Wondrich rejects the claim that the Sazerac was the first cocktail, contrasting early cocktail documentation with later Sazerac records. His reproduced modern whiskey formula comes from an undated supplement to Boothby's 1908 volume.
2026-10-01: PDF 256–259 rechecked; removed unsupported 1908 formula-date inference. Wondrich's position is source-grounded, but underlying primary records and supplement date remain unverified. Fact Check Status remains In Review.
The parent volume's 1908 date does not date its undated supplement. First surviving documentation is not an invention date; the source's absence-of-earlier-record argument does not alone prove nonexistence. Cognac, generic whiskey, rye and other variants require separate attribution and dating.