Just When You Thought The Bourbon Lawsuits Were Over…
By Richard Thomas
For at time, it looked like the fires of the “misleading whiskey label” mania had finally sputtered out and died, crushed under the weight of its own inane frivolity. But it seems a few embers were left and have given rise to a new lawsuit, suing Sazerac for putting a misleading label on Old Charter.
Nicholas Parker of New York alleges that when Sazerac took the age statement off their Old Charter Bourbon, previously an 8 year old whiskey, but kept the number “8” as part of the labeling in an effort to mislead the public and dupe them into purchasing a markedly inferior product. His lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, accuses Sazerac of seven acts of misleading practices. Parker and several unnamed parties are seeking class action status, and are represented by Scott Bursor, Joseph Marchese and Yitzchak Kopel of Bursor & Fisher PA, who successfully nailed Starkist to the tune of $12 million for underfilling cans of tuna.
Is There A Case Here?
Old Charter 10 Year Old was discontinued in 2013 and Old Charter 8 Year Old in 2014. The latter was effectively converted into an No Age Statement (NAS) whiskey, with all direct references to age taken off the label, but the numeral “8” was kept in the labeling.
Parker may have a point, at least insofar as the label being confusing. Reports of drinkers picking up a bottle of Old Charter NAS thinking it was Old Charter 8 Year Old, and coming away surprised and disappointed at how bad it was, appeared in blogs and on forums in 2014 and 2015. That said, and as was the case for most of the previous “deceptive whiskey” lawsuits, the prospects for Parker and his attorneys aren’t bright.
(Credit: Sazerac)
Says Brian DeFoe, who owns the blog Hoochlaw, “My assessment is that this is a case where a producer did something fairly sneaky, and perhaps a bit deceptive, but nevertheless in compliance with law […] leading a plaintiff to bring a fairly lousy case which will nevertheless probably settle for a modest payment to the plaintiff and his lawyers.”
Thus, the Old Charter lawsuit is not completely frivolous. It may do better than the completely failed lawsuits against Jim Beam, Maker’s Mark and Angel’s Envy, but perhaps not as well as the only semi-successful example to date, the set of lawsuits brought against Templeton Rye. These actions against Templeton have been the only examples of a recent lawsuit against a whiskey company for engaging in deceptive labeling and marketing that have gained any real measure of success, and in that instance the payout to individual claimants was less than the cost of a bottle of the whiskey in question.
Is Old Charter being discontinued in 2018. I was told while looking for it, that it is hard to find and will be discontinued
Doubtful, given that they just changed Old Charter 8YO into a much criticized NAS version.
I began drinking Old Charter, 8 year old, 46 years ago and it was a great whisky. When the 10 year old came out I switched to it, I thought there was no way to get anything better but then 12 year old came along and wow, it was simply wonderful… I was terribly disappointed in Buffalo Trace et al when the change took place and could no longer find Old Charter in ANY age group.
Today, in a store in Rowlett, TX my wife found 1 large bottle of Old Charter 8 and she knew I loved Charter so she got it for me as an early Father’s Day gift. Yes, it was the *8* and until I read this piece I had no idea what was what because I had stopped keeping up with Old Charter.
The 8 is not bad, but it’s sure not the Charter I remember from a few years ago before it disappeared and the Charter I drank for years prior. Things change, and not always for the better. Cheers.
Old Charter has definitely faded, at least in my market. They’ve dumped the pints/half-pints. OC was the go to bourbon for the old heads around my way 10 years ago and back. I imagine most of that market has passed on. I remember my Granddad’s friend bringing a half-pint over and they splitting it on the porch, so OC will always have a nostalgic feel for me. In my 30s, my palate was finally able to appreciate bourbon and I settled on OC 8 Years Old as my steady, with a bottle of 10 Years Old every so often. Man, I loved that stuff. Ventured off to explore other sipping liquors like aged rum, cognac, Scotch but eventually circled back to bourbon and the NAS OC, man what a downfall. It went from a steal as a lower priced mid-shelf to a rip off overpriced bottom shelf. I occasionally see a handle of OC in someone’s basket and invariably it is someone 75+ years old. Although I realize it’s been some years since the NAS, I still like to reminisce about what was to me an iconic bourbon.
When I was 17 years old I worked for an outfit called She’s Shea Elect., Owned by Mike & Rita Thompson. Everyday when I’d arrive to work Mike would send me across the river in his brand new Ford LTD Braughm to get a bottle of 10 Year Old Charter Whiskey. To this day when I think of whiskey, I think of Ten Year Old Charter.
Well I worked at a liquor store in 2009 and bought a bunch of old charter 2010 when their warehouse caught on fire thinking that this would be my gold mine. I’ve got a bunch of old charter 10 fits and pints and half pints in my closet probably 40 or 50 bottles of them. I wonder where I could sell them now these days?