At this time, distilleries began to close, starting with Hanyu. In 2000, they sold their remaining stock and equipment. Karuizawa distillery closed the following year and Mars Shinshu shortly after. These events marked the bottom of the decline in Japanese whisky sales. The remaining producers continued to make high-quality distillates, but production volumes were limited.
It wasn't only the number of Jewish congregates that went up – the number of rabbis did as well. Unlike the Catholic Church, which had a formal way of distinguishing a priest from a layperson, the Jewish didn't have such a mechanism in place. So if a wine lover came together with a few friends and declared himself their rabbis, who was going to refute the claim?
Soon the fledgling Scotch industry attracted the attention of the Scottish Parliament, which introduced punitive taxes on Scotch in 1644. Naturally, this gave rise to the Scotch black market as not everyone was ready to part with their hard-earned money so easily.
The aging process helps to mellow out the harshness of the alcohol (such as sulfur) while also imbuing the bourbon with its distinctive flavor. The flavor notes are drawn from the wood itself; the longer the bourbon sits in the barrel, the more rich and complex its flavor profile will be.
The story goes that they would have preferred the government to create a Tennessee whiskey classification but had to settle for 'whiskey.' In the years that followed, they adopted the name 'Tennessee whiskey as a statement of product origin. That is how the designation 'Tennessee Whiskey' was born.
