Bourbon is a type of American whiskey – a barrel-aged distilled spirit made primarily from corn. The name of the spirit derives from its historical association with an area known as Old Bourbon, around what is now Bourbon County, Kentucky (which, in turn, was named after the French House of Bourbon royal family). It has been produced since the 18th century.[1] While it may be made anywhere in the United States, it is strongly associated with the American South in general, and Kentucky in particular.
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Bourbon is served straight, diluted with water, over ice cubes, or mixed with soda and into cocktails, including the Manhattan, the Old Fashioned, and the iconic mint julep. It is also used in cooking.[1]
The legal definition of Bourbon may vary somewhat from country to country, although various trade agreements require the name Bourbon to be reserved for products made in the United States. The U.S. regulations for the labeling and advertising of Bourbon apply only to products made for consumption within the United States; they do not apply to distilled spirits made for export.[2] Canadian law requires products labeled as Bourbon to be made in the United States and to also conform to the requirements that apply within the United States. However, in countries other than the United States and Canada, products labeled as Bourbon may not adhere to the same standards. European Union regulations require products labeled as Bourbon to be made in the United States, but do not require them to conform to all of the requirements that apply within the United States.
The Federal Standards of Identity for Distilled Spirits (27 C.F.R. 5) state that bourbon made for consumption within the United States[2] must meet these requirements:
In practice, almost all bourbons marketed today are made from more than two-thirds corn, have been aged at least four years, and do qualify as "straight bourbon"—with or without the "straight bourbon" label. The exceptions are inexpensive commodity brands of bourbon aged only three years and pre-mixed cocktails made with straight bourbon aged for two years. However, at least one small distillery markets bourbon aged for as little as three months.[12]
Whiskey sold as Tennessee whiskey is also defined as Bourbon under NAFTA[13] and at least one other international trade agreement,[14] and is required to meet the legal definition of Bourbon under Canadian law,[15] but some makers of Tennessee whiskey do not label their product as Bourbon and insist that it is a different type of whiskey when marketing their product.
The typical grain mixture for bourbon, known as the mash bill, is 70% corn—with the remainder being wheat and/or rye, and malted barley.[1] A mash bill that contains wheat instead of rye produces what is known as a wheated bourbon. The grain is ground and mixed with water. Usually, though not always, mash from a previous distillation is added to ensure a consistent pH across batches—and a mash produced in that manner is referred to as a sour mash. Finally, yeast is added and the mash is fermented. The fermented mash, which is referred to as the wash, is then distilled to (typically) between 65% and 80% alcohol. Distillation was historically performed using an alembic or pot still, although in modern production, the use of a continuous still is much more common.
The resulting clear spirit is placed in charred oak barrels for aging, during which it gains color and flavor from the wood. Changes to the spirit also occur due to evaporation and chemical processes such as oxidation. Bourbons gain more color and flavor the longer they age. Maturity, not a particular age, is the goal. Bourbon can age too long and become woody and unbalanced.
After aging, bourbon is withdrawn from the barrel, usually diluted with water and bottled to at least 80 US proof (40% abv).[5] Most bourbon whiskey is sold at 80 US proof. Other common proofs are 86, 90, 94, 100 and 107, and whiskeys of up to 151 proof have been sold. Some higher proof bottlings are marketed as "barrel proof", meaning that they have not been diluted or have been relatively lightly diluted after removal from the barrels.
Bourbon whiskey may be sold at less than 80 proof but must be labeled as "diluted bourbon".
On May 4, 1964, the United States Congress recognized Bourbon Whiskey as a "distinctive product of the United States." Bourbon may be produced anywhere in the United States where it is legal to distill spirits. However, most brands are produced in Kentucky, where bourbon production has a strong historical association.[16] Iron-free water that has been filtered through the high concentrations of limestone, unique to the area, is often touted by bourbon distillers in Kentucky as a signature step in the bourbon making process.[17] It has been reported that 97% of all bourbon is distilled and aged somewhere near Bardstown, Kentucky.[18]
Bardstown, Kentucky is home to the annual Bourbon Festival held each September, and has been called the "Bourbon Capital of the World" by the Bardstown Tourism Commission[19] and the Kentucky Bourbon Festival organizers,[20] who have registered the phrase as a Trademark.
The Kentucky Bourbon Trail is the name of a tourism promotion intended to attract visitors to six distilleries in Kentucky: Four Roses (Lawrenceburg), Heaven Hill (Bardstown), Jim Beam (Clermont), Maker's Mark (Loretto), Wild Turkey (Lawrenceburg), and Woodford Reserve (Versailles).[21]
Another place that produces major brands of bourbon is Tennessee, although the bourbon produced in Tennessee is not labelled as bourbon by three of the four companies that produce it – with Jack Daniel's being a notable example. However, the methods for producing Tennessee whiskey fit the characteristics of bourbon production, and "Tennessee whiskey" is legally defined under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and some other laws (such as the law of Canada[22]) as the recognized name for a straight bourbon whiskey lawfully produced in the state of Tennessee.[13] Some producers of Tennessee whiskey point to their use of the Lincoln County Process, a charcoal filtering process, to try to draw a distinction between their Tennessee whiskey and bourbon. However, many bourbons are filtered through charcoal (for example, Ezra Brooks Kentucky Bourbon Whiskey and Old Heaven Hill), the U.S. regulations that establish the legal definition of bourbon do not prohibit the Lincoln County process, and not all producers of Tennessee whiskey use the Lincoln County process (for example, Benjamin Prichard's Tennessee whiskey does not use it), and the legal definition under NAFTA defines Tennessee whiskey as bourbon.[6][13][23][24]
Bourbon also has been made in California, Colorado, Kansas, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Virginia, and most likely in other U.S. states as well.[25][26]
The origin of bourbon is not well documented. Instead, there are many conflicting legends and claims, some more credible than others. For example, the invention of bourbon is often attributed to a pioneering Baptist minister and distiller named Elijah Craig. Rev. Craig (credited with many Kentucky firsts, e.g., fulling mill, paper mill, ropewalk, etc.) is said to also be the first to age the distillation in charred oak casks, "a process that gives the bourbon its reddish color and unique taste."[27] Across the county line in Bourbon County, an early distiller named Jacob Spears is credited with being the first to label his product "Bourbon whiskey." Spears' home, Stone Castle, warehouse and spring house survive; one can drive by the Spears home on Clay-Kiser Road.
Although still popular and often repeated, the Craig legend has little actual credibility. Similarly, the Spears story is a local favorite, rarely repeated outside the county. There likely was no single "inventor" of bourbon, which developed into its present form only in the late 19th century.[28] Essentially any type of grain can be used to make whiskey, and the practice of aging whiskey (and even charring the barrels) for better flavor had also been known in Europe for centuries, so the use of the local American corn for the mash and oak for the barrels was simply a logical combination of the materials at hand for the European settlers in America.
Distilling probably arrived in what would later become known as Kentucky when Scottish, Scots-Irish, and other settlers (including, English, Irish, Welsh, German, and French) began to farm the area in earnest in the late 18th century. The spirit they made evolved, and became known as bourbon in the early 19th century due to its historical association with the geographic area known as Old Bourbon (consisting of the original Bourbon County of Virginia as created in 1785, which was a region that included much of today's Eastern Kentucky – including 34 of today's counties in Kentucky,[29] one of which is the current Bourbon County of Kentucky).[30][31]
| “ | When American pioneers pushed west of the Allegheny Mountains following the American Revolution, the first counties they founded covered vast regions. One of these original, huge counties was Bourbon, established in 1785 and named after the French royal family. While this vast county was being carved into many smaller ones, early in the 19th century, many people continued to call the region Old Bourbon. Located within Old Bourbon was the principal Ohio River port from which whiskey and other products were shipped. "Old Bourbon" was stencilled on the barrels to indicate their port of origin. Old Bourbon whiskey was different because it was the first corn whiskey most people had ever tasted. In time, bourbon became the name for any corn-based whiskey.[31] | ” |
A refinement variously credited to either James C. Crow or Jason S. Amburgey was the sour mash process, by which each new fermentation is conditioned with some amount of spent mash (the wet solids strained from a previous batch of fermented mash, which still contain live yeast). Spent mash is also known as spent beer, distillers' spent grain, stillage, and slop or feed mash, so named because it is used as animal feed. The acid introduced by using the sour mash controls the growth of bacteria that could taint the whiskey and creates a proper pH balance for the yeast to work.
As of 2005[update], all straight bourbons use a sour mash process. Crow or Amburgey developed this refinement while working at the Old Oscar Pepper Distillery (now the Woodford Reserve Distillery) in Woodford County, Kentucky. As of today, there are no operating distilleries within the current boundaries of Bourbon County — due to new counties being formed from Bourbon County over time.
A resolution of the U.S. Congress in 1964 declared bourbon to be a "distinctive product of the United States."[32][33] That resolution asked "the appropriate agencies of the United States Government... [to] take appropriate action to prohibit importation into the United States of whiskey designated as 'Bourbon Whiskey.'"[32] Federal regulation now defines "bourbon whisky" to only include "bourbon" produced in the United States.[34]
On August 2, 2007, the U.S. Senate passed a resolution sponsored by Senator Jim Bunning (R-KY) officially declaring September 2007 "National Bourbon Heritage Month", marking the history of bourbon whiskey.[35] Notably, the resolution claimed that Congress had declared bourbon to be "America's Native Spirit" in its 1964 resolution.[35] However, the 1964 resolution had not actually contained such a statement; it had only declared bourbon to be a distinctive product identifiable with the United States (in a similar way that Scotch whisky is considered identifiable with Scotland).[32][36] The resolution was passed again in 2008.[36]
Since 2003, high-end bourbons have seen revenue grow from $450 million to over $500 million, some 2.2 million cases, in the United States. High-end bourbon sales accounted for eight percent of total spirits growth in 2006. Most high-end bourbons are aged for six years or longer.[37]
In 2007, United States spirits exports, virtually all of which are American whiskey, exceeded $1 billion for the first time. This represents a 15 percent increase over 2006. American whiskey is now sold in more than 100 countries. The leading markets are the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Australia, and Japan. Key emerging markets for American whiskey are China, Vietnam, Brazil, Chile, Romania, and Bulgaria.[38]
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