According to WAVE-TV News, the makers of Angel’s Envy are being sued by Illinois restaurateur Mario Aliano for violating the Kentucky Consumer Protection Act through false advertising. The class-action complaint claims that Angel’s Envy Rye is in fact, not small-batch nor is it made in Kentucky as advertised. Instead, the lawsuit maintains that the spirit is made in Lawrenceburg, Indiana using the same recipe as the rest of the rye coming from that distillery.
This is on the heels of reports claiming that several of the public’s favorite small-batch and craft whiskies were all coming from the same large factory in Indiana owned by food-ingredient corporation MGP. Eric Felten for The Daily Beast described it as “a one-stop shop for marketers who want to bottle their own brands of spirits without having to distill the product themselves.”
Angel’s Envy is denying any allegations, while Aliano and his lawyers are seeking upwards of $5 million dollars in damages, claiming that “thousands of consumers and businesses across the country have been injured by the deceptive marketing practices.” [WAVE-TV][Photo: Flickr/Joshua Rappeneker]