Say It Ain’t So
WSMV, channel 4 in Nashville, is reporting: Vintage Whiskey May Be Poured Out
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Here’s a sobering thought: Hundreds of bottles of Jack Daniel’s whiskey, some of it almost 100 years old, may be unceremoniously poured down a drain because authorities suspect it was being sold by someone without a license.
Officials seized 2,400 bottles late last month during warehouse raids in Nashville and Lynchburg, the southern Tennessee town where the whiskey is distilled.
“Punish the person, not the whiskey,” said an outraged Kyle MacDonald, 28, a Jack Daniel’s drinker from British Columbia who promotes the whiskey on his blog. “Jack never did anything wrong, and the whiskey itself is innocent.”
Investigators are also looking into whether some of the bottles had been stolen from the distillery. No one has been arrested.
Let’s have a little perspective here. I don’t drink anymore, but you shouldn’t pour unprocessed sour mash whiskey into the sewage system. I feel certain that there is a veterans’ organization in Tennessee that would see that the spirits were disposed of properly after “normal processing.”
8 comments
Yeah, when I drank, Jack was a very good friend of mine. It’d be a shame to dump it.
As they point out in the article, a sealed bottle is worth a hell of a lot of money, and seizure in a police raid gives it extra value on the collectors market. Where’s the capitalism when you need it.
You’re absolutely right: it’s a public health issue. How about a slogan: don’t trash the mash!
I’m sure I could dispose of one of those bottles properly. That’s why I don’t usually keep Jack around the house… it’s all too easy to dispose of him. A bottle around Christmas time is my personal limit. Wine and beer are sufficient the rest of the year.
I’m not sure which is more sacrilegious – tossing out perfectly good whiskey or letting religious scholars put our Great Omnipotent FSM on their agenda. I promise you – karma shall be a bitch.
Steve, I’m sure that there a lot of patriotic Americans ready to step forward and assist the state with this “problem.” I would venture to guess a bi-partisan commission could be formed to study the solution [or not, if you prefer neat].
It would seem that the world gets stranger with every passing year, Andante. Perhaps it is a collateral consequence of climate change.
Neat! (I mean, yes, I prefer it neat; there is no satisfactory solution for the good stuff… it deserves to be appreciated as-is.)
One it is a sin to waster good whiskey and two the cops should auction it off and give the money to a worthy cause. I would imagine this stuff could total up a nice sum.
Steve is correct. If this is as old a 100 years then it is definitely “sipping whiskey” and should not be watered down. Maybe a single cube of ice made from Tennessee spring water but that would be the limit.
A chilled glass would smooth it out, but the value of the older stock will only increase if they are maintained unopened.
I’m sure that someone with the appropriate liquor license could be located to handle the entire process.
The Jack Daniels water source is drying up, so these bottles are only going to increase in price, and from reading R. Neal I get a definite impression that the state of Tennessee could really use all the money it can find, including change from the couches in state waiting rooms.
I think the state lege could be convinced to pass a special bill for this “important historic find.”