It’s Bourbon Heritage Month, something invented by Kentuckians with Kentucky in mind. I don’t think anyone behind the 2007 Act of Congress would have guessed that bourbon might soon be made in all 50 states, as it is today. Not just that, but you can even buy a bourbon blended from distillers from all 50 states, a project we recommend from our friends at Lost Lantern Spirits (and not just because we represent the Empire State in said blend).
Bourbon has been around for a long time. And like many old things, experts aren’t sure exactly where the name comes from. Theories have been proposed, but the most credible point to Bourbon County, Kentucky, like this advertisement from 1826:
Bourbon County Isn't Exactly Bourbon Country
Ironically, Bourbon County lies east of Lexington and pretty far from the epicenter of bourbon production today. If anyone tells you that bourbon comes from Bourbon County, you can point them to Hartfield and Co., a craft distiller that’s about as old as we are as the keepers of true Bourbon County whiskey. Otherwise, it’s a myth about as fresh as the idea that bourbon must come from Kentucky, which is now disproven not just by Lost Lantern’s project, but all the new entrants came to bring credibility to the farm distilling that had been abandoned by mainstream Kentucky distillers.
The Bourbon Industry Had a Credibility Gap
To step back a bit, I originally became interested in distilling by becoming disillusioned with how poorly bourbon heritage had been stewarded by the bourbon industry. When I started getting interested in whiskey in the middle of the oughts, there were about a dozen or so distillers that made a hundred labels–all pretending to be the small-batch, hand made bourbon that proved to be a marketing fantasy. Nearly everything then was made on industrial column stills at factory facilities. The family recipe had long ago been discarded for a handful of basic styles, made at a few distilleries that trade inventory behind the scenes to build out brands that bore very little relationship to the distilling process.
Even the very sought after whiskeys like Blanton’s and Van Winkle were distilled at the same distillery that made much more prosaic whiskeys in most cases from the same distillation runs. Selections of barrels or single barrels from an undifferentiated flow of commodity barrels was what constituted a “special” bottle.
Small Batch, Apparently
Maybe more to the point: if you think of a “small batch” cookie, you don’t think of a small set of industrially made cookies, selected because they have more chips…and yet, this is primarily how the industry worked.
The craft whiskey movement imagined more of a heritage production, and over time the best of us have aged up products to match our commercial peers.
Still, I’ve wanted to make whiskey not just for the drinker, or even the aficionado, but for the person who wants to know whiskey inside and out. For the person leading the bottle share, educating others.
Make Some Heritage of Your Own
That’s why I’m suggesting that some of you might want to make your own bourbon heritage this month with our Whiskey Aging Kit. For a price of a few nice bottles of whiskey, you can actually get about a dozen bottles of bourbon you can fully mature yourself, to your own specifications. It’s a great way to get a little deeper into bourbon than merely trying commercial offerings, and represents a whole new level of engagement.
These have been really popular, especially as Kentucky bourbon is overflowing on shelves, and still with little true variety at the production level. It’s a good time to be experimenting with something different and all it takes is a little determination and patience to make something that really belongs to you, and not a brand. You’ll be the winner of the bottle share, we promise.
