The Advent of Distillation
Known to early Greek, Egyptian and Arab civilizations, the art of distillation dates back to ancient times. It was initially used in alchemy experiments and to purify water and other substances, as well as to extract oils from plants and flowers for medicines and cosmetics. Distillation is the process of drawing out certain desired components from a liquid through evaporation and condensation. As the process of distillation became increasingly sophisticated, the number and variety of distillate substances increased to include fermented fruits, vegetables, plants and grains for the production of alcoholic beverages such as vodka, rum, and whiskey.
Making distilled alcoholic beverages (beer and wine are fermented but not distilled) involves separating out the alcohol from the water which is easily achieved because water and alcohol have different boiling points.
As the alcohol vaporizes and rises as steam, the vapor is collected and cooled back into liquid form. Further re-distilling results in increased alcohol content.
1494 Written Documentation of Whiskey Production in Scotland
The Scotch and the Irish both lay claim to having introduced whiskey to the world; a 1494 entry in the Exchequer Rolls of the royal finances of Scotland detailed the purchase of “eight bolls of malt to Friar John Cor wherewith to make aqua vitae” – a quantity of malt sufficient to produce nearly 1500 bottles of alcohol. Although this early reference to the production of aqua vitae, the “water of life,” doesn’t settle the question of where whiskey was first created, it does serve to demonstrate the broader appeal of the drink beyond the confines of the monasteries where whiskey-making (ostensibly for medicinal purposes) had long been known to the monks. Monastic distilleries were found in both Scotland and Ireland, and as monks began to disseminate their knowledge, farmers throughout the two countries began to distill their own whiskey. Through trial and error – or just plain luck – people discovered that aging the alcohol in wood barrels mellowed and improved the taste of the harsh, throat-burning, young distillate.
1753 Michter’s Distillery
Knowledge of whiskey-making was brought to the New World with the arrival of the European settlers. The early colonists drank initially what was available to them, beers and rums for the most part, but in the 1700’s, with the country producing an abundance of grain (particularly rye) whiskey became an increasingly important commodity. Settlers found that rye and corn were uniquely pleasurable to consume in liquid spirit form and that whiskey could be transported more easily than raw grain – a packhorse could haul either 4 bushels of grain or the equivalent of 24 bushels if the grain was converted to whiskey. As an added benefit, whiskey could be stored for years without spoilage.
In 1753, Michter’s, the first commercial whiskey distilling company, was established by John Shenk, a Swiss Mennonite farmer who had settled with his family in Pennsylvania’s Blue Mountain Valley. With his farm producing plenty of rye, Shenk decided to build a small distillery to convert his excess rye to whiskey. Over the years, this little distillery with its hand-hammered copper stills would come to produce what would be known as the famous Michter’s whiskey.
1777 George Washington at Valley Forge
Legend has it that Michter’s Rye Whiskey was so prized that when the Revolutionary War broke out, General George Washington purchased it to fortify his men through their long, brutal winter at Valley Forge. Michter’s, as the saying goes, was “the whiskey that warmed the American Revolution.”
1794 Whiskey Rebellion
In an attempt to refill government coffers emptied to pay off its Revolutionary War debts, Congress imposed a tax on distilled spirits, including whiskey, in 1791 – thus unwittingly setting the stage for the Whiskey Rebellion of 1794. While large commercial distillers in the eastern part of the country could absorb the cost of the tax by increasing prices, the small farmer-producers in the then frontier states were not so fortunate. Moreover, these cash-poor farmers, faced with the high cost of transporting grain further to the more populous East, were in the habit of converting their surplus grain to the more easily transportable whiskey and used whiskey to barter for other goods; the whiskey tax was seen as nothing less than a direct assault their main source of livelihood. With the tax falling disproportionately hard on the grain-growing, whiskey-producing Pennsylvanians, the aggrieved farmers not only refused to pay the tax but went so far as to tar and feather the unfortunate government workers sent to collect the taxes. In the summer of 1794, several thousand armed tax rebels gathered near Pittsburgh to take action and were met by nearly 13,000 troops sent by President George Washington who, fearing growing violence, wanted a quick end to the rebellion. Although the insurrection collapsed in the face of the advancing troops, political opposition continued and the reviled whiskey tax was abolished several years later.
However, the unpopular whiskey tax also had the effect of causing some Pennsylvania farmers to simply pull up stakes and move to Kentucky and Tennessee. In their new homes, these farmers found land ideal for growing crops as well as the naturally occuring limestone filtered water which is so prized in whiskey production. Many distilleries in Kentucky and Tennessee claim to trace their roots back to the Whiskey Rebellion.
1909 “Whiskey” goes Legal
On December 17, 2009 President William Howard Taft was posthumously inducted into the Kentucky Bourbon Hall of Fame. This honor marked the centennial of Taft’s decision to settle the increasingly acrimonious debate over how “whiskey” was to be defined, after years of legal wrangling between makers of additive-free whiskey and those who added neutral spirits, color or flavorings.
In 1906, Congress passed the Pure Food and Drug Act intended to protect Americans from the sale of adulterated and misbranded foods and drugs, whiskey being included in the regulated items. Producers of whiskey with no additives besides water attempted to have excluded whiskeys that were adulterated through the addition of neutral spirits, coloring or flavoring, demanding that such spirits be labeled “imitation whiskey.” With the issue hopelessly entangled in litigation, Taft stepped forward to produce the “Taft Decision” in 1909 which stated that a “straight” whiskey had no additives besides water and that if anything other than water was added, though it need not be called “imitation” it did have to be referred to as a “blended” whiskey.
1920’s The Temperance Movement
The U.S. Temperance movement of the late 1800’s and early 1900’s was born of the belief that the consumption of alcohol was a sinful and corrupting activity that weakened the moral fabric of the country. Led by prominent figures such as the social activist, Susan B. Anthony, and the flamboyant Carry A. Nation who smashed up saloons with a hatchet to make her point and called herself “a bulldog running along at the feet of Jesus, barking at what he doesn’t like,” the movement enlisted primarily women who along with their children were particularly vulnerable to the harmful effects of excessive drinking in their menfolk.
Given that women did not yet have the right to vote (they could not do so until the passage of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1920) they used social pressure as well as moral persuasion to advocate for abstention from liquor consumption. The previously loosely-knit local and regional temperance groups gained in strength as they coalesced into more powerful national organizations, and their strategies turned to political aims. Aided by the rise of Progressive Party, which shared their concerns about the evils of drinking, they agitated for the outright banning of alcohol.
In 1919, the 18th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified, and America went “dry” in January, 1920 – the production, transportation and sale of alcoholic beverages in the U.S. was now declared illegal. The ban continued until the repeal of Prohibition in 1933.
1930′s Prohibition
Prohibition, the “noble experiment,” began in January, 1920 when the 18th Amendment to the Constitution became effective and outlawed the manufacturing, transportation, and sale of alcohol in the U.S. (a small amount of wine and cider was allowed to be made at home and with a doctor’s prescription whiskey was allowed for medicinal purposes). While Prohibition was successful in removing alcohol from public view, it merely served to drive the commodity underground. Overnight, illegal speakeasies with hidden entranceways and whispered passwords opened up; bootlegging became big business. Gangsters smuggled in liquor from Canada and Mexico, and fledgling entrepreneurs made liquor in home stills to stock their own private bars and to sell on the black market for exorbitant prices. Prohibition propelled the rise of the infamous criminals Al Capone and Bugs Morgan, as well as the famous crime fighter Elliot Ness.
With the country’s thirst for alcohol unslaked by Prohibition, people found no shortage of ways to obtain their booze. As the public increasingly realized that the law had no real effect on the availability of liquor except to raise its price, they began to call for the repeal of Prohibition. In 1932, the Republican presidential nominee Herbert Hoover said, “Laws which are opposed by the majority sentiment create resentments which undermine enforcement and in the end produce degeneration and crime.” Not to be outdone, Franklin Roosevelt and the Democrats pledged to repeal prohibition laws. On March 23, 1933 President Roosevelt made good on his campaign promise and signed the Cullen-Harrison Act, legalizing the manufacture and sale of light wine and beer, which served to open the door for the 21st Amendment and the repeal of Prohibition which became effective on December 5, 1933. Still celebrated by spirits lovers, this date is known as Repeal Day.
Post Prohibition: The Rise of American Bourbon
Before Prohibition, the predominant type of whiskey consumed in the United States was rye whiskey – rye being a hardy crop that farmers found easy to grow. However, after Prohibition ended, distilleries began to produce bourbon whiskey, made primarily from corn. It was a decision guided by economic considerations; corn cost less than rye and yielded more whiskey per bushel. Moreover, bourbon’s sweeter taste suited the public’s burgeoning fondness for sweeter drinks (during Prohibition, cocktails came into fashion as people blended their poor quality bootleg liquor with anything that could mask its harsh flavor). In fact, bourbon became such an integral part of our country’s history that in 1964 Congress declared bourbon “America’s Native Spirit.”
1980’s The Return of the Cocktail Hour
Looking around a restaurant in the 1970’s, one certainly would have noticed an abundance of wine bottles, but scarcely a martini glass. Sales of wine soared along with the wine and cheese parties that were de rigueur with the then sophisticated drinking set. The tide turned in 1983 with famed restauranteur Joe Baum’s decision to open Aurora, a classic cocktail lounge in New York City, with master mixologist Dale DeGroff at the bar’s helm.
Since then, cocktails and particularly classic cocktails have made a strong comeback. No longer are the days when mixers were mainly valued for their ability to disguise poor tasting alcohol. A good cocktail starts with good ingredients. Today’s great cocktails start with high quality spirits as their foundation. Although the word “mixologist” appears to have been coined in the 1800’s as a tongue-in-cheek term, today’s mixologists and bar chefs have a high level of training and skill, creating balanced and complex new cocktails as well as reinterpreting the “classics” for a sophisticated new audience.
With the increased popularity of bourbon over rye in the years after Prohibition, the production of rye whiskey dropped significantly. Even today, rye whiskey consumption in the U.S. continues to be a tiny fraction of the U.S. produced whiskeys. This however comes at a time when rye has been steadily gaining in popularity with whiskey drinkers. The cocktail craze that has swept the country in the last several years has also created a demand for high quality complex spirits like rye which allow talented mixologists to showcase their creative cocktail skills.
Rye’s Revival
During the downturn in rye’s popularity, Michter’s continued to produce rye whiskey, and is now one of the few distilleries to offer rye whiskey aged 10 to over 25 years. In the 1990’s, Richard “Dick” Newman, former president of Austin Nichol’s, the producer of Wild Turkey, and Joseph J. Magliocco, resurrected the Michter’s brand which had been allowed to languish over the years. Michter’s President Joseph J. Magliocco says, “In the 1990s very few people were thinking of, let alone drinking, rye whiskey. Dick and I wanted to get back to Michter’s ‘cost be damned’ roots and produce the finest whiskey possible. Really well made American Rye can be terrific, and we decided that a focus on making truly distinctive rye would help us achieve our goal of showing just how good U.S. whiskey could be. We wanted people to see that whiskey made in the United Stated could be the equal of great whiskey made anywhere.” Willie Pratt, Michter’s Master Distiller, explains the current situation with rye whiskey best. “The demand for a well matured rye in recent years has exceeded the supply. The spicy, smooth, fruity flavor in the whiskey, developed by age, has won over brown spirits drinkers.”
