Fred Minnick - Bourbon: The Rise, Fall, and Rebirth of an American Whiskey

THE RISE, FALL, AND REBIRTH OF AN

AMERICAN WHISKEY

Fred Minnick

Foreword by Sean Brock

2016 Quarto Publishing Group USA Inc.

Text 2016 Fred Minnick

Photography Fred Minnick except as otherwise noted.

First published in 2016 by Voyageur Press, an imprint of Quarto Publishing Group USA Inc., 400 First Avenue North, Suite 400, Minneapolis, MN 55401 USA. Telephone: (612) 344-8100 Fax: (612) 344-8692

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Digital edition: 978-1-62788-9-766

Hardcover edition: 978-0-76035-1-727

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Minnick, Fred, 1978

Title: Bourbon : the rise, fall, and rebirth of an American whiskey / Fred Minnick.

Description: Minneapolis, MN : Voyageur Press, 2016. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2016009158 | ISBN 9780760351727 (plc)

Subjects: LCSH: Bourbon whiskey--United States--History. | Whiskey--United States--History. | Whiskey industry--United States--History.

Classification: LCC TP605 .M567 2016 | DDC 641.2/520973--dc23

LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2016009158

Acquiring Editor: Erik Gilg

Project Manager: Madeleine Vasaly

Art Director: James Kegley

Cover Designer: Faceout Studios

Layout: Wendy Holdman

To OLM, and the geeks.

BY SEAN BROCK

James Beard Award winner and New York Times best-selling author

A lmost a decade ago, the bourbon bug bit me: I had my first taste of Pappy Van Winkle, and I havent been the same since.

Over the years, Ive dedicated my career and life to studying and celebrating southern culture. My restaurant, Husk, serves as the church where we give our daily sermons in the form of food and drink. We want to share all of the seminal things that belong to the South with the rest of the world, like cornbread and fine whiskey.

When I tasted twenty-year-old Pappy Van Winkle for the first time, the world stood still. I was struck with an incredible sense of pride as a southerner. This stuff is ours, I thoughtit was born here and belongs here, and it is world class. My mind started to ramble, and I realized I didnt know anything about the history of our great spirit or what contribution liquor had truly made to America. Its taxes have helped build roads and schools, funded wars, and birthed our beloved sport of NASCAR. I knew it was my responsibility to learn as much as possible about a subject that contributed so significantly to our culture, so I started digging. I bought every book I could find with the word bourbon in the title and sat in front of my laptop Googling for hours and hours on end. I quickly realized that the story of bourbon was as confusing and clouded as a presidential election.

Nearly every story I read seemed like a fairy tale made up for the sake of marketing. Thats when I discovered Fred and his incredible passion, not to mention his almost dangerous breadth of knowledge on these subjects. It takes a special person to dig this deep and discover truths that so often seem to be hidden on purpose. The book that you are about to read can easily transform you into a bourbon history buff. I read it in two days. I wish I could have had this information in front of me ten years ago, but it simply didnt exist before Fred poured it all out in this all-encompassing bourbon encyclopedia. Within these pages are some facts people dont want to hear, like the story of the reverend Elijah Craig and how he invented bourbon. It is filled with stories about the tangled history of whiskey production that ultimately help us realize bourbons place in American history. Bourbon is not just about getting intoxicated; its role in medicine, politics, society, and economics are important to our country. This is a textbook for those who have always wondered about the true history of bourbon and will serve as a foundation for those who are interested in what the future holds. It provides a deep understanding of how bourbon became the worldwide phenomenon it is today. Its allowed me to have a different respect for bourbon, caused me to take in the flavor a little slower with every sip I take, and enabled me to speak with more confidence in spreading the gospel. It occurred to me that Fred may have written this book so people like me would stop texting him random bourbon history questions at odd hours of the night.

Sit back, pour a healthy glass of liquid history, and soak up all this knowledge that Fred so generously shares with us.

All of us bourbon lovers have our moment when the brown spirit captivated us, moved us, and brought us into the fold. For renowned chef Sean Brock and many others, the Van Winkle bourbons were their first love. The bottles pictured are supremely rare and tasty.

INTRODUCTION

B ourbon is more American than apple pie, existed before baseball, and has built more roads, schools, and government infrastructure than any non-petroleum domestic product. Thats saying a lot for a style of whiskey made predominantly from corn. Since its birth, bourbon has transcended its status as intoxicant liquor, has become an American symbol used in political circles and popular culture, and has endured harsh economic times. From the statesman Henry Clay saying hed use bourbon to lubricate the wheels of justice to the 2015 Obama-McConnell saga known as the Bourbon Summit, bourbon is woven into the dealings on Capitol Hill; and through Paul Newman drinking J. T. S. Brown on the Hustler and the Saturday Night Live parodies using the spirit, bourbon is embedded in Americas pop culture.