Evening star., 1934-02-20
"Corner'' Hikes Whisky Price,
Giving Uncle Sam Problem
Trust May Be Responsible for Lo'c
Revenues, With Bonded Product
Higher Than Demand Calls For.

charges for bonded warehouses, etc
Considering all of which, the feeling
is that this price is high, and it Is
this sort of thing which has caused
promises that prices will be reduced,
So far as most Of the big fellows
in the business are concerned there
has not been much real kick on the
quality of the legal liquor offered for
sale. Most of the kicks traced down
by governmental agencies have been
found to lie against special blends"
of whisky which were actually blends
in the normal sense Of the word, but
not blends as the word was used in
the trade before prohibition And
future changes In the whole industry
may correct the present situation.
Aging of Four Years.
Medicinal whisky, under the law,
must be aged in the wood for four
years. Popular belief is that the
longer whisky is aged the better it is.
Actually, experienced liquor dealers
say that liquor does not improve after
tllC 1OuI III yCdl LII IliC WOOu 4lCy
say from that moment on it begins to
deteriorate in that it acquires ele-
ments from the wood, such as tannic
acid, which are deleterious.
Before prohibition a blend" was
whisky which contained at least
2 gallons of real whisky to the bar
rel. The real whisky was straight
distilled liquor, preferably of heavy
body and permeating bouquet. 1t
was mixed with 48 gallons of neutral
spirits, sometimes called cologne
spirits, but to the layman just actually
pure alcohol and water, with little
additional flavoring and coloring
matter.
1t is to use as the 2-gallon base
of such barrels of whisky that the
trust or the big fellows in the in
dustry are gobbling up the drug
store or bonded straight whisky.
That Is why the price is SO high, and
will stay high. There is no way Of
duplicating the present stock of
straight whisky in less than four
years. While the Government saw
repeal coming, it had no legal right
to relax the regulations too much.
1t could not go beyond reason in per-
mitting the distillation of medicinal
whisky. Even II 1t had imposed no
limits. however, the present stock.
since say July, when repeal became
certain, would be less than six months
old. 1t would have three and half
years to go!
The trouble with the whisky which
was so full of poison and so poor to
the taste that it produced kicks was
that, while a blend, it was a blend
of new and old whiskys The new
whisky was full of fusel oil and other
deleterious and distasteful ingredi-
ents, which aging would have elimi-
mated. The regular trade, using
neutral spirits with old whisky and
distilled water, produces blend at
less cost which is far more pleasant
to the taste, in addition to being
less harmful.
Straight Whisky Demand.
It is likely that an effort will be
made to educate the drinking public
to 3-year-old straight whisky for
those who insist on straight liquor
as against blend. But even that is
far in the future, so far as its effects
either on bootleggers or the Treasury
are concerned. It would take three
years to bring even that about.
Meanwhile it is case Of blended
whisky made legally and paying the
tax against young" straight liquors.
The price lists Of blended whisky
for carload lots for cases of IL quarts
run as low as $11, while straight bot
tied in bond whiskys run as high as
S62 q case. This includes taxes, but
does not include wholesalers and re-
tailers' profits. Several price lists
show a mark-up of as much as $3.50.
But the price would still be well under
50 a full quart for the blended whisky,
whereas the straight whisky would
run up about Sc a quart.
In pre-prohibition days excellent
straight whisky, well aged, sold for
81 q quart. At that time the Federal
tax was $i.lo on the wine gallon.
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