than
51 percent of any one type of
grain and stored in charred
new oak containers for 2
years or more and
produced only in one state.
For a whisky to be called straight, it actually has to pass these requirements so there is some sort of guarantee on what you are buying. When you see the word "Straight" in a bottle, I suggest you buy it. The whisky tends to be good and has had enough contact with the wood to have developed those caramel and vanilla flavors.
Bottled in Bond
Some bottles will also carry a very peculiar term "Bottled in Bond". When I first saw this on a bottle I really thought it was just another marketing fluff. Why would a whisky need to be bonded? Then I started reading up on what this term means and my gosh does it matter a lot. To me, this is the term you want to always look for in a whisky. So what does it mean? For a whisky to carry the term "Bottled in Bond" or "Bonded" it has to meet this legal definition as defined by the Bottled in Bond act of 1897:
"In order to be labeled as "Bottled-in-Bond" or "Bonded," the spirit must be the product of one distillation season and one distiller at one distillery. It must be bottled and stored in federally bonded warehouses under the U.S. government supervision for no less than 4 years. The bottled product's label must identify the distillery by DSP number where it was distilled and, if different, where it was bottled."
As you can see, the requirement is very restrictive for a whisky to call itself bonded. When a bottle carries the term "Bottled in Bond" you can be guaranteed that the product inside is going to be great. When you see a "Bonded" whisky, grab it. The other great part about bonded whiskies is that a lot of them are relatively cheap too!
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