Table of contents for Bourbon 2021 in Bourbon

Bourbon means many different things to many different people; for some it’s simply liquid in a bottle, for others it’s their livelihood, family and lineage, for many it’s memories shared with friends, and for a select few across the pond it’s a humble chocolate biscuit. Now that really is versatility. The past two decades have seen immense change for the distilling industry in the United States, with a particular boom in the creation and sales of Bourbon, a liquid that is now as synonymous with the country as the American flag itself. We can discuss that point over a glass of the good stuff if you're not sure you agree with me. Back in 1999 the annual production of the liquid we're here to celebrate was at an all-time low,…

Imagine standing in a river in the Rocky Mountains, wearing chest waders and fly fishing with your friends. You’ve just returned from Scotland and the memories of distilleries are still fresh in your mind. The reality of returning to your job is setting in, even as hard as you are trying to stave off reality for just another day. Then off in the distance, an opera singer begins a melody, her voice echoing off the hard surfaces of the quiet mountain peaks, perfectly audible over the sound of the babbling snow melt in which you are standing. Suddenly it hits you clear as day: this right here is the spot where you should open a whiskey distillery. These stories are in abundance in the craft industry these days and it’s…

Bourbon distillers are constantly saying goodbye, not just to bottles but also their barrels which can only be used once to age Bourbon. Shipped around the world, these white American oak barrels, charred on the inside, embark on a second career ageing other styles of whisk(e)y, whether in Scotland, England or Wales, across Europe and Scandinavia, or in Australia and Japan. In the Caribbean and South America Bourbon barrels nurture rum, while in Mexico they accommodate Tequila. Such global appeal reflects the benefits a Bourbon barrel provides. Having already been ‘seasoned’ by ageing Bourbon, the influence on a subsequent occupant is mellower, while still dispensing plenty of flavor. Generous quantities of vanilla (the world’s most popular flavor) appear in various guises, whether vanilla custard, crème anglaise, crème caramel, crème brûlée,…

In 1964, the US Congress enacted the benchmark Civil Rights Act, ending the laws that enabled segregation and prohibiting discrimination based on race. In the same year, Congress declared Bourbon whiskey to be a "distinctive product of the United States". The connection might not be obvious. However, the histories of Bourbon and African Americans are inextricably linked in multiple ways – spanning production to consumption – and, today, the US is changing radically in ways that could well bring American whiskey and black consumers closer than ever. Bourbon, which has survived a dizzying number of boom-and-bust cycles over its history, has enjoyed a renaissance over the past decade. In 2019, distillers filled 1.7 million barrels – that’s four times more than in 1999. In Kentucky, home to 95 per cent…

Most humidors come with instructions for seasoning, or humidifying them, before use. There are a number of ways to go about this, but it’s also not a one-and-done procedure. It’s meant to be done regularly, just like oil changes in cars or sharpening the blade on a lawnmower. A humidor is an appliance meant to perform a specific function, and as with all appliances there is routine maintenance. Seasoning a humidor involves hydrating the inside of the wooden box. There are options for plastic humidors which don’t require much in the way of seasoning, but classic humidors are wood and need to be conditioned to perform optimally. Select a wooden humidor with a heavy, tight-fitting lid. Spend a few days acclimating it to approximately 65-67 per cent humidity by using…

Many years ago, I attended a soy sauce tasting conducted by Chef Castro at the Brown Hotel in Louisville, Kentucky. This Bourbon Woman was utterly fascinated after attending about a million Bourbon tastings, captivated by something unique and exploratory for my passionate foodie side. What struck me were the different flavor components and vast styles of soy sauces that I took for granted. Sound familiar? Flavor and styles of whisky, perhaps? So, when I first met Matt Jamie back in the mid 2000s, connected by a mutual foodie acquaintance, I listened to his vision of creating micro soy sauces aged in Bourbon barrels. I celebrate umami like any foodie and Bourbon lover does, so of course I connected on that front. However, to create a total company and brand identity…

Bourbon is a unique agricultural product that was perfected over the generations as new technologies and techniques became available. It began as a way to preserve crops through fermentation and later distillation, and then it went from being stored in earthenware jugs to charred barrels. Once regulations were put into place to protect consumers and ensure they knew what they were buying, the basic framework for Bourbon was established. Legally in order to be called Bourbon, a whiskey must be: • Made from a minimum of 51 per cent corn and any other combination of cereal or pseudocereal grains (think: quinoa), water, and yeast• Must be distilled to no higher than 160 proof• Must be barreled at no higher than 125 proof• Must be bottled no lower than 80 proof•…

One day the pandemic will be part of our legacy. It has been comforting in these difficult times to look to the Kentucky Bourbon industry, which has had staying power through all kinds of adversity. The history of this storied sector holds clues not only for how to survive, but also for how to use the lessons learned during very difficult times to prepare for a thriving future. Buffalo Trace Distillery has been through fires, floods and more and has become one of the powerhouses of the industry. “I wish that I could be one of these folks who got a chance for time not to be a factor in my life,” says world-renowned Buffalo Trace tour guide Freddie Johnson. “When I look at Granddad I think about Colonel Blanton,…

In 1912 Mr Boswell founded a company and proudly named it after himself: T.W. Boswell Stave Company. He concentrated on making staves for other cooperages. After eight years, when Prohibition came into effect, he changed his course and started to make barrels for the fruit and salted meat industry. It didn’t take long before he had a controlling share in over 35 saw mills in the Midwest and southern states of the US. When Prohibition was repealed in 1933, Boswell commenced delivering barrels to the revived whiskey industry. Now the second generation, J.E. Boswell joined the company after having completed studies as a civil engineer at Georgia School of Technology. In 1936 he decided to change the name to Independent Stave Company (ISC), to emphasize the fact that T.W. Boswell…

Bourbon and Brooklyn have a forgotten relationship. Their past is murky and violent and because of that history, combined with an untapped real estate market, the two are now in a more stable and mutually beneficial pairing. The year was 1810 and the place, Brooklyn. The Cunningham and Harris Distillery was constructed in an unused section of the borough – that section is now called DUMBO (down under the Manhattan bridge overpass). They are not the first, nor the last to do so. As time passed more distillers built thriving empires… criminal and otherwise. Over the next 50 years a series of unregulated and seemingly unstoppable distilleries prospered in Gowanus, Flatbush, and in time, the lost area of Wallabout Bay or as it’s commonly known, the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Fire,…

What’s your favorite meal of the day? We all have one, but the very word 'brunch', allows you to cheat and love two at the same time. Officially speaking, brunch is a meal usually taken late in the morning that combines a late breakfast and an early lunch. Yes, the official definition, but there is NO definition for a Bourbon brunch which means I can create a bonanza of flavors and dishes that any Bourbon lover will fawn over and call me the Bourbon Brunch Star. As I share a menu of favorites to enjoy, I pause to consider the most important element. Which cocktails do I serve? Champagne is a long-time tradition and the reason it is served is because it literally goes with any food. I am not…

Vanilla or caramel. Cherries or peaches. Cinnamon or nutmeg. Almonds or pecans. These may sound like choices for a recipe, and in a way they are. These flavors and many, many more are commonly detected in Bourbon. Distillers carefully craft their spirits with certain flavor profiles in mind. So, a Bourbon tasting can offer just the right mix of mystery with tantalizing hints of the familiar. We all know how an apple tastes, but do we expect to encounter that flavor in a glass of whiskey? Everyone comes to the table with food memories and the flavors encountered in Bourbon are those you taste in your fruit bin, your breadbox, your spice cabinet, and your secret cache of candy. Whether you and your guests are new to Bourbon or seasoned…

We’ve all had a lightbulb moment in our time. You know the one, where you come up with a life-changing idea that will ultimately make you millions and ensure that you can retire at approximately 25 years old. Sadly, a fair few fall by the wayside, but in doing so they make room for new dreams, ideas and career paths. However, some ideas are made to make it out into the world and the story of Still Austin Whiskey Co. is most definitely one of them. The Austin, Texas-based distillery (how did you guess?) made its move into the spirits industry as the city’s first legal whiskey distillery; of course, with an accolade like this came a lot of red tape to work through. Chris Seals, one of the distillery’s…

Even though Jane Bowie, director of innovation at Maker’s Mark, was born in and grew up in Kentucky, that did not mean that a career for her in Bourbon was pre-determined. “I grew up in Monticello, Kentucky in a dry county,” recalls Bowie. “It was a town of 5,000 and all the people you knew with successful jobs were lawyers, doctors, bankers or teachers.” Indeed, Bowie’s parents were in that group, with her mother a teacher and her father a banker. “And drinking was very taboo. I never saw my parents drink a drop of alcohol. Then there was church three times a week.” When Bowie left her eastern Kentucky home for college, she went to Transylvania University in Lexington and even though she’s of average height, she had a…

Something simply great will soon be merrily filling into square bottles at Tennessee’s soon-to-be latest whiskey distillery. At least that’s my opinion after spending an hour on the phone with bespoke whiskey gurus Jeff Arnett and Heath Clark, co-founders, along with Kris Tatum, of Company Distilling. I remember the balmy September evening last year well, when Jeff – Jack Daniel’s renowned former master distiller – told me he was about to retire. Frankly neither I nor some 600-odd Jack Daniel’s Distillery colleagues, and industry friends, believed him amongst the close-knit, almost club-like, whiskey world. “Who retires from Lynchburg’s Jack Daniel’s?” Everyone was asking. For the past two decades, he has surely been one of the most recognizable faces in the industry. Jeff was appointed as master distiller in April 2008,…

Cryogenic freezers, culture tubes, fluorescing microscopes, mass spectrometers, and Erlenmeyer flasks are not the pieces of equipment that come to mind when Bourbon enthusiasts think about the equipment needed to make their favorite spirits. Copper stills and steel fermentation tanks, yes; centrifuges and autoclaves, definitely no. But to ensure every time you buy a bottle of your favorite whiskey that it tastes like the one before, distilleries not only employ expert staff for distilling, ageing and packaging at their manufacturing facilities, they also have dozens of lesser-known personnel that are essential to quality control. Behind every bottle, from major distilleries, there is a team of chemists, microbiologists and even psychologists. Science supports whiskey making art in the research and development (R&D) department at the Brown-Forman Corporation in Louisville, Kentucky. Founded…

In the 19th century, thanks to a concentration of Bourbon-related businesses including distillery offices, warehouses and shipping companies, a multi-block stretch of Louisville’s Main Street was known as Whiskey Row. Commercially devastated by Prohibition, today the street has made a comeback as a corridor of museums, Bourbon distilleries, hotels and restaurants. The 21c Museum Hotel on Main Street is both a contemporary art museum and a boutique hotel. Its tagline is “Sleep with art”. While virtually every hotel in the city has a bar with a great Bourbon list, visitors to the city can also “sleep with Bourbon” in accommodations specially targeted to their whiskey enthusiasm. Here are five of the places we recommend. Louisville Marriott East 1903 Embassy Square Blvd. Louisville, KY 40299 502-491-1184 www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/sdfls-louisville-marriott-east/ The Louisville Marriott East…

So, a girl walks into a bar… in this case that girl is me. I am always watching intently and taking mental notes of the finesse and agility of our mixologists, so I can try and replicate the tricks of the trade at home. Yet, I decided I was tired of trying to decode the colorful mixers and bitters that they make themselves, the prep work I do not see before I sit down at the bar. More importantly, the very subtle and quick accents that if you don’t keep the gaze on the cocktail, you miss (like rimming a glass with orange oil). Call me curious, or lazy, but I’m taking the guess work out for both of us and just going directly to my bar‘friend’ers. As you can…