Stephanie Stewart-Howard - Kentucky Bourbon & Tennessee Whiskey

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ISBN 978-1-4930-0864-3 (paperback)

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This book is dedicated to my husband,
Seth Howard, who followed me to
so many distilleries I cant count,
and to Paul and Anne Koonz, who
introduced me to so many bourbons.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Stephanie Stewart-Howard is a journalist and author whose resume also includes work as an artist, actor, costume designer, and researcher. After spending several years as managing editor and primary writer at Nashville Lifestyles magazine, she decided to leap into the book and freelance world. She is the author of Nashville Chefs Table and regularly contributes to Nashville Arts, Gannetts 12th and Broad, Renaissance magazine, and a host of other national and regional publications.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This book would not have been possible without a lot of help. Every single distiller I talked to made a huge impact, and I owe them a huge debt, but I have to say special thanks to Darek Bell at Corsair, Billy Kaufman at Short Mountain, James Hensley at Nelsons Greenbrier, and Jeff and Jenny Pennington at Speakeasy Spirits, without whom this never could have happened. Long before I learned anything real about whiskey, you guys were already teaching me. Thanks also to Marc Coffman, Jim Rutledge, and Jimmy Russell for being extra helpful.

Thanks to Mike Veach at the Filson County Historical Society, for putting up with my questions and being a terribly fun interview.

Thank yous also need to go, in no particular order, to my dad, Joe Stewart, who came with me on crazy rides for this book, and my mom, Yvonne Stewart; also Ben Palos, Amy Preske, Cary Ann Fuller, Eric Byford, Karen Lassiter, Paul Newton, Jennifer Matthews, Micaela Burnham, Shawn Reed, Kathleen Cotter, and Laura Kimball at TruBee Honey. Finally, to all my whiskey drinking girls in LexingtonMissy, Abby, Stephanie, Dena, and Theresa (ok, you live in Ohio), thanks so much!

INTRODUCTION

Theres no denying that brown spirits are undergoing an amazing renaissance. Depending upon whom you speak with, that may have begun as recently as five or six years ago, or it may have been percolating since the late 1980s; but its very true that right now, whiskey, bourbon, and scotch are all hot. From a plethora of interest in scotch and the broad expansion of its popularity worldwide, to the growth of American whiskeys and bourbons not only in the United States but also in unexpected, emerging spirits markets in Australia, China, Korea, Japan, Russia, India, and Eastern Europe, something big happened and is changing the way we view brown spirits across the board.

While Scots and Irish products are a big part of this market, this book chooses to focus on the American cousins, very specifically those made in Kentucky and Tennessee, the traditional homes of American bourbon and whiskey. Were seeing a rise in craft distilling across the nation. Youll now find whiskey being made in small-batch distilleries in the Midwest, the Northeast, and on the Pacific coast. Kentucky bourbon and Tennessee whiskey are the spirits that have come to define us nationally as much as anything else we produce. If you ask a Kentuckian or Tennessean, they might say that if you drink whiskey made anywhere else in the United States, you might just be kidding yourselves. We are the real deal.

From the 1950s through the 1980s, bourbon and whiskey brands came to be associated with celebrities, sometimes those with rebellious or devil-may-care attitudesfrom writing powerhouses like William Faulkner and Tennessee Williams to Frank Sinatra, the Rolling Stones, Guns N Roses, and outlaw country icon Willie Nelson singing Whiskey River (Take My Mind). More recent artists across genrestake Frankie Ballard for example, or Rihanna, or Sundy Besthave kept up the tradition.

In 1964 President Johnsona whiskey drinker himselfalong with Congress, officially declared bourbon to be a native spirit, a distinctive product of the United States. Bourbon was the first product of any kind to get this special designation. I suspect LBJ never anticipated what Kentucky bourbon and Tennessee whiskey would become a few decades later. Back then, bourbon was generally regarded as the drink of the Southern gentleman, the kind of thing you consumed while playing cards, and perhaps smoking a cigarLBJ would have been very familiar with that world.

Today bourbon and whiskey woo customers from a wide-ranging collection of men and women across all walks of life. They are the focus of a thriving revival of artisan cocktail culture, in which drinks familiar to the Johnson White House, like mint juleps and Old-Fashioneds, are just the introduction. They are still made here with loving care by distillers with a lifelong commitment. Some, like Jimmy Russell, the eighty-year-old master distiller at Wild Turkey, have been at it for sixty years and are passing the role along to sons, grandsons, and nephews. Others, including the Nelson brothers at Nelsons Greenbrier or John Pogue at Old Pogue, have only just begun, even though their family traditions date back to the nineteenth century.

All of them make up part of this ongoing, developing heritage. I am proud to introduce you to these distillers and their art and give you a bit more background on them, in hopes that you decide to do more than just buy a bottle.

The goal of this volume is not to give you the concise history and science behind these spirits. There are other good books that do that out there, including Michael R. Veachs excellent Kentucky Bourbon Whiskey: An American Heritage. I also highly recommend Eric Byfords documentary film Straight Up: Tennessee Whiskey and his forthcoming follow-up on Kentucky bourbon. Youll also want to follow a good blog or twoI recommend Chuck Cowderys (chuckcowdery.blogspot.com).