Legal Drinking 2.0, a story and a gift

November 30, 3:36 PMChicago Drinks ExaminerCharles Cowdery

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I'm not sure what made me think this would be my last word on the subject of legal drinking's 75th anniversary, which happens this Friday, December 5th, and is popularly known as Repeal Day.

For one thing, I haven't yet told you about the perfect Repeal Day gift.

But first, a story.

George Brown was a pharmaceuticals salesman in Louisville, Kentucky. Unfortunately, there were no pharmaceuticals in the 1860s. What George sold to doctors, for medicinal purposes, was whiskey. His customers often complained about the quality of whiskey available to their patients, because most whiskey then was sold in bulk, straight from the barrel, by a grocery store or saloon, so you couldn't be sure what you were buying. In 1870, George got the idea of producing a brand of whiskey that would be sold only in sealed bottles. That way, it couldn't be monkeyed with.

He even created an advertisement showing monkeys attempting, without success, to get into a bottle of his whiskey.

Always ahead of his time in the marketing arena, George solicited an endorsement from one of Louisville's leading physicians, Dr. William Forrester, and called his product Old Forrester, the first whiskey to be sold in sealed bottles exclusively. 

George's product was a success. Soon his sons joined him in the business. In 1920, when Prohibition made the production of whiskey a crime, George's sons went back to selling whiskey as medicine. That was still legal, with a doctor's prescription.

During Prohibition, whiskey was legally sold in only one size, the one-pint bottle.

After Prohibition, the Browns kept making and selling beverage spirits. They still do it today. Their company is called Brown-Forman. Through it all--before, during, and after Prohibition--they made and sold Old Forester Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey. (They dropped the extra "r" after Dr. Forrester's death.)

And the perfect Repeal Day gift? Old Forester Repeal Bourbon, of course. The gift box includes a 375 ml bottle of specially-selected 10-year-old Old Forester whiskey in a replica of a Prohibition-era medicinal whiskey bottle. (375 ml is the legally-permitted size closest to a pint.) The set includes a whiskey glass and a scroll of the 21st Amendment. It costs about $24. 

Unlike most spirits gifts sets in which the spirit is standard issue, Brown-Forman in this instance found some whiskey in its barrel houses that tastes the way Prohibition-era medicinal whiskey tasted. Not exactly, but close. 

How do I know?

In September, I got to taste some Prohibition-era Old Forester. I wrote about it here.