Artisanal = illegal

[thirtyoneknots]

I imagine your customer would assert he is saying that he is "putting the scotch right" by lowering the proof "by calculation." It seems like a stretch to me -- especially given the far more common usage within the context of distilled spirits. Even if one is using it poetically, it has a connotation of purification, refining and "righting" by removing things (errors, substances, impurities, etc.).

I think you're giving him a bit too much credit, but we'll just leave it at that

[Porthos]

See http://www.dictionary.net/rectify definition 3. I don't know enough about the alcohol industry to know if this is where they get the apearant authority to do this or not but found it interesting.

[mgaretz]

See http://www.dictionary.net/rectify definition 3. I don't know enough about the alcohol industry to know if this is where they get the apearant authority to do this or not but found it interesting.

Authority? They play by the golden rule - which is "them what has the gold makes the rules" - in this case it's the liquor licenses and permits that are the gold. (Their beer definitions are completely arcane and inaccurate.)

Edited March 2, 2010 by mgaretz (log)

[KatieLoeb]

The gold is not the liquor licenses that bars and restaurants possess, but the DISTILLING licenses that the large liquor companies possess. I do believe that Todd is right, and there might be something much larger and more trendy afoot here. I've seen every flavor of nonsense being hawked by salespeople of late (one particularly horrid Acai flavored vodka that made me shudder), and if the large distillers want to get behind a movement to force bars and restaurants to buy their flavored stuff rather than make their own, they certainly have the money and lobbying power to make that happen. I just wonder if stifling the creativity of their best accounts is really in their best interest in the long run...

[slkinsey]

See http://www.dictionary.net/rectify definition 3. I don't know enough about the alcohol industry to know if this is where they get the apearant authority to do this or not but found it interesting.

Note that definition three includes redistilling. In other words, you add the flavoring and then you redistill (aka rectify) the flavored liquid.

[brinza]

Wasn't Southern Comfort initially referred to as rectified whiskey? I never thought it made much sense to call it that, but I heard it referred to that way.

Would this code also prevent restaurants from serving house-made Sangria, or does it only apply to spirits?

[slkinsey]

Technically this would apply to any house-made sangria that was not made a la minute. Just how long in advance constitutes "no longer a la minute" is a grey aria. The day before would probably be okay. A month before... probably not.

Again, this is something that is practically never enforced. Clearly someone somewhere prompted a momentary crackdown in California.

[mgaretz]

Seems to me that the main thing about the rectifier's license is that rectifier cannot be a primary producer of the spirits - they have to have already been produced and taxed - so presumably no other tax is due. Not sure where they came up with the term and we could argue the semantics of it all day, but it's their term and they define what it means, so that's what it means in this context.

It's not clear if a bar could get such a license and sell the product to themselves so it could be sold to patrons - "rectifiers" cannot sell to directly to patrons. The permits are only $100.

It also seems clear that a "rectifier" would have to also get a BATF license - and a quick look shows that there is no equivalent, but rectification is covered under a general distiller's plant license. That could be the real sticking point here.