Spirits: Bourbon Whiskey
Much is left to dispute about bourbon, the whiskey that is so closely associated with the United States throughout the world. Today US liquor regulations require that bourbon be distilled from a sour mash containing 51 percent corn and be aged in charred oak barrels for at least two years. Although Bourbon takes its name from a well-known county in Kentucky, this fact and the process by which bourbon whiskey achieves its distinct smokiness and character appear to have occurred by chance. The region that we associate with bourbon whiskey was originally a part of Virginia and today consists of over 30 counties, each of which can legally produce this spirit.
Typically aged for about four or five years in charred oak casks, bourbon gives you a sock in the mouth upon introduction. The finer the bourbon, the more full-bodied the taste and less caustic the experience. Rumor and tradition have it that a Kentucky Baptist minister named Elijah Craig was the first to distill bourbon in his fulling mill at Georgetown, in Scott County sometime around 1789. To this day, the American South has maintained its hold on this grog's lore to the extent that even its world-famous distilling neighbor, Jack Daniels, tips its hat to tradition and refrains from ever referring to its sour mash whiskey as bourbon.
Read More...
