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for it and the whiskey became even more famous.
In
1886 the Jones family decided that Kentucky was better suited
to fine whiskey making and they removed their growing business
from Atlanta to Louisville. They brought out more brands and
acquired others, among them Four Roses, one of America's most
celebrated whiskies.
When Paul Jones the founder of the company died, his son and
grandson carried on. Today, the third and fourth generation of the
family control Frankfort Distilleries - a record of family tradition
which probably has no parallel among the large distilling companies
in America today.
During Prohibition Frankfort added still further to its prestige.
Operating under one of the seven distilling permits issued by the
government, it supplied a large part of the medicinal whiskey pro–
,, duced and consumed in the country. In one year, more than 20,000
' physicians purchased Frankfort whiskies for office use. One Frankfort
brand, Antique, became known as the finest medicinal whiskey made.
When Repeal came, Frankfort was ready with two plants in Ken–
tucky and two in Maryland. Possessed of unusual whiskey-making
experience, Frankfort had established at Louisville one of the first
whiskey research laboratories in America. Here a complete miniature
distillery had been built and hundreds of whiskey-making experi–
ments had been conducted. Through these experiments, Frankfort had
gained much knowledge of the exact science of distillation.
It
had
J so
proved~conclusively
that the traditional "sour mash" method of
distilling, by which its whiskies have always been produced, is the
only way great whiskies can be made. And Frankfort had learned,
too, that when
it
comes to aging whiskey, there is no substitute for
Father Time and charred oak barrels - that
in
no other way can
whiskey be mellowed into rich, ripe smoothness.
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