johnlittle.com

Its an old article, but relevant nonetheless. I like the statement.. “We’re not politically savvy people …We just want to make whiskey.” Anyone else get the feeling that it is hypocritical for the state to have an official whiskey but be so restrictive toward beer? How about let’s have a state beer, and not Budweiser please.

Crushed Spirits
Why has Alabama banned sales of its official state whiskey? Our columnist investigates

WEB EXCLUSIVE

By Gersh Kuntzman
Newsweek
Updated: 5:15 p.m. ET Feb. 28, 2005

Feb. 22 – It sounded like a story from The Onion: The state of Alabama announced last week that its official state spirit, a potent elixir known as Conecuh Ridge whiskey, had been banned from sales within the state of Alabama.

I was immediately intrigued by this story for several reasons:

1. I drink a lot of whiskey.

2. I’ve been to Alabama many times.

3. I have never used the words “Alabama” and “whiskey” in the same sentence.

4. I find it difficult to believe that a state, let alone a Bible Belt state, has an official state spirit. I mean, birds, flowers, gemstones, certainly, but an official state booze?

Clearly, a lot more investigation was required. What I quickly ascertained was this: If it sounds strange that Alabama has an official state spirit, you obviously haven’t been drinking enough state spirit of Alabama. This is a state that has never been bashful about legally proclaiming dozens of once-innocuous household items, species of fish and forms of recreation as “official” symbols of the state.

After all, in addition to having the obligatory official flower (camellia), stone (star blue quartz), bird (the Yellowhammer), and song (“Alabama”—but not the Neil Young version, no doubt), this is a state with an official salt-water fish (the fighting tarpon) and fresh-water fish (largemouth bass), an official rock (marble), an official horse breed (racking horse), an official folk dance (square), an official fossil (Basilosaurus cetoides).

It even has an official renaissance faire, the Florence Renaissance Faire (which makes one wonder—is there more than one renaissance faire in Alabama and can we get the state legislature to look into that?).

The obvious watering down of Alabama’s “official” symbols started in the early 1990s. In rapid succession, state lawmakers approved an official state reptile (the Alabama Red-bellied turtle, 1990), state shell (Scaphella junonia johnstoneae, 1990), state outdoor drama (William Gibson’s “The Miracle Worker,” 1991—a great play, of course, but only when performed outside, apparently), state barbecue championship (Demopolis Christmas on the River Cook-off, 1991), agricultural museum (Dothan Landmarks Park, 1992), horseshoe tournament (Stockton Fall Horseshoe Tournament, 1992), historic theater (Alabama Theatre for the Performing Arts, 1993), outdoor musical drama (“The Incident at Looney’s Tavern,” 1993), tree (Southern longleaf pine, 1997), quilt (pine burr quilt, 1997), wildflower (oak-leaf Hydrangea, 1999), amphibian (Red Hills salamander, 2000—does the Red-bellied turtle know?), fruit (blackberry, 2004), and, of course, spirit (Conecuh Ridge whiskey, 2004).

Beyond the obvious problem of just having too many state symbols, Alabama has a fickle history with its supposedly sacred state icons. Earlier this year, a state legislator decided she was sick of the Monarch butterfly, which has been the state’s official insect since 1989. The lawmaker, Sue Schmitz (a Democrat!), introduced a bill to replace the butterfly with the queen honey bee. She claimed the switch would call attention to the millions of dollars the state makes from honey and pollination plants. The Monarch butterfly, by comparison, “doesn’t bring any money in,” she told the Birmingham News.

In that context, is it any surprise that the state spirit became such an international controversy? Perhaps it could be no other way in a state where the governor has no respect for sacred institutions like official state spirits. Last year, when the Alabama legislature approved the bill designating Conecuh Ridge as the state’s official booze, Gov. Bob Riley vetoed it, claiming, as his spokesman told me, “The state should not be sponsoring commercially- marketed products.” If that’s true, what was Riley thinking when he approved the blackberry’s ascension to official state fruit? Naturally, the legislature overrode the whiskey veto. Clearly, someone had to stand up to gubernatorial hypocrisy and for state-sanctioned drunkenness.

Of course, that support melted faster than an ice cube in a whiskey highball on a hot Alabama day: Conecuh Ridge founder Kenny May was arrested on charges of selling booze to an 18-year-old in a state with an official drinking age of 21.

Conecuh Ridge’s brand manager told me it was a sting operation to “get back” at the company over the whole “official spirit” thing. But when I told that to Bob Hill, who oversees the ABC board, he ran through a laundry list of May’s other alleged crimes against the good people of Alabama, including, he says, retailing whiskey without a license and selling booze in a “dry” county. And to add insult to felony, one other thing that caught the attention of state authorities: Conecuh Ridge allegedly hadn’t paid state tax on the illegal sales (what do you expect from a company whose Web site boasts that May’s father, Clyde, was a renowned bootlegger? I mean, if they paid taxes, they wouldn’t be living up to their official state spirit status).

When I told the brand manager, Wes Henderson, what Hill had said, he responded: “We’re not politically savvy people”—which is a bit of an understatement from a company accused of violating state law—”and now we’re in the middle of a s – t storm. We just want to make whiskey.”

Hill couldn’t care less either way: He doesn’t drink whiskey—not even his state’s official spirit. “I prefer the clear stuff: vodka, gin,” he said. “I’ve never even tried Conecuh Ridge.”

If you ask me, that’s grounds for impeachment.

Gersh Kuntzman is also a reporter for The New York Post, but surprisingly not the booze writer. Check out his rudimentary website at http://www.gersh.tv