No fackin way. We first learned this when the Commish was directly presented with clear and undeniable evidence that Ron Matusalem was breaking the law and adding prune and vanilla extract without labeling the product "flavored" in accord with the law. Why undeniable? Due to a lawsuit between the brothers who make and sell RM, both admitted the additions and the fact of this alteration appeared in the decision of our Federal 8th District Appellate Court.
The alteration was clear and undeniable. The TTB did absolutely nothing other than state they'd carefully examined and circular filed the data. Arseholes.
So WTF is 5.36(d)?
It's a regulatory requirement - not optional - that requires two simple things to appear on every label, without exception: first their name and address, which is always complied with. And second? According to Chuck Cowdery the regulation also requires that if the product is distilled elsewhere, the words "...distilled in (state)" MUST appear on the label.
Not optional: MANDATORY - but many of the Potemkins refuse to comply! WTF!?
Cowdery proceeds to point out blatant examples: Templeton (which we know), and two other Potemkin distillers - Tin Cum and Breckenridge. All go to great lengths to tell a story that seems completely authentic and convincing. They present as craft distillers using the usual ice cold mountain water and meticulously conceiving and producing fine "small batch" craft spirits. The extent of their misrepresentations (some would say outright lies) is extreme and almost beyond belief.
For proof, Cowdery offers this:
http://www.tincupwhiskey.com/
A paraphrased exerpt from the down home, country boy owner:
This bushwa is followed by major sections dedicated to a video showing a local rocky creek, allegedly supplied by melting snow, plus another featuring a neighboring Colorado elk ranch. The snake oil pitch ends with a HUGE headlined video "We make whiskey and we drink it at our local tavern!""I started distilling in 1972 with my neighbor's ten gallon still and began tinkering, learning about distilling, reading about it and experimenting. For almost 30 years this was my hobby until 2004 when it became my full time work. Tin Cup is my newest whiskey and I'm proud to share it with you.
Let me explain how whiskey gets made here.
I wanted to make an bourbon style whiskey but with a more powerful spicy flavor, so Tin Cup has a high rye mash bill. It's made with Midwestern grain, aged in new American oak, and cut with Rocky Mountain water, a nod to our Colorado miners who drank their whiskey out of tin cups."
All are designed to pitch this local rancher as just a friendly good old boy who loves to hunt elk, drink at the local tavern and whose distillery is alleged to be situated where the rocky creek full of cold mountain water terminates.
All of this is Elk Shit
These Potemkin distillers have almost nothing to do with their product. Quoting Cowdery: "...the product is bottled at the Stranahan Distillery... so they can use Colorado water (i.e., Denver tap water) to dilute it from barrel proof (about 65% ABV) to bottling proof (42% ABV), and thereby say it was 'made' in Colorado."
At this juncture none of us is really all that surprised, but what is really disturbing are two things...
- 1. The extreme extent to which distillers are now reaching. And why?
2. The fact that this mandatory regulation - 5.36(d) - is not being enforced by the TTB.
*******
http://chuckcowdery.blogspot.com/
http://www.tincupwhiskey.com/
https://www.breckenridgedistillery.com/hooch/
Major kudo's to Chuck Cowdery. Be sure to add his blog to your bookmarks...
