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For a brief time after the Second World War, Bourbon distilleries had a “golden age”. The war had ended and the restrictions on distilling had ended. The distilleries had all the grain they needed to distill (after a legal battle against the prohibitionists) and were making Bourbon with full abandon. Rye whiskey sales had declined and Bourbon was the king of the hill in America. There were many brands that were being made and consumers had a full range of products to choose from. However, there were problems on the horizon.

First of all, bonded whiskey sales were declining. Consumers had gotten used to drinking 80 proof Scotch during the war and blended whiskey was popular with many consumers. Blended whiskey was what many distillers sold during the war to stretch their stocks of mature whiskey during wartime prohibition. Distillers considered this a temporary trend and still made straight Bourbon, but they started to release brands at 80 and 86 proof to meet the demand. This had a benefit of making their whiskey stocks go further as they still had a shortage of mature whiskey. Things looked bright for the future of Bourbon.

Then the Korean War broke out. Schenley Distillery thought it was going to be another World War and wartime prohibition would be coming back. They ordered every distillery that they owned to start filling their warehouses. Production went on a 24/7 schedule to fill the warehouses. This turned out to be a disaster for the company. Wartime prohibition never came back and when the war came to an end, they had more whiskey than they could sell in the eight year bonding period. 

Distilleries had overproduced and they had to come up with ways to sell more whiskey. They started by releasing special holiday decanters in the late 40s. Brown-Forman was the first to do so. They hired an architect who specialized in modern design and released a very modern design as a holiday decanter. Other distilleries quickly followed suit. These decanters were glass bottles, not ceramic. The 1950s saw many of these decanters produced.

After the Korean War, the golden age ended for the distilleries. Schenley closed down most of their distilleries. Production slowed down as the market was flooded with cheap whiskey. There were many distillery workers who were without employment. The consumer still benefitted from the cheap whiskey with plenty of brands to choose from, but distilleries were being sold and consolidation was taking place in the industry. 

In 1958, the government passed a bill that increased the bonding period to twenty years and that saved Schenley from bankruptcy. However, it did little to help the other distilleries who still had to compete with Schenley and their huge amount of aging whiskey. Prices remained low and this forced most of the smaller, independent distilleries out of business, as the profits were not enough to pay the bills. The brief golden age of distilling was over. The consumer still benefitted from low prices and after 1958, older, more mature whiskey entered the market. However, the distilleries could not make a decent profit on the whiskey they had made. The industry would continue to consolidate and the stage was set for Bourbon’s decline for the next three decades.

Photos Courtesy of Rosemary Miller