In 1901 a Pennsylvania newspaper, the Pennsburg Town and Country, had a story about a successful liquor dealer called Mary Moll:
WOMAN SUCCESSFULLY CONDUCTS THE LIQUOR BUSINESS
Mrs. MARY MOLL, of Green Lane, the only lady liquor dealer in the State, has successfully conducted that business for a period of ten years. The late NATHANIEL MOLL, her husband, started the business about twenty-six years ago and conducted the same until his death. Mrs. KNOLL then took entire charge of the business and through her careful business management has more than tripled the capacity of the business. Today Mrs. MOLL is considered to be the most successful liquor dealer in the vicinity. Most all her purchases are in carload lots, thus placing her in a position to sell liquor of the best quality at the lowest possible price. The history connected with this lady’s business career is most interesting. Mrs. MOLL, when she took possession of the business, had many obstacles to overcome but, being a woman of wonderful business tact, she bravely fought the many unpleasant features connected with business and successfully built up a trade far superior to any in this county. She deals directly with the leading liquor brokers in the United States, who are held in account for every action by the government. Mrs. MOLL’s first year’s sales amounted to ninety-six barrels of liquor. This she increased by giving the business on the road her personal attention. After three years careful work as a drummer she abandoned the road. During her trips on the road she kept a strict account of all her expenses and came to the conclusion that she could build up her trade much better by giving her customers the advantage of her expenses. She now sells her liquors 50 cents a gallon cheaper than when on the road. Mrs. MOLL during her business career has gained the reputation of selling nothing but high grade liquors. She supplies the leading doctors throughout this and adjoining counties with liquors for medicinal purposes. She carries a stock of pure rye whiskies ranging in age from 5 to 20 years. Her business has rapidly increased and now she handles over three hundred barrels every year. The success of her business is due largely to the manner in which Mrs. MOLL buys her whiskies. Her purchases are made generally in carload lots, not only being able to buy at a good reduction, but saving considerable on transportation. To give our readers some idea of the extent of this business, it is only necessary to say that a representative of the Star Union Railroad Company recently visited her at her home and tried to make arrangements to have her shipments over their lines. Last week she received five barrels of a twenty-year-old whiskey as a sample order. After testing the liquor she found it to be even a higher quality than what she had expected and immediately wired for twenty-five barrels more. This whiskey was made from pure rye in this State in 1881. In 1894 it was shipped to Bremen, Germany, where it remained till 1900. The high-grade whiskies are generally sent across the seas as it is claimed that the salt air and peculiar motion of the vessel increases the quality of the liquor. Liquor in the process of aging evaporates very rapidly and the greater the evaporation the more valuable the liquor. Of the five barrels received by Mrs. MOLL when first filled each contained 44 1/2 gallons. When Mrs. MOLL received them the barrels contained from 14 to 20 gallons a piece. Twenty-year-old whiskey is seldom found in liquor stores at the present day, but it is known that Mrs. MOLL always has in stock the choicest and most rare liquors, according to age, that can be found in the market.*
The story is interesting on numerous accounts, here I will deal with Moll’s 20-year-old whiskey, an unusually long age.
The whiskey, billed as “pure rye”, was undoubtedly a straight rye whiskey – bourbon’s close cousin – and almost certainly distilled in Pennsylvania. Corn-based whiskeys were the preserve of Kentucky and Tennessee. There were numerous types such as sour mash and sweet mash bourbon, Lincoln County whiskey, Robertson County, and white and yellow corn whiskeys.
Pennsylvania and to a lesser extent Maryland, produced primarily rye-based whiskeys. This was the first type made in the U.S., in Westmoreland County and elsewhere in Pennsylvania.
With the flight in the 1790s of many farmer-distillers for Kentucky and more southerly locales on the Appalachian Trail, this in the wake of the ” Whiskey Rebellion”, corn became the primary distilling grain. It grows well in Kentucky and Tennessee and is a staple for foodstuffs. (By contrast rye has never been a major food source in North America).
Pennsylvania and Maryland continued making fine rye whiskey, but except for a handful of revivalists established in the last 10 years, rye did not survive Prohibition in those states.
It sort of transferred over to Kentucky where eg. Beam Suntory makes Old Overholt, originally a Pennsylvania brand.
In truth even before 1920 rye was overshadowed nationally by bourbon. Classic rye distillers included Overholt, Large, Bridgeport, Sam Dillinger, Sam Thompson, and Hannis.
1901 was at the height of rye ascendancy in Pennsylvania. Clearly Mary Moll was a top dealer who offered an enviable range, five to 20 years old, at good prices. She probably dealt in both blended and straight whiskeys. Blends were a big part of the American whiskey market then. They still are in a roundabout way, via Canadian whisky which has a good sale in the U.S.
But as I’ve said, her 20 year old whiskey was likely “straight”, an epicure’s drink with rich body and deep tangs.
Now, why did Moll’s whiskey go to Bremen, Germany for a six year sojourn? It left at 13 years old, already fairly old for whiskey.
There were two main reasons whiskey in bulk was sent from the United States to Bremen or elsewhere in Europe. Hamburg and Liverpool were two other destinations.
One reason was to avoid payment of the excise tax on release from bond. The second was to improve the whiskey further with age. A dank Bremen warehouse evidently did the trick, in that period.
With the initial short bonding periods from the 1860s, federal excise tax had to be paid in a comparatively short window – first one year, later extended to three years. Say whiskey was removed from bond in 1878 at termination of the maximum period – three years at the time.
The tax had to be paid to Internal Revenue unless the whiskey was not to be consumed in the U.S. If it was exported, the tax still had to be paid but was subject to drawback (repayment) upon a U.S. consul certifying the goods had landed in a foreign port.
In other words, if whiskey didn’t have a ready market on exit from short bond or might benefit from longer than three years aging, it might make sense to age it further in Germany, then pay freight to return it to the U.S. for a willing market at a ripe age.
All the associated expenses such as leasing European warehouse space and insurance, plus freight to return goods, evidently could be offset with a profit later when the goods came back. Or if not, presumably the whiskey was sold on in Europe.
Also, when the tax was finally paid, the monies were of course a future expense when the goods were shipped out to Europe. It is always better to pay a debt in future dollars due to inflation, the money is cheaper.
For whiskey that came back, it had the cachet too of a return sea voyage, viz. the claimed ineffable effects of “salt air and the peculiar motion of the vessel”.
For Mary Moll’s whiskey, it had to have been tax-paid before export since it was thirteen years old. Even by 1900 the bonding period did not reach beyond eight years.
Perhaps the market was soft and the owner felt the whiskey was better off getting even older in Europe pending a turnaround at home, with a premium anticipated for the cachet of the sea voyage.
At any rate, a rye whiskey of remarkable character was available to connoisseurs at Mary Moll – not that older is always better but there has always been a market for well-aged whiskey. Until recently straight rye of 15-20 years and more was commonly seen in the market. The supply is down, and prices way up, due to the success of the whiskey renaissance.
The international shipment of liquors to improve them is an old gambit. Linie, a famous acquavit from Norway, crosses the equator to this day in sherry barrels. Some Scotch whiskies in the past advertised shipment to the East Indies to justify a high price. Madeira wine more or less was invented on this principle although methods were later devised in Madeira to emulate the benefits of a ship voyage.
Distillers and merchants had their favoured shipment points. Baker, a famous Penn State rye brand, was distributed by the Walters agency in Baltimore. It had benefitted from a sea journey to Brazil on clippers, an exotic je ne sais quoi.
Foreign shipments meant for return finally declined as bonding, hence aging, windows rose and today are rare for bourbon and rye.
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*The quoted story, from the Pennsburg Town and Country, March 23, 1901, is © copyright 2015 Nancy C Janyszeski for the Montgomery County PAGenWeb Project. All rights are reserved by the copyright holder. It was sourced here and is reproduced pursuant to following notice on the source linked: “Unless indicated otherwise in a particular page carrying this copyright notice, permission to use, copy, and distribute documents and related graphics delivered from (http://montgomery.pa-roots.com/) for non-commercial use is hereby granted, provided that the above copyright notice appears in all copies and that both the copyright notice and this permission notice appear. All other rights reserved. Nancy Janyszeski disclaims all warranties with regard to this information. The information described herein is provided as is without warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied”.