BourbonEnthusiast.com

While cataloging a scrapbook for the Taylor-Hay collection today I came across many articles about the legal arguments being made to President Taft in the "What is Whiskey" question. One argument discusses a case before the Superior Court of the U.S. in Cincinnati about a case dealing with trade to Japan in 1869. Japanese chemist analysed some "pure rye" whiskey being imported into Japan and found neutral spirits added and refused entry into the country and the case ended up in the U.S. court system. The judge, Alphonso Taft (father to the President and also a co-founder of Skull and Bones) ruled that neutral spirits was not whiskey and products with neutral spirits could not be called whiskey.

Mike Veach