Bourbon Empire (39 page)
Authors: Reid Mitenbuler
Tudor, Frederick,
82
,
83
–86,
91
,
92
Turner, Curtis,
180
Tuthilltown Spirits,
252
,
271
–72,
274
T.W. Samuels Distillery,
247
Tweed, Boss,
112
Twenty-First Amendment,
193
ultra-premium,
261
Union Distilling Company,
145
Universal Whiskey Experience,
262
usquebaugh (
and variants),
16
,
23
–24
Valley Forge,
30
Van Winkle, Julian, III,
259
,
260
Van Winkle, Julian, Jr.,
224
Van Winkle, Julian “Pappy,”
108
,
206
,
207
,
223
–24,
246
,
247
Van Winkle, Pappy,
276
Very Old Fitzgerald,
262
Very Very Old Fitzgerald,
262
Victoria, Queen,
232
Vietnam War,
240
–42
Ville-Neuve, Arnaud de,
16
Vogt, Red,
178
Walgreens,
186
Wall Street Journal,
120
–21,
222
,
233
,
249
,
252
,
260
Wall Street
(movie),
250
War of 1812,
102
Washington, George
Michter’s heritage tale and,
8
–9
original whiskey recipe of,
35
Scotch-Irish frontiersman and,
33
–34
shortages of rum and transition to whiskey in rations of troops of,
29
–30
whiskey distillery of, historic and rebuilt,
25
–27,
34
,
36
–37
Whiskey Rebellion and,
37
–38,
43
–45
Washington, Martha,
37
Waters, Alice,
249
Wathen, Henry,
53
–54
Watterson, Henry,
172
Watts, John C.,
234
W.B. Doner,
229
Webster, Daniel,
90
Weller Antique,
207
Westland Distillery,
117
–18,
274
Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way
(painting),
148
Whicher, Joseph,
29
whiskey
bourbon (
See
bourbon)
Canadian,
165
n
Irish,
31
scotch,
31
,
117
,
118
,
129
,
165
n,
230
–33
spelling of,
16
n
Whisk(e)y Distilled: A Populist Guide to the Water of Life
(Greene),
77
n
Whiskey Magazine,
77
Whiskey Rebellion of 1794,
4
,
37
–45,
62
whiskey taxes
bonding period, increases to,
120
,
228
of Britain, in Ireland,
32
Carlisle’s efforts to change tax codes,
119
–20
Jefferson and,
38
–39,
41
,
44
,
46
,
102
,
113
of Lincoln, to pay for Civil War,
102
moonshining and,
102
–5
War of 1812 debts and,
102
of Washington, and Whiskey Rebellion,
4
,
37
–45,
113
Whiskey Ring tax evasion scheme,
111
,
112
–16
during World War II,
216
Whiskey Trust,
122
–27
white dog,
20
–21
white oak barrels,
59
white whiskey,
105
–6
Wigle, Philip,
44
–45
Wild Turkey,
36
,
231
,
250
,
254
,
260
Willard, Frances,
173
Willebrandt, Mabel,
190
Williams, Christopher,
283
–85,
286
,
287
,
288
Wine Aroma Wheel,
78
Wine Enthusiast,
78
Winn, Matthew,
140
W.L. Weller Special Reserve,
207
women, in whiskey advertisements,
145
–47
Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU),
173
Woodford Distiller’s Select,
93
Woodford Reserve Distillery,
86
,
91
–93,
117
,
140
–41
Woodlief, John,
16
–17
World War II,
215
–19
alternative liquors, consumption of,
218
–19
industrial alcohol production during,
215
–16
industry hoarding and misleading of public as to aged whiskey stocks,
216
–17
Wry Moon,
267
Wyandote Indians,
52
Wyeth, Nathaniel,
84
Young, Al,
223
You Only Live Twice
(movie),
241
Zoeller, Trey,
48
–49
Zoline, Elijah,
188
*
In 2012, Michter’s began planning construction of a distillery in the Shively section of Louisville to start producing its own spirits. By early 2015, it was nearing completion.
*
Ireland and the United States typically use the spelling “whiskey,” while Scotland and Canada typically use “whisky.” One legend suggests the reason for this is because stingy Scottish printers didn’t want to waste the extra letter, although the real reason is unknown. America’s Maker’s Mark bourbon uses the
whisky
variant to honor the Scottish roots of the brand’s creator.
*
For instance, distilling manuals from the eighteenth century often provide recipes for “usquebaugh” that modern drinkers would likely recognize as kinds of gin. Likewise, Americans in the nineteenth century sometimes used the word “rum” to describe what was in fact whiskey (or any other spirit, for that matter).
*
Americans tend to call it white dog; Scottish distillers prefer the term
new make
.
*
Boone’s family would eventually establish a distillery on Knob Creek, employing Thomas Lincoln, father of the future president, Abraham.
*
The diary of Union County resident Jonathan Taylor, likely written around 1795, contains corn whiskey recipes both with and without rye. Louisville’s Hope Distillery was established in 1816–17, and its later purchases of corn, barley, and rye reflect proportions similar to modern bourbons.
*
This mash bill is in the general neighborhood of Basil Hayden’s, a bourbon brand that would be created in 1992 by Jim Beam Brands to honor a farmer-distiller who arrived in Kentucky from Maryland around the same time as Craig.
*
Evaporation in warm midwestern climates averages around 4 percent per year but can go as high as 8 percent, depending on the temperature.
*
The earliest
written
record of using charred barrels to age Kentucky whiskey comes from 1826, when a Lexington grocer told a distiller named John Corlis, “It is suggested to me that if the barrels should be burnt upon the inside, say only a 16th of an inch, that it will much improve it.” Of course, the fact that somebody else had mentioned charring to the grocer indicates that the method was already in use.
*
Louisville still enjoys its status as a trading hub. Worldport, the UPS shipping center located there, is the largest of its kind in the world, and is within a four-hour flight of 95 percent of the U.S. population, meaning a bevy of other companies have also established distribution facilities near the city.
*
At the time, New Orleans dwarfed most other American cities, a fact that has been forgotten during a modern era that has seen the city’s population fall. For most of the nineteenth century it was one of the largest cities in the nation.
*
Kentuckians living in or near Maysville, which is a two-and-a-half-hour drive east of Louisville, today sometimes bristle when this theory is disregarded. There are few modern distilleries in this region, and not having the title of “Bourbon’s Bethlehem” has cut them out of the tourist trade that Kentucky promotes around its bourbon industry, which from a logistical standpoint makes sense to center around a bustling city like Louisville.
*
Lew Bryson, managing editor of
Whisky Advocate
, once told me that whiskey and food pairings are “a little like going to church: more people talk about doing it than actually do it.”
*
For those seeking a guide on developing their palates, with recommendations on in-depth tastings, both Lew Bryson’s
Tasting Whiskey: An Insider’s Guide to the Unique Pleasures of the World’s Finest Spirits
and
Heather Greene’s
Whisk(e)y Distilled: A Populist Guide to the Water of Life
are excellent resources.
*
Rating guides that regularly use the full scope of their scale are rare but generally provide more trustworthy advice. This includes Clay Risen’s
American Whiskey, Bourbon, and Rye: A Guide to the Nation’s Favorite Spirit,
which uses a four-star scale and regularly gives whiskies one or zero stars, thus more clearly expressing what the author and his tasting panel thought were truly exceptional whiskies versus those that were just mediocre.
*
Part of this price tag is funneled to local charity causes.
*
In order to be called a Tennessee whiskey, the spirit has to be made in Tennessee, although it doesn’t have to use the Lincoln County Process. Prichard’s, a craft outfit in Tennessee, makes a non-charcoal-filtered “Tennessee” whiskey. As of early 2015, regulations to further define whiskey were under debate.
*
Since its creation, Rebel Yell has had many owners, but currently is made by Heaven Hill under contract for another company that owns it.
*
Grant was never directly implicated in the scandal and is typically described by most historians as a trusting sort, elected to the White House on the reputation of his battlefield heroics rather than his abilities as an administrator.
*
For instance the shape of a pot still’s neck affects flavor. A thin, long neck favors the passage of lighter compounds that carry floral and fruity notes. A short neck allows heavier compounds to make it into the spirit, leading to a richer, nuttier taste.
*
Christopher Williams of Coppersea Distilling in upstate New York, which uses pot stills, once described the difference to me in a more poetic way: “A lot of the most elaborate German stills—with their elaborately piped/ windowed/ plated hybrid columns—look a lot like shiny tenor saxophones. Whereas our simple pot stills are like a little Marine Band diatonic harmonica. If you’re John Coltrane, you can really make magic happen on a tenor sax, but you better have a comprehensive grasp of music theory and scales. Meanwhile, a badass blues harp player typically has absolutely no understanding of theory, but intuitively understands how to play and can even bend notes to create sounds that the harmonica was not designed to make. So in this sense we’re more like Little Walter or even Howlin’ Wolf in our approach to distilling.”
*
This same nickname was sometimes used for the railroad trust.
*
For this reason, the trust was sometimes called the “Highwine Trust,” referring to the kind of high-proof spirits it specialized in.
*
This remains true today. In 2014, when Diageo announced it would build a new plant in Kentucky for $115 million, the project was hailed as huge for the whiskey industry. This amount of money, however, is the cost to build a
single
deep offshore oil well, putting into context the kind of capital required for each of these different businesses.
*
Other brands in this category—workhorses that helped build successful companies and offer far more than their low price tags suggest—include Wild Turkey 101, Buffalo Trace, Four Roses Yellow Label, Old Grand-Dad, Evan Williams, Ancient Age, Heaven Hill, and Weller Antique. Appreciating the complexity of expensive and super-premium whiskies is one thing, but seeing past the hype and recognizing the true quality and relative value of everyday bourbons is when you know that your palate has reached a higher level of appreciation.