The Bonding Experience

More bottled-in-bond whiskeys are entering the market, and they deliver some of the finest drinking experiences around

- JACK BETTRIDGE

Mordecai Jones is selling a pig-in-a-poke. The character played by George C. Scott in the raucous 1967 movie The Flim-Flam Man has just stolen a truckload of rot-gut from moonshiners and is looking to unload it on a sucker. The con is that he'll replace the liquor in the sample jar with something truly outstanding. He needs something that is the polar opposite of cheap hooch. He settles on bottled-inbond Bourbon.

Once the patsy gets a taste of the good stuff, he's an easy mark.

In the '60s, when American whiskey was riding high, the words “bottled-in-bond” were a mark of distinction that placed a drink at the pinnacle of the spirits world. Then the distinction all but disappeared. When the whiskey category slumped for decades, so did the importance of its top designation. Even when whiskey made its comeback in the new century, it was led not by bonded samples, but products with names such as “small batch” and “single barrel.” Bottled-in-bond seemed quaint.

But the category is now roaring back. Liquor stores are stocked with examples that run from Bourbon to rye to corn liquor and even brandy. Moreover, modern mixologists have rediscovered the potent charms of this type of spirit, using it in classic cocktails as well as newly invented drinks. At a stout 100 proof, bonded spirits also provide formidable partners when paired with cigars.