[Rhodes22-list] Oh! The Shame! This Is An Outrage

[Brad Haslett]

BTW, Lynchburg is in a dry county - so was my boat when I lived in Middle
Tennessee and water skied.  However, comma, I had a DOD ID card from Gulf
War 1 that got me in the local AmVets and American Legion.  Desperate times
call for desperate measures!  Brad

---------------------------

*Sobering thought: Authorities may pour out Tenn. whiskey that dates back
almost 100 years*

*By JOE EDWARDS*
*Associated Press Writer*

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- 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.

Authorities are still determining how much of the liquor will be disposed
of, and how much can be sold at auction.

Tennessee law requires officials to destroy whiskey that cannot be sold
legally in the state, such as bottles designed for sale overseas and those
with broken seals.

"We'd pour it out,'' said Danielle Elks, executive director of the Tennessee
Alcoholic Beverage Commission.

The estimated value of the liquor is $1 million, possibly driven up by the
value of the antique bottles, which range from 3-liter bottles to
half-pints.

One seized bottle dates to 1914, with its seal unbroken. Elks said it is
worth $10,000 on the collectors market. Investigators are looking into
whether the liquor was being sold for the value of the bottles rather than
the whiskey.

"Someone was making a great deal of profit,'' she said.

Tennessee whiskeys age in charred white oak barrels, but the maturing
process that gives them character mostly stops when it is bottled. A bottled
whiskey can deteriorate over a long period of time, especially if it is
opened or exposed to sunlight and heat.

Christopher Carlsson, a spirits connoisseur and collector in Rochester, N.Y.,
said old vintages of whiskey in their original containers are highly prized.

"A lot of these bottles are priceless,'' he said. "It's like having a rare
painting. It's heavily collected.''

The raids, prompted by a tip, were conducted at two warehouses and a home in
Lynchburg, about 65 miles southeast of Nashville. Another raid was at a
Nashville hotel room where drinks were being served and bottles were being
sold.

For now, the whiskey is being stored in a Nashville vault.

Elks acknowledged that pouring out the whiskey would not be a happy hour for
her.

"It'd kill me,'' she said.

AP-ES-11-15-07 1757EST