CHRIS MORRIS:<i>
I was at a whiskey festival
in Edinburgh, Scotland,</i> <i> and a little lady
walked up to me</i> and said, "This is Scot,
I am so proud of the Scotch whiskey
industry, it's heritage
and what it's meant to our country. Why aren't you Americans
as proud of your bourbon?" I can only tell her,
"Ma'am, that's a long,
long story." [GUITAR MUSIC PLAYING] FRED NOE:<i> The state of
Kentucky, the vast majority
of it is dry.</i> <i> And that always amazes
people when I'm out
around the world</i> <i> when I tell 'em
95% of the world's bourbon
is made in Kentucky,</i> and in 75% of the state,
it's illegal to have
a drink of whiskey. <i> ♪ Come down off
of that mountain</i> <i> ♪ Come down
all you men ♪</i> MATTHEW LANDAN:<i>
Bourbon is the quintessential</i> <i> defining aspect
of Kentucky culture.</i> It is at every Kentucky event,
whether it's the Kentucky Derby, <i> or it's at a get-together
watching March Madness,</i> it's always present. There's a long, long culture
and history that kind of wraps
itself around Bourbon and Kentucky. I think, in general, westward
expansion, most of our sort of
beautiful literature, art, <i> some of our famous cities.</i> <i> All owe them maybe
a small part, or in sometimes
a large part.</i> It's the Kentucky bourbon. You're drinking history
when you drink bourbon. Bourbon is as part
of the Kentucky character
as anything I can think of. JIM RUTLEDGE:<i>
People recognize,
that know Kentucky,</i> <i> "Oh, you're from Kentucky,
Kentucky bourbon."</i> It's not Thoroughbred horses,
it's Kentucky bourbon
that's putting Kentucky on the map globally. [GUITAR MUSIC PLAYING] We took whiskey, evolved it from
the Celtic style, the Scotch-Irish style and evolved it into,
what is today, the last
style of whiskey <i> to emerge from the culture
and that is bourbon whiskey.</i> The impact that the bourbon
industry has had on Kentucky
has been... I don't even think
you could measure it. The state textbooks
will talk about slavery, <i> talk about tobacco, coal,
will cover the history
of the Commonwealth.</i> But they don't mention
bourbon. Like we don't exist. The thing is bourbon
is part of what Kentucky's
all about. MICHAEL VEACH:<i>
You know, the first
Constitutional crisis</i> was the whiskey rebellion,
prohibition was another huge,
important part of <i> American history.</i> ERIC GREGORY:<i> There's something
about bourbon and whiskey that
brings tales of</i> <i> the Wild West,
the frontier or
the pioneer,</i> the pioneer settler,
like we had here
in Kentucky. And it's just very authentic,
and I think that's what some of
the mystique is about it, <i> 'cause it has such
a rich history and heritage.</i> Probably happened
about 200 years ago, Kentucky was known for the
water, the limestone water
in this region. BILL SAMUELS:<i>
There's only one limestone
shelf in the country.</i> And it's right
in the middle of Kentucky. JIMMY RUSSELL:<i>
You got to have that
hot summer months</i> <i> where that bourbon
can go out in that wood
and age.</i> <i> Then, the winter times,
you got to cold-water
extract,</i> that barrel's got to breathe,
it's got to move in and out
of that barrel. If it went in the barrel
and stayed, it would
never age. Or if it never went
into the barrel,
it'll never age, it'll be just like moonshine. If you go too far north,
south, east or west, or even go out
of the state of Kentucky, you really start changing
how your whiskey
starts aging. When bourbon first started out,
it started out as just as
a whiskey, and to convert the excess corn
into something that wouldn't
spoil and that you could
sell for hard currency. RICK BELL:<i> To get cash, you had
to render your excess grain,
your excess corn</i> into a product.
It started out as
a side product. It wasn't why
they were raising their corn, they could just raise
so much corn here, that they could not...
The surplus was so great, <i> you couldn't afford
to transport it back
to where</i> <i> the population centers were,
which was in the East Coast,</i> <i> and it served as
a substitute for cash.</i> We didn't have national banks,
we didn't have standardized
currency, <i> it was more a
trade-based world.</i> RUTLEDGE:<i>
The first tax that was ever
levied in the new country</i> <i> was on distilled spirits
the farmers who were making,
and a lot of them rebelled.</i> The rebellion didn't last long
and after the rebellion, many of them moved
to the western frontier, which was Kentucky
or Tennessee, or Indiana. CHUCK COWDERY:<i>
The people who settled
in Kentucky were distillers,</i> they came here to plant grain,
they found that the grain
that grew the best was corn. So they were immediately
distilling from corn which was not unheard of,
but not that common. The Scotch/Irish came here
because Patrick Henry, Governor of Virginia...
First Governor of Virginia, was giving away free land. And he just happened to set
court houses up
inside the lime stone shelf, two of the three of them. <i> So the people settled
around the court houses
because that was easy,</i> and lo and behold,
what they found was
they were making better whiskey here
in Kentucky using corn than they were
with rye back
in Pennsylvania. Sometimes, when their
other crops weren't unable
to sell, or they had excess corn
or whatever the situation
might've been, producing Bourbon, or spirits,
might have been a lifesaver
for those folks. Historians say certainly
in the very first year, the settlement of Harrisburg,
whiskey was being produced
because it was vital to society, it was medicine,
it was exchange, it was keeping
grain from spoiling, it was just part of life. VEACH:<i>
As people expanded west,</i> they brought with
them everything they needed. And this included stills. MAN:<i> The still was one of
the most tangible
pieces of real estate</i> <i> these families owned, it was
the something that
the first son would inherit.</i> You see that in deeds
and you see it in wills. But if you grow corn,
especially in a frontier
environment, <i> you're limited to
the number of things
you can do with it.</i> <i> And distilling it
was one of them,</i> <i> and distilling it was good,
because it preserved it
and so and so forth.</i> Even though corn's
harder to work with
than these other grains, took a lot of perseverance
to distill from corn. You know, the frontier life
was a very harsh one. <i> It was working from
sunup to sundown.</i> Clearing fields, planting
fields, harvesting fields, taking care of livestock,
slaughtering livestock, <i> building fence rows.</i> <i> Whatever it took,
you work from sunup
to sundown.</i> And when you got up in
the morning, you were still
sore from the previous day. <i> So what would you do?
You would start with a little
shot of whiskey</i> <i> to help ease
the aches and pains.</i> LUBBERS:<i>
Let's not forget
that George Washington</i> <i> was one of our country's
first distillers,</i> and one of the reasons he
became a distiller wasn't because he was
passionate about making whisky, but as an ex-general,
as an ex-president, when he retired
and went back
to Mount Vernon, he knew that every soldier
in the Calvary got a daily
ration of whiskey. <i> And he saw another
income stream,</i> so he hires a Scotsman
by the name of James Anderson, who makes his whiskey for him,
but he has those contracts
and he sells it. <i> Dams and bridges and canals
that are built</i> <i> all feel the same way,
you attract people
through whiskey</i> <i> and say, "This is
an incentive for you
to come here."</i> Social gatherings
were the thing. And you would gather
at your local tavern, or you would gather
at a barn raving or a cabin raving or
a wedding or a funeral and someone would
bring a jug. But the whiskey that
started being traded <i> and it was shipped
on rafts, generally</i> <i> in the spring of the year
when spring rains,</i> <i> and creaks would rise,
and they'd be able to
float it to the rafts</i> <i> down to the Ohio River.</i> Down the Ohio river,
down to the Mississippi
to New Orleans. New Orleans is
a French colony. <i>What are they drinking?
They're drinking French brandy.</i> What makes French Brandy
different from our
American whiskey? It's been aged
in charred barrels, <i> has been since the 1400s.</i> Let's age our whiskey
in charred barrels
to make it taste more like French Brandy, and when they did,
people started buying it. In some ways, that's the most
unusual thing about Bourbon,
about American whiskey. <i>It's the only type of distilled
spirit in the world</i> <i> that must be aged
only in new barrels.</i> Two Frenchmen,
come from the Armagnac
region of France, came to the United States,
in order to set up trade
with New Orleans. <i> They built a mill
and a warehouse</i> <i> at the falls
of the Ohio.</i> They had an ample opportunity
to buy whiskey cheap,
as people would unload their flatboats
into the Terrascan
brothers' warehouse and wait for the river to rise, and I think they were the ones
that actually started putting it
into charred barrels, and letting it age,
and then sending it down
to New Orleans. Which, the trip to New Orleans
itself, would aid the aging
process as the whisky would slosh
through the barrel increasing
the interaction between the oak. RUTLEDGE:<i> That was made
in Bourbon County,
Kentucky,</i> but it was a good corn whiskey,
people began to ask for this and the barrels that were going
down there had a big "B" on it
for Bourbon County. The legend has it, it's named
Bourbon because of flat boats
bringing this whiskey down from Maysville,
it had invoices
of Bourbon County. Now the problem with that
is that there was very little
legal trade, <i> and you don't invoice
your illegal trade.</i> <i> There is also the fact that
the first mention of bourbon
was not till 1821.</i> Now by the 1820s, you start
having steamboats making
the trip <i> between Pittsburgh
and New Orleans.</i> You have the steamboats making
the trip, instead of becoming
a 9-month or year-long trip to New Orleans and back. It's a 3-month trip. <i> Now, you're on
that steamboat
and you're returning home.</i> You go up
to the bartender and say, "I really like that
whisky I was drinking
in New Orleans, give me some of that whiskey
I got was drinking off of
Bourbon Street. Give me some of that
Bourbon Street whiskey
or eventually, Bourbon whiskey." The bartenders on these
steamboats are going to start
to make sure they have it, and as the steamboats ply up
and down the Ohio, Mississippi,
Missouri rivers, they're spreading
the word of bourbon. <i> Going down the Ohio river
by flatboat,</i> or even getting to
the Ohio river, you would take your flatboat
and you would put it
in the Kentucky river or the Salt River
and the Big Sandy River,
or whatever, and float it down
to the Ohio river. Then float down the Ohio river,
to the Mississippi,
and on down to New Orleans. <i> This is a long
and dangerous trip.</i> You had Native Americans
in the 1770s and '80s and '90s on both sides of the river
who were willing to remove <i> your goods and your scalp.</i> <i> 'Cause your scalp was worth
a lot of money to the British
up in Detroit.</i> But once you got
down there, you sold your goods. And you sold your flat boat,
because you weren't going to try
to row that flat boat back up the Ohio,
Mississippi rivers. <i> You had two choices,
you can catch ship
in New Orleans</i> <i> or you could walk back up
the Natchez Trace.</i> And when I say walk,
yes, you could ride a horse. As a matter of fact, legend
has it, that's where the horse
industry in Kentucky comes from, <i> is that once they made
these trips, if they were
going to come back up</i> the Natchez Trace,
they would buy the fastest
horse they could get, because once again, it was
a very dangerous trip,
because you had Native Americans and bandits willing to separate
you from your cash
and your scalp. So if you had a faster horse
than anyone else, you had
a better chance of getting away. <i> Bourbon spread on the rivers,
I don't think there's any
question.</i> It didn't go upstream
so much until later. <i> The steamboats is responsible
for spreading the bourbon
culture as anything.</i> This product got to be popular
and all of a sudden you could
start sending it up to Saint Louis or sending
it up to Minneapolis, or sending it down
to New Orleans. Without steamboats taking
our product in the 1800s
down the high river <i> to the ports in New Orleans
along the way,</i> <i> we would not have
the bourbon increases
that we did.</i> The river made Louisville
a town. Steamboat made Louisville
a city. <i> And it was the steamboat era
and steamboat technology</i> that revolutionized America,
and went into trains
and went into inner urbans. VEACH:<i>
So it was the early
highway system.</i> When you did trade,
it was much easier to float
things down these rivers than it was to try
and haul it back over
the mountains. I think a lot of the farmers
started adopting the lessons
of technology. WES HENDERSON:<i> The early guys
were limited a lot</i> <i>by the technology that
was available to them.</i> You start to see some
progression towards
innovation in terms of <i> flavors and taste profiles,
I don't mean flavorings.</i> <i> I mean flavors...</i> <i> And taste profiles
of bourbon,
and trying to do things</i> <i> a little different there.</i> <i>It's not the chemist
that come up with it, but it's
the guys who just want</i> <i> to try out something
a little different.</i> Try a different grain,
try something different, try to age it
a little differently, try it on the top. I think that that sense
of innovation has marked
that industry very, very well. During the Civil War,
the armies sought out
whiskey as medicine as they went from
distillery to distillery. The Union Army came through
Kentucky on their way to fight
major battles, fell in love with the liquid
and after the war was over, they decided they needed
some more, and they placed
orders to buy some. They were incredibly popular
pharmaceutical drugs <i>and some were patent medicines
and some were straight.</i> <i>But what we forget is that the
civil war produced something
like 400,000 morphine addicts.</i> Because they used morphine
as the only painkiller, but the only other painkiller
was whiskey. You had this post-Civil War era
America and as those folks aged
and went away, the acceptance of alcohol as
a benefit to your health... <i> There was a reason
why we say, "To your health,"
when we give a toast.</i> It is seen as a healthy thing
and was certainly seen in
those days as a cure. [GUITAR MUSIC PLAYING] VEACH:<i> Every war that
the United States has fought,
with one exception,</i> has been paid for
by a whiskey tax. You know, the Whiskey Rebellion
tax was created to pay for the Revolutionary War debts. When we went to war
with Britain again in 1812. In 1814, they brought
back the whiskey tax
in order to pay for it. It was eliminated after 1817,
it comes back in 1861
to pay for the Civil War. Anytime you get a big demand
for whiskey and it becomes
more expensive because of taxes, you see these big companies
that want to make it cheaper. And back then, they were just
making what we would call
everclear or vodka today, and adding prune juice,
cherry juice, tobacco juice, <i> iodine for color
and slappin' the word
whiskey on it.</i> I mean, it was terrible,
some of this stuff had
no age on it at all, it was just nutrigrain alcohol
with shoe polish in it, and maybe a little sorghum,
or a little bit of honey
to give it flavor. Well, that didn't sit well with
some of the distillers
in Kentucky, <i>so they got together,
they passed the Bottled-In-Bond
Act of 1897.</i> It was really the first
legislation in this country
that guaranteed the quality of a product
and set standards for
a product. It's very, very specific. <i> Not only does it have
to be a minimum of
four years old,</i> <i> it has to be exactly
100 proof in the bottle.</i> You have to list the
distillery it comes from,
and it can only come from one distillery. It must be from one season,
so it's like a vintage,
if you will. They started putting
the ingredients right on
their label, by law, and it said 50%
alcohol, 100 proof. <i>So the first Consumer
Protection legislation in the
history of the United States</i> doesn't have to do with
the safe labeling of our food, as the Pure Food and Drug
Act, nine years later
in 1906. It was about whiskey. Bourbon is responsible for
the Pure Food and Drug Act, and bourbon is responsible
for trademark and trade name
development. In fact, the brand name comes
from... <i> As Federal law, that required
the heads of barrels to be
stamped or burned</i> <i> with the brand name.</i> When they started
putting whiskey in bottles, when they started selling it
by the bottles rather than
just barrels of whiskey, that really gave a reason
to put the producer's
name on it. What was so interesting
then, the Federal government
was directly involved. They had the regaugers.
Every time you knocked
the button out of a barrel, <i> there was a guy from
the Alcohol-Tobacco tax,</i> and they were there to make sure
that none of the employees
were taking it, and that what came out
of the barrel
went into the bottling process. American whiskeys
are by far the most restricted
whiskeys in the world. You have Scotch, Irish,
Canadian, they have
restrictions, but nothing's
restricted like
American whiskey. And then you have
Bottled-in-Bond which is the most restricted
of the most restricted whiskeys in the world. I think the major players
in bourbon history, like Col. W. H. Taylor, Jr.
welcomed taxes... Right. and welcomed regulations,
so that he could set
his bourbon apart from the rectifiers. So they finally had
to say, this is what
bourbon is. And that's when they
defined it to be 51% corn. It has to be distilled no higher
than 160 proof,
it can't be put in the barrel any higher than 120. This had a huge effect
on the straight whisky industry
up to prohibition. Prohibition is a peculiarly
American experience, and they did refer to it
then and still do
as the noble experiment. American was undergoing
a huge, cultural change at the end of the 19th century into the early 20th century. Population centers were moving
from rural America
to urban America. And the people
who-- The abolitionists, and woman's suffrage movement
and the prohibition movement
were all the same movement. It was all the same people and just started advocating
for each thing in turn. What changed and really brought
about this was when they shift
the emphasis from drinking alcohol
to the saloon. From the 19th century,
to the Industrial Revolution,
when people were going
into factories, and right outside every factory
was a street full of saloons, <i>where they would all go on
lunch hour and all of those
saloons gave free lunches.</i> They would have a buffet,
and sometimes, very good, and the food was all free, but you had to pay
for the liquor. Now the belief at the time,
which to some extent was true,
was that the typical laborer or the typical working man
would basically drink and gamble
all of his earnings and nothing ever
got home to the family. This lead to a lot of backlash
against the saloon. <i> The Anti-Saloon League
was saying</i> <i> saloons were dens of evil
where not only drinking</i> <i> but gambling
and prostitution
were going on.</i> But the real reason
for not liking the saloons
was more political than anything. You had these images
coming out of the cities of
corrupt Irish saloons, that are running
political machines. <i>And German beer gardens
on Sunday afternoons, where
people got out and drank beer,</i> <i> they weren't home
praying,</i> <i> they were playing music
and singing, having fun on
a Sunday afternoon.</i> There was a prohibition party,
a political party. And for 70 years,
they were the third
largest political party <i> in America.</i> The moment just keep growing
and growing and it became
politically, especially in rural communities,
it became politically smart
to identify yourself with the prohibition party. <i> They began to take over
a lot of states,</i> <i> and most of the South,
before prohibition,</i> most of the southern states
were already dry. Prohibition was voted in
in Maine, in the 1840s, and then back out
and then back in, and it would go into
different states and it may
last ten years and go out. When the bill came up to vote,
it was nowhere near close.
It was 171 to 34 in favor of prohibition. <i> Kentucky was the third state
to ratify the amendment.</i> We were already--
105 of 120 counties
were already dry. Prohibition passes in
a record quick amount of time
and the nation goes dry. The city lost over
8,000 jobs, the next day
in the newspaper, <i> there were
25 distilleries closed.</i> It was roughly 2,000 folks.
There was 1,000 people
worked in the cooperages. They lost their work,
they lost about
a dozen breweries. Prohibition really hurt
the industry, because
you had basically 15 years where there
was not any production. But then, like
local advertising agencies, <i> people who printed
the labels,</i> all of those jobs
you don't associate... Along with half the crews
on the steamboat, and roughly a third of
the crews that worked
on the trains. That's what we shipped. Prohibition was very hard
to enforce. <i>If you had a basement load
of whiskey before prohibition,</i> <i> there was nothing
anybody could do about it.</i> You could drink everyday,
there was nothing illegal
about drinking alcohol. A lot of people think
that it was illegal
to drink, but it was not. <i> It was illegal for us
as manufacturers
to manufacture,</i> sell or transport
alcoholic beverages. It was legal though
if you owned whiskey
or liquor before prohibition,
you could still drink that all through prohibition. Plus whiskey was still
a very important part
of the pharmaceuticals <i> of the day.</i> <i> But you could buy
medicinal whiskey.</i> Speakeasies kind of pushed
those laws and pushed
everything, because it's like,
"Okay, if it's legal
to drink, I can have friends over
to this location,
to my house, and I can have
people drink." Oh, well, the speakeasies
were... In some cases, they were, saloons closed
the door one day and
the next day they reopened. <i> You would go there,
you wouldn't just
invite anybody in.</i> <i> So many times,
they had a little
peep hole</i> <i> or a little trap door,
and you had to check
if somebody had</i> the right password
or knew somebody before, because they
didn't want the government
agents to come in and shut them down. A lot of times
it was a fiction. A lot of times,
everybody knew there
was a bar there. LUBBERS:<i>
If they had a bunch
of bottles behind the bar,</i> and it looked like
they were selling it, they had shelves that would
drop down and all that
would disappear. So all the evidence
was gone and if you
stood there with a drink in your hand,
that's not against the law, "I just had a couple
of friends over." You know, there were
studies that say that
people actually increased the amount
of alcohol they drank
during prohibition. There were more speakeasies
than there were bars
before prohibition in New York. But that was part
of the appeal. I think that was part
of the attraction. <i> I think people enjoyed
breaking the law.</i> VEACH:<i>
Prohibition could
not have happened</i> <i> if they had not passed
the Income Tax Amendment.</i> Because before
the income tax, the whiskey tax was paying
for about half of the Federal
budget. Very few of the local police
officials or courts really
believed in prohibition, <i> and they enforced it
as loosely as possible.</i> But it was a Federal institution
and so you had Federal agents
coming down often, if not in opposition
to the local cops, they weren't getting
much cooperation. Mayor LaGuardia,
he was never for
the prohibition law. So he didn't tell
his local police and all that, <i> he said,
"Don't bother anybody."</i> And so not every
government official
was behind this law. So, it must've been
an unbelievable time. The government decided
they needed to maintain, they used this term,
"Strategic reserve of whiskey
in the country." <i> And in 1921, there
were about 60 million
gallons put back in reserve,</i> <i> in barrels.</i> By 1927, the strategic
reserve had gotten down
to about 17 million barrels, they had drawn out
that much. And the government
realized if we didn't
start replacing it, then we were going
to be out of it in four years. So they issued,
I think it was originally ten,
that got consolidated down into seven
distilling licenses
in America. <i> And these were legal,
they go back into operation.</i> <i> Of the seven companies,
six were located
in Louisville.</i> AL YOUNG:<i> We sold whiskey under
the Four Roses label
during prohibition,</i> which kind of provided
a good segue into becoming
a powerhouse bourbon after the repeal of prohibition. When it comes back
to being legal in 1933, bourbon whiskey's
an aged spirit, you can't just,
okay, it's legal now,
we'll start making it and selling it. It takes four years, to get a good, aged
product out there. <i> So it takes a lot
of effort for the bourbon
to even get re-established</i> <i> at the end
of prohibition.</i> And just about the time
they're beginning to do that, the Second World War
comes along and you have
war time prohibition, because the industry
had to make alcohol
for the war. The bourbon distilleries in
World War II, they were required
to start making alcohol for the production
of neoprene, for rubber. And they all put in
distillation columns to do that, so they were limited
on the amount of bourbon
they could make versus the amount
of alcohol they had
to make for the war effort. 1941, we get
into World War II. <i> Folks, we need you
to make high proof
alcohol</i> <i> to make smokeless gunpowder
and different synthetics
for the war effort.</i> So they do that,
they get the contracts
from the government to make high proof alcohol to do that,
so they did their part
even though, they didn't get paid for that,
they could've made more whiskey
and made more money selling the whiskey
that they sold. But they did what everybody
did during World War II,
you did that. GREGORY:<i> Every time there's
been a war, we've turned to the
alcohol and spirits industry</i> <i> to help fund that war.</i> Every chapter from the whiskey
rebellion to the prohibition and here it is,
70-80 years later, and we're still talking
about prohibition, it was such
a fascinating chapter <i> in our history that Kim Burns
is doing documentaries on it.</i> <i> Who'd have ever thunk it?</i> But after prohibition, was the industrialization
of the bourbon and the whiskey
industry where... <i> You had to have a lot
of capital to come in</i> and open a distillery
from scratch or to bring one
back from being mothballed. Now you throw on top
of this the late '60s
or early '70s, a generation that said
we're not gonna trust
anyone over 30, <i> and we're not gonna drink
what our parents drink</i> <i> which was whiskey.</i> They started experimenting
with products such as vodka
and tequila. Vodka and gin and rum
and blended whiskeys, they were the dominant
players of the day. And they're a lighter style. So the bourbon distilleries
got together and say,
"Well, if people want <i> lighter styles, we're going
to make our product lighter."</i> <i> So they take it
from the Bottled-in-Bond's,
of the 100 proof,</i> and they lower it to 86 proof. Almost every whiskey
you see back then and straight whiskeys
says 86 proof. And, to this day,
when you kill something, and it killed that segment
of the bourbon straight
whiskey. When you kill something
or do away with it,
you've 86'd it. JULIAN VAN WINKLE:<i> And one the
favorite things we like to tell
people is that...</i> People say, "Why don't you
bottle it at 90 proof or 86 proof, like all
the other distilleries?" They said, "Why ship
all that water all over
the country?" So, he'd come up
with stuff like that
which would be a lot of fun... The American public
now had choices. They didn't just have
to drink whiskey. Bourbon was strong
up till the early '70s. You young people
come along, you started drinking
that white goods, your gins and vodkas
and things like it. And a lot of the bourbon
distilleries hurt their
sales at that time. Things start declining
and it gets really bad by the mid 1980s. Light was better,
everything light. This healthy lifestyle,
but light, light, light. And it's only
in the end of the 1980s into the 1990s that you start seeing
products such as single barrel, <i> malt batch, extra aged
products.</i> <i> Creating interest</i> <i> in whiskey again,</i> and the market's starting
to level off. And we see something
I had thought was gone,
cigars came back, <i> cigar festivals,
big smokes.</i> <i>Steak houses were established.
Now we had a number of
wonderful steakhouse chains</i> across the country. Red wine became popular,
craft beer show up. Single malt scotch.
All of a sudden Americans
are drinking, eating, smoking big,
rich flavor. And that begins
an interest in the return
to bourbon, because bourbon
is rich, elegant, big
compared to the light. What lead to this boom
is that it's a boom
only because it went so low. There had to be
a transformation, there had to be a modern age
of bourbon, or it was not going
to survive. So it's really...
it's two
different phases, there's the birth
and there's the rebirth. [COUNTRY MUSIC PLAYING] RUTLEDGE:<i>
The thing that began to turn
our industry around,</i> back in the mid-late '80s,
early '90s was the introduction
of premium bourbons. And the focus on premium
bourbons, premium single barrel
bourbons, <i> premium small batch.</i> We as an industry
really didn't do
that much different, began to point out
and showcase how good
we were with these premiums. Elmer knew about Albert Blanton going into
the warehouse and selecting single barrels
for parties and, you know, special guests
and things like that. And that concept, the idea
is really what started premium bourbon
selections. I think it was just
kind of waiting to happen, um, I'm guessing that
we've taken some
of the single malt market, those drinkers and pushed 'em
over to our side, or they enjoyed
both of 'em now. You know, the only thing
I can do is go back to that
congressional resolution in 1964, and say that as
a result of that and being a distinctive
product of the United States, bourbon could be made
anywhere in the Untied States. <i> And now, you've got
distilleries springing up
throughout the country.</i> When I started, basically
it was a southern gentleman's
drink. Men got off work
in the afternoon down south, went to their favorite bars, they got their cigars
and cards and went
to the backroom and started playing cards. Now, it's become a worldwide
drink and the ladies really got
big into bourbon business now all over the world. I think what happened in the last 10, 15, 20 years
has been that a generation
came up that didn't know
they weren't supposed
to drink bourbon. It seems like
there's a lot of younger people consuming bourbon,
where it used to be kind
of an older... Old man's drink. Bourbon is not just being
consumed by 55 plus, you know, folks that
are 55 years or older, which is the age
of the general demographic. We're seeing folks
down in their 30s
and middle 20s or whatever that are enjoying
bourbon as well, so the reach of our demographic
is expanding. Social media and the ability
to communicate so easily, globally, and for somebody
in Japan know of what we're
talking about here. There were bulletin boards
on AOL, on CompuServe
and, you know, those services that also
had a lot of bourbon content. So the Internet's
been very important in terms of people
being able to communicate
with other enthusiasts. There's a desire for
a return to tradition, authenticity and craft. <i> And I think bourbon
really represents that.</i> People are looking for,
you know, extra aged, different proofs, the stories
that are behind these products. Education, I think,
is what's made bourbon grow, and people are not scared
of bourbon anymore. I think people who have...
Have gotten into it, have gotten into it
for the same reasons I did. A fascination with
the culture, the history. I really do think the...
The reason bourbon sales
are continuing to grow is because the customers
are demanding quality. <i> When they go out and spend
their hard-earned money,</i> <i> they've got a $20 bill
in their pocket,</i> what is the best-quality spirit
they can for their $20? I think it's how you, as an
individual, feel about the
flavor as you taste it is what makes bourbon so unique. No bourbon is better
than another bourbon. Some bourbon is...
Are just simply more expensive because less is produced. So, be thoughtful of that
when you're drinking it. The bottle that costs you $10
can sometimes just be <i> as memorable as the one
that costs you $1,200.</i> There are so many factors
that have really come together here
that have made bourbon
where it is now. <i> The cocktail culture
is certainly one of them.</i> MORRIS:<i>
As this mixology culture,
this bartending culture</i> <i> is spreading to Europe,</i> where they didn't
make cocktails, now they're starting to
in France and Germany, certainly Great Britain has
really embraced the cocktail, and again,
you make cocktails with bourbon. The taste is in,
uh, thanks not only to
the distillers, but thanks to the...
The regional chefs <i> that we have
around the country.</i> <i> The reemergence
of the cocktail culture,</i> <i>much of that utilizes bourbon.</i> Then there's the fact
that bourbon tastes better
than it used to taste. <i>Mad Men</i> has been credited
both with the cocktail revival and with the American
whiskey revival, since so many
of those cocktails where made
with bourbon and rye. Cocktails, bars, I mean,
it's just kind of like fashion. It's a...
It's a revolving scene. <i> We had kinda gotten away
from the idea of</i> <i> a lot of
great-tasting cocktails</i> <i>in the 70s, 80s and early 90s.</i> <i> People just were kinda
ordering a lot of
the same old boring things,</i> and, you know, with mid-2000s
bars of the New York and Chicago and San Francisco opening up
and starting to do the kind of speakeasy style...
Style of cocktail, you know,
started to educated people of what's actually out there, and, you know, the whole rebirth
of the cocktail culture. <i> It's been a great thing
for the industry.</i> JARED SCHUBERT:<i>
It's really nice that
the bartenders, especially,</i> <i> the working class people
in the restaurant industry</i> have attached themselves to,
what I believe, is a working class product <i> and brought it, really,
back to the forefront</i> <i> of being really
incredible whiskeys.</i> It's not just
for an older palate. Young... Young people
enjoy bourbon, and they're drinking it
neat and straight and... Some... And, obviously, cocktails also, but, uh, lot of people
that start drinking bourbon, you know, they're not just
mixing it with Coca-Cola
or whatever. They're having it on some ice or just putting it
in a cocktail.
So, it's a good cocktail. The old-fashioned, for example,
has become a drink of choice of the next generation
from what I've heard. Uh, and it started
originally at Pendennis Club
here in Louisville. When you go to a bar,
you've got a creative bartender that wants to make
a good cocktail for you
so you'll come back to his bar. He's not gonna give you
an inferior spirit. At least, he shouldn't
if he wants you to come back. I think it's kinda funny
and foreign, almost,
the bartenders around here. 'Cause we're used to...
Just drinking it
with a shot and a beer and, you know,
maybe an old fashioned
or a Manhattan, but not getting too...
Too busy with
the cocktails we make. You know, we really enjoy it
in the pure form. That's why we're seeing
this huge surge in visitorship. We've... We're hosting
twice as many visitors this year as we did five years ago. <i> And we believe
that five years from now,</i> <i> it will double again.</i> And that energizing,
it's a hell of a lot of work. But when you get
to do work better
than it's ever been done before, <i> and when you get
to connect with people</i> <i> that are so energized
by what we do,</i> that's pretty inspiring. But now, it's gained
such momentum with... With things like <i> the Bourbon Trail
and the bourbon festivals.</i> In 1999, the distilleries
were looking at ways
to promote Kentucky bourbon <i> because we had just come off
of the immediate downturn,</i> <i> and we were trying
to start ramping up</i> <i> the single barrels,
the small batches.</i> <i> They looked to see
what was going on
in California wine country</i> and Scotland
with the Whisky Trail, and, so, you know,
we've got this great number
of distilleries right here within a few miles of each other
in Central Kentucky. Why don't we create
a tourism experience
around that? So, the Kentucky Bourbon Trail
was born that year. This whole Bourbon Trail, I think it's caught
people by surprise. I mean, we're talking
something, like, 700,000
visitors a year, and... And just here,
during the Speakeasy Programme, the people that
I have come through, who are doing all eight
or nine of the stops now. It's takes three or four days.
You don't just, uh, you know... They're not located
all side-to-side. They're all over
the simple part of the state
and here in Louisville now. And now, you know,
15 years later, we're getting 600,000, 700,000,
800,000 visitors a year, and it's, truly, one of
the hottest tourist attractions
in the country. I think the
Kentucky Distillers' Association
and the Bourbon Trail have had a huge impact economically <i> on a lot of areas
because of the distilleries
as they build visitor centers</i> <i> and hire people to work
in those visitor centers.</i> The Kentucky
Distillers' Association
is a non-profit trade group that was actually found in 1880, when about 32 distilleries
got together, uh, and pretty much decided
they're tired of paying taxes, or, at least, higher taxes. So, they met
at Louisville Golf House
and formed a trade association and have been
working together ever since. They help with...
With many things. They help with the lobbying
and all that... The business of the...
Of... Of the business. The programs that
we have put in place as an organization
to market our category, specifically the
Kentucky Bourbon Trail, the Passport Program
have been invaluable to the success of our industry. And we're coordinated
and work together
to make the pie bigger. To promote bourbon tourism, to promote the defining elements
of Kentucky's culture, which bourbon's
a big part of that. Of course,
the individual brand companies
are responsible for themselves. We're responsible to promote
and grow with reserve. But having a partner like the
Kentucky Distillers' Association certainly makes it a lot easier in some aspects
of this modern world. Bourbon's a
tremendous investment
for the Commonwealth of Kentucky because the spin-off factor
is so high. <i> Just a couple of years ago,
for every bourbon job
that was created,</i> <i> another three jobs
were created down the line.</i> <i> That's cooperage,
or trucking, hospitality,</i> <i> a whole number of industries
that have now</i> <i> kind of become niche markets
for the bourbon industry.</i> COFFMAN:<i> It supports
almost 16,000 people
in the state of Kentucky.</i> This is from farming industry,
transportation, logistics, storage, packaging,
labeling, manufacturing, <i> just your operators,</i> <i> from fermentation
into distillation.</i> So, it's really turned in
quite a big driving force. It's the people
who serve it in the bars and the people
who are driving the bus that takes you
to the distilleries
when you buy that tour. All these industries
are coming to Kentucky and it's having
an incredible impact, especially in
the local communities, where you've got
locally-sourced grains now,
farmer's impact. <i> You've got, you know,
some distilleries</i> <i> even growing their own
multi, barley, rye...</i> Another distillery
is talking about setting up cows and having cattle
as a side business. So... Yeah, it's a great investment
for the Commonwealth. We spend a lot of time
developing relationships
with the farmers, you know, on a day-to-day basis. So, we... We, actually,
go visit these farms, we talk to these guys
that are growing corn for us. That's what you do,
you stick with your partner. I mean, like,
the folks at Independent Stave, they've been making barrels
for 100 years. DeMossville family,
they've been connected with us here at Beam for all that time, and, you know,
they make a good barrel.
We use their barrels. Their barrels
make our product what it is, we know when
them trucks come in
with their barrels. We don't have
to worry about the barrels. That's the least of our worries.
Same way with Vendome. There's one company in Kentucky,
Vendome Copper & Brass Works,
very well know in the spirits and the brewing industry
for their copper-works. NOE:<i> Yeah, they've
been the still,</i> <i> that's the backbone
of the distillery.</i> <i> I mean, that's where
you take the beer
running through that</i> <i>and turns it into the white dog</i> <i>and then separates the alcohol
from the... The beer.</i> If you want to buy a still,
you want to buy from people who've built
the largest stills in the world <i>for the largest
and most successful
bourbon companies in the world.</i> They make very big stills,
72-inch diameter, columns all the way down
to small 50 gallon pot stills. HARLEN WHEATLEY:<i> They've built
a couple of our stills,</i> <i> they're one of the best.
They've got a lot of history.</i> It's kind of the same thing.
They've got a lot of history
and legacy in the business. <i>They've got a lot of expertise
and they do a pretty good job.</i> NOE:<i> You got a problem
with your still,
you talk to them</i> <i>and they help you work it out.</i> They... They know their stills. You know what you're getting
when you go to a group like
Vendome Copper & Brass Works. They're extremely
important players, and they are respected
all over the world, uh, for what they do
and they are the best
at what they do. Uh, they've really come into
a very niche market. On the craft side, it's really
a booming enterprise right now. About ten years ago,
we started to see a... Just a little hint
of these micro distilleries, these craft distilleries
start now. And, um, while at that time,
we didn't quite know
where that might lead to, we... We thought that
there might be a little bit
something there and, sure enough, you know,
probably, you know, five years ago or so,
it really started hitting me. And I think
the craft distilleries
here have thrived because the
bigger distilleries are here...
and vice versa. I think that a lot of people
have just got into
the bourbon business, with all these craft distillers. And I don't know how many
are gonna be around in
5 or 10 years, but it's a great fun business
to get into, but it does take
deep pockets if you're gonna put whiskey down
for years and years and years. GREGORY:<i> The craft guys will
tell you, I would hope and
I believe they would tell you,</i> that the industry has
embraced them and done
everything they can to make sure they survive. This session,
the big distilleries
were helping us get a bill passed to reduce
the craft licence fee. So that craft distilleries
didn't have to pay as much
as they did. 'Cause $3,000 a year is what
the distillery license is
in Kentucky. And that may be nothing
to Jim Beam, but that's a whole of money
to somebody just starting up. When they can spend that on corn, or advertising,
or brand building
or something like that. STEVEN BESHEAR:<i>
And we've created a tour
similar to the bourbon tour,</i> and the bourbon trail
for the smaller
craft distilleries, and it is now taking off,
and it is starting
to attract a lot of visitors into our state. The small distillers,
the micro distillers have not
made a dent in volume. They're still so small that
the volume that they contribute
is meaningless. But in terms of the sheer buying <i>they've been hugely important.</i> <i>But each of them
must think they have something
recommendable.</i> So, I think that these people
that do this have all got to be
fairly adventuresome and believe
they're gonna produce something that's superior to other
149 brands. Most of the craft distilleries
that started here
by 2010 or 2011, are now on their first
or even second expansion phase. So, they're doing
something right. It's also a good pressure valve, especially from
a tourism standpoint
for the bigger distilleries. Because now if you go
to a big distillery and there's an hour
or two hour wait, there's probably a good chance
that there's a craft distillery
withing 10 or 15 miles away that they can go visit
and then come back and visit
the bigger distilleries. So, the craft distillery
gets the benefit, and you don't have angry people
waiting around a big distillery
trying to get in to a tour. They're selling very
small volumes but they've made
a huge difference in terms of what people
are talking about, what people
are thinking about, what people are buying
and tasting and trying. What they're seeing
when they go into the stores. So suddenly, there's
a lot more excitement about... about the category. It's gonna be a great supplement and support for
the bigger distilleries, and it all goes together.
And they're all
working together. That's what's so great here,
is that they all realize,
both large and small, that they're success
depends upon
all of them promoting what is great about Kentucky
and that is Kentucky Bourbon. I don't think there's
any other industry in the world where competitors within
the market
are such close friends. Truly, not because somebody's
talking to us, or we're in front
of a camera. Not another business in this
world that can come close to
the camaraderie shared by, not just within a distillery,
within a plant,
but within our industry. It amazes people how
the bourbon guys
we're always together, <i>giving each other a hard time,
or sneaking up trying to</i> <i> pull somebody's ear or
do something. Jimmy Russell's
always sneaking up on me,</i> grabbin' hold of my ear,
telling me,
"Straighten up, boy!" If you ever go to the bourbon
festival in Bardstown,
Kentucky, in September, <i> you'll see how close the
all of us are,
and how we work together.</i> We do anything we can
to help each other out. The need for bonding,
the need for co-operation, is very important because
you all have to watch
each other's back. The sales guys,
they're pretty competitive, but the distillers,
we're all buddies. We have a lot of fun,
we enjoy being with each other, and would do anything
in the world for each other. Most of the big guys,
they open up their arms and say,
"Come on, guys be part of it." And, we want you to succeed
just like we've succeeded. If anything in the world
went wrong in distillation, or if a distillery lost
a pump or a motor,
and if we had it, we'd lend to them
in a heartbeat,
just to keep running. I mean, I wouldn't hesitate
to call Makers' Mark
and ask them a question. <i> Or talk with Chris Morris
over at Woodford Reserve
or anybody.</i> And if they needed
a piece of equipment
for example, and we had it and we can
spare it, we'd loan to them,
never ask a question about it. In 1996, we had a catastrophic
fire that destroyed...
The heat lighting <i> struck one of the rickhouses,</i> <i>and there happened to be
70 mile an hour winds that day</i> and it spread from
rickhouse to rickhouse,
and by the end of the day, there were seven warehouses
on fire. They lost seven warehouses, and the first thing we all did,
the other seven distillers... Let is know what you need,
how we can help, 'cause it put
a big hole in their inventory. Our distilleries burned down,
we gotta make whiskey tomorrow, we got employees,
we got people with families,
with kids. We wanna make whiskey for them
but we lost 100,000 barrels. We all stepped up,
to them 'em, immediately. <i>We were making bourbon for 'em.</i> <i> Selling barrels,
doing whatever we can do
to help 'em.</i> We made our whiskey
on their stills for three years until we got our new facility
in Littleville, Kentucky. I think everyone one of us feel we are all in the same boat.
We're producing
an American spirit that, we should be proud of that,
and everybody gets along
really well. Well, you know, we all
know each other. We've known
each other for years. Lot of us have been
in the business a long time. When we add a new distillery
to the Kentucky Bourbon Trail, we just did that with
Stitzel-Weller. The historic
Stitzel-Weller's removal, and there at the announcement, you had representatives from
every distillery there
cheering them on. Where else you're see that
in any other industry? That your competitors are there
congratulating you,
applauding you for success. We're on the same team, and
we help each other and in turn, the whole industry benefits
because of that. I had no idea how friendly
these guys were to each other. And, you get the
master distillers
in a room together, you better get the waiters on
pretty deep, 'cause they start
cutting on each other
and kiddin' on each other, it could be stand-up comedy.
It really could. I think that the producers,
especially at that level, <i> the family members,
we get along real well.</i> We even have a secret handshake,
I can't tell you about it, but we have a lot of stuff
in common. Kentucky is based on family. Families are very important here
and families are
very strong here. There were lot of families
out there that were involved
in the industry, that played an important role
in the industry. The Browns, the Wathens,
the Medleys, the Beams,
the Dans, the Van Winkles. BESHEAR:<i> The families that
started the different types
of distilleries,</i> <i> a lot of them are still in
the same hands.</i> Or, there are still
family members working there. We got or grandson or "itty" son
here with us now. Bruce just started to work
for us just now, so, he'll be the fourth generation
of the Russell's <i> working here at
The Wild Turkey Distillery.</i> It does seem to be
a generational thing
for those established and older distilleries.
And even for those that are new, they tend to be branches of
those older families. Some people say that
The Bourbon Family Tree
grown straight up. BESHEAR:<i> You will have fathers,
grandfathers,
even great-grandfathers</i> <i> working and have worked
at the same distillery
over the years.</i> <i> It is a big family business
and it is a big family.</i> STEPHEN:<i>
We started this and we now</i> <i>can hand the opportunity down
to the next generation.</i> Something that I did not have. That I had to start this
to be able to hand it off. I'm really proud of that, and I'm happy to do that,
and I hope that they will continue,
not just my footsteps, but <i> many footsteps before us.</i> Beams are the
prominent ones now, because they're the ones
that seemed to have survived
mostly. There were Beams in almost
every distillery in Kentucky. <i> They had been a family that
had developed the art,
figured it out.</i> They would go from
distillery to distillery,
and that's kinda like a journeyman
or a master distiller who would and solve problems
for people. We have my great-grandfather
and my grandfather's notes
and recipes. <i> So, I've studied those,</i> see how that works with
modern techniques. <i>It's been a learning experience
for me.</i> The entire industry
used to be family tradition, hand me down from grandfather to to his son, to his son,
to his son... pass it on down
through family history and learning the process
by route. I really feel, making whiskey,
making bourbon, making rye, <i> all these are an art.</i> It's your impression on
the product that
you want to taste... The product that you want
coming off is the taste
that you're striving for. WHEATLEY:<i> Some distilleries
basically use a master
distiller in public relations,</i> but at Buffalo Trace,
we're a little bit
more traditional. We do... a little bit of everything. I'm responsible for
production of the whiskeys, and anything distilled. Today's master distillers
are rockstars. Which harkens back
to James Pepper, and Colonel Taylor. And some of
the earlier distillers. As a prerequisite,
we're generally old. It takes a while to get here,
you can't go to school to learn to be a distiller. The sheer amount
of technical know how, that is required
it's really stunning. They deserve what they get
because they're putting out... It's a volatile product. It's a combination
of science and art. It's the art, I guess,
that I love the best. <i> That's learning
to use the senses.</i> <i> The sight and smell,
and taste and touch, and...</i> to smell and taste, knowing if something
is going to be right or not. Perhaps a problem
with something. A distiller is interested
in making it continually
consistent in flavor and quality, and ...in public acceptance. When something
goes a little astray... Not sure quite what
it is in fermentation... A particular fermentation
problem. We can... Easier to figure it
out, and what caused it, how it happened, and prevent it
from happening again, or, at least,
if it happens again, we know how
to get out of it. It's interesting that
they have applied massive modern
technological advances <i> to what was
traditionally a craft.</i> But if you ever
get a chance to go down to our plant at
Bernheim down on 17th Street, <i> go in the control room.
You'll think you're in NASA.</i> <i>It's highly controlled and it's
a major manufacturing
operation.</i> With this kind of...
this romantic image that we have of it being
a rural product but, in fact, when
you see it being... You know, really run...
When you see... When they really run it,
it's impressive. [GUITAR MUSIC PLAYING] COFFMAN:<i> Probably your biggest
hurdle you're going to have</i> <i> to get into the business</i> is the capital expenditure
you have to put out. It's very capital-intensive. There are definitely a lot of barriers to entry
in this business. Not just economic barriers, but getting distribution
is not always easy. <i> Getting the funding
or the financing</i> <i> to build the distillery
is not easy.</i> Not everybody can understand
the dynamics there. You're going to wait two,
three, four, eight years before you start seeing
any money come back. You're not for sure
how that thing is going to turn out
four years from now. So you've got to have
a tremendous amount of confidence,
you know, in your own production,
or if you're starting out using contract production,
and you're curating barrels, you've got to know
what you're doing there. Because the end result
can be disastrous if you don't know
what you're doing. These are not just "Make it
today, sell it tonight" vodka. This is... We have to...
This is 10 years old. This is four years old. We have
to think about this stuff. RUTLEDGE:<i>
Long-range planning...</i> <i> better words for it
is "long-range guessing."</i> And it's a bet...
I'm not even sure if the term "educated
guess" is good. A lot of this
business is luck. It just kinda happens,
and the way it happens... There's nothing very scientific
or planned about it. All this whiskey's got to age.
And so everyone is
looking four, five, six, seven years down the road, and trying to figure
out, you know, how much they need
that far down the road. I mean, that's a tough job. A lot of people make
four-year-old bourbon. And we make also
a four-year-old bourbon. But, still, that's four years
from now. You have to, you know, project the sales
and what your plans are. STEPHEN:<i> We only can make
a very limited amount.</i> So I know that, no matter
what I make, there'll be a demand for it. It's a crap shoot, knowing what
to make the most of. It's an educated guess. But right now there's
no way to guess that big. I mean, there's no
capabilities... We're running our
distilleries wide open. All we can get out,
get in the barrel. We've already made
our bourbon for 2037. So you say, six, eight, ten. I tend to go six, eight,
10, 15, 20 and 23. So I've already looked at 2038, and what we need for 2038. But the ageing factor, I mean, yeah, if you knew
that rye was gonna be this... I mean, we always
made rye whiskey, <i>but not a lot of it,
because it wasn't a big seller.</i> But, like, overnight,
all of a sudden, rye whiskey's
the hottest thing going. We've got some,
but we don't have as much as we could sell
if we had more. If we'd have known
Kentucky bourbon was going to sell
as much as it is, and become as popular
as it is today, we'd have made a heck
of a lot more of it six, eight, 10 years ago. It's either going to be
too much or too little. You're not gonna
be right on the money. You know, that's not
the way that works, so... So you have to make
adjustments along the way. <i> This year we made so many
barrels for 2037.</i> <i> And as we go, we'll
kind of follow the trend</i> and monitor it, and see
how things go. You know, for
the next 23 years. You're kind of looking
into your crystal ball, and trying to keep
up with demand, and nobody saw
the spike in demand. You can figure a slight
demand increase... When you're getting
spikes of 25, 30, 40% a year on products, there's no way
to calculate that. If you were that smart, you ought to go
buy Powerball tickets. One of the things
from year to year, you always want if you're
going to have enough corn, and then the price of corn... I've seen it be
as low as a dollar and a half to as high as 8 dollars
and a half a bushel. So then there's
been years of drought. Then you wonder how you have
to go out and hustle a bit more, trying to find the corn,
and not only that, but the quality of corn. If we want something
really good in a bottle, we're fighting a battle, an uphill battle
that can't be won unless we start off with
the best raw materials. The only speed bumps
typically you'd have with any kind
of distillation system is going through
the bureaucratic hoops that you have
to sometimes, both with the Alcohol, Tobacco
and Tax Trade Bureau <i> or the state.</i> DAVID FLOYD:<i>
I submitted a request
to the LRC,</i> <i>Legislative Research
Commission,</i> <i> that we form
a Bourbon Trail Caucus,</i> made up of members
in the legislature, Senate and House, who were... who represented a county where bourbon was produced. <i> The Bourbon Trail Caucus
was formed specifically</i> to advance the Bourbon
industry in Kentucky in as many ways as possible. It's been a great partnership
with founding families of the industry
and the companies that are partnered with them. You're not going to find
a better corporate citizen in Kentucky than a bourbon
distillery, quite honestly. I do a lot
of charitable events. Eddie does a lot
of charitable events. Anything we could do
to help out any community, and charitable events
and all, we'll do that. It gives us a great feeling
to be able to donate something to charity and give back
to the communities. Brown-Forman gives
millions of dollars every year <i> to the arts community
in Kentucky.</i> Nobody has done more
than Bill Samuels for education. He raises money
for education efforts and the Heart Association,
everything else. It's not just about bourbon. It's about trying to give back
to the commonwealth which has been
so good to all of us. Heaven Hill, Four Roses,
all of them. It's fantastic. I mean,
they really and truly care about Kentucky. They have continued to hire and
we have doubled that workforce <i> just in the last two years.</i> GREGORY:<i> That means more jobs
and more tax revenue</i> <i> coming back in Kentucky,</i> which means more corn purchased
by local farmers, which means more money
for education, which means more
good-paying jobs here. And just, you know,
keep that path flowing. The average salary is $90,000,
or a little more than $90,000 a year,
and that's a great salary for anybody raising a family. JAMES KAY:<i>
And I think that lawmakers
across the state,</i> <i> even those
in conservative areas,</i> <i> are welcome to the aspect
of us growing this industry,</i> and building bourbon
as not only something that's part of our heritage, but something that is going to
be a strong part of our future, and particularly
our economic future. I think that's because
more and more legislators, despite the constituents
they have, are coming to understand
that bourbon is the signature industry
for Kentucky. I think that everybody
in every part of Kentucky recognizes the importance of having
a strong bourbon industry and our laws reflecting that. We generate a whole lot
of money in tax revenue. About 60% of every
bottle of bourbon goes to taxes and fees
of some kind. There are seven different taxes
on every bottle before it even
reaches your lips. And two of them are what's
called the "ad valorem" tax. <i> We call it the "barrel tax"
here in Kentucky.</i> <i> For every year
that a barrel of bourbon</i> <i> is ageing in a warehouse,
it's taxed.</i> Part of the reason why
an 18-year-old bottle of, let's just say, Elijah Craig
is more expensive is because
it's been taxed 18 times while the product evaporates. You know, so we pay a lot
of money in tax revenue. Kentucky, unfortunately,
is one of the most heavily taxed liquor taxes
in the country. The... The taxes that we
pay on those ageing barrels almost overwhelmingly go back
to fund local education, and that's $12-$14 million
a year and growing, 'cause it's based on the number
of barrels we have in Kentucky. Not only has bourbon
brought new attention to the alcohol laws which
are fairly outdated in Kentucky, but also, it involves tourism <i> and other aspects of economic
development and improvement.</i> So as the bourbon industry
is booming, it's creating a lot of issues that we, as lawmakers,
need to address. A few years ago there was a big
trend in some New York bars where they were
vaporizing alcohol with devices and trying
to get a high that way. And as soon
as we heard about it, we went to the legislature
and immediately passed a bill to ban those in Kentucky. Bourbon's made
to drink and enjoy. <i> It's not made to get drunk
and do these things with,</i> <i> it's something
you sit down and sip on,</i> <i> enjoy the flavor
and taste of it.</i> I mean, when we were into
our NASCAR and Indy car racing, one of the big programs
we did was our drivers... We went on college campuses
in the areas of the track and talked to the kids. I said, "Hey, you know,
practice drink smart." "Drink responsibly."
That's what it's all about. I don't think the stories
get enough credit for what
they do in responsibility and measure. I mean,
they're all doing
multi million dollar advertising campaigns
to, you know, think smart,
drink smart. We practice, you know,
what we call 'drink smart'. Which, you know,
we always say, [CLEARS THROAT] if you're not
old enough to drink, don't. As a bar owner,
it's always right there.
Right there. <i> That, hey, you're responsible
for the people
you serve drinks to.</i> [INDISTINCT CHATTER] <i> I don't think anybody
want to feel responsible for</i> some kind f horrific accident
to one of their friends. Or to a stranger.
It doesn't matter. It's our job as producers
to make sure that that we adhere to
the guidelines that are... our own industry has created. We done a great job of creating
advertising guidelines and other guidelines
that ensure that we don't
advertise in front of people that are underage,
or put ourselves in
situations where we're exposing our product
needlessly to people that
aren't of age to consume. Our products are
meant to be used where they're
supposed to be.
Not abused. 'Cause it's like anything.
Too much of anything
is not good. And we want to make sure
that people who use
our product use em' correctly. And make sure that
we don't cause any problems. And I think one of the most
important things about... the new generation
of bourbon connoisseur and the new customer
of bourbon, particularly
in Kentucky is that <i> this is a new generation.</i> <i> And while bourbon has been
around a long time,</i> <i> people are enjoying bourbon
in many different ways</i> <i> and I think we're being
more responsible,</i> <i> as a new generation
of bourbon drinkers.</i> I take it very seriously
as a first-responder,
as a father, and just as a citizen. As alcohol education
has improved in this country over the course of
the last 40 years, you're finding more
responsible drinkers,
for the more part. Particularly in Kentucky
when it comes to bourbon. Bourbon industry right now
in on a big incline. <i> We're still growing
worldwide.</i> [ACOUSTIC GUITAR PLAYING] It's not gonna die
anytime soon, it's not gonna ever die,
I don't think. This century, so far,
it's been unbelievable growth. 'Cause people overseas
are just discovering bourbon. And so, they're just on
the very beginning. Bourbon industry is on fire. Not only domestically
but globally. So, think about
the world's population,
it's significantly larger. Especially, people that
can afford a drink. And them bourbon's market share
compared to scotch
is still quite small. So, the future for bourbon
is quite bright. I think, the industry
is gonna continue to grow. It's growing greater than...
than we've anticipated. <i> And I'm not talking about
a business, so much it is,
the emotional stand point</i> <i> of bourbon as an entity
in the state.</i> I think there's a lot of
upward growth in terms of
the numbers of people that are gonna visit Louisville. Visit Kentucky
and go to distilleries. I honestly don't think
that the bubble will burst. I think this is
a legitimate trend.
I don't think it's a fad. You always wonder when's
it gonna, you know, end. I don't see it ending
any way soon. I think the bourbon industry
is definitely here to stay. <i> We've been around for long
and I know we're not going
anywhere. I don't think.</i> <i> We're sitting on more
bourbon barrels right now.</i> <i> Over 5.3 million.</i> <i> That's the largest inventory
since 1977.</i> <i> We filled 1.2 million
barrels last year,</i> which was our highest
production since 1970. We're, literally, making it
as fast as it is selling. I mean there's
some distilleries
that are have shortages. Even temporary shortages
because the demand is so great. So, we're all, kind of,
racing right now to <i> invest in double operations
and capacity and build
new warehouses</i> <i> It's kind of chaotic
but that's part of
the uniqueness about bourbon.</i> <i> You can't just make
this stuff overnight.</i> We've got more bourbon stored
in the state of Kentucky
than we do people now. There's gonna be a lot
of great whisky to be tasting
in the next ten years. <i> There's gonna be
a lot of cool bottles
coming out.</i> And the industry will stay
true to its values of
quality and authenticity, in this unique
american heritage. It's a unique American product
and we embrace that, we love it. We love the role that
it plays in our social lives. I just think it's a tradition,
you know, people love that
around here, <i> they're very proud
of things like that.</i> <i> So, I think, it's just
a thing that binds...</i> binds this area together. That makes me, sort of,
proud that there's an industry
that has really come back from the death now to the popularity
that it has today. Bourbon and whisky is truly
an American drink. And being in Kentucky,
where it was founded, bourbon was founded
and everything, is just a great, fantastic
thing for the state. Bourbon for Kentucky
is just... it's part of
the soul of the state. It came with statehood
and it's been here ever since. It's impossible to imagine
Kentucky without bourbon. It wouldn't be Kentucky. You wouldn't even be able
to call it that. We'd have
to call it something else. I mean, it's impossible
to imagine. Bourbon is a part of
our history and our heritage. <i> And who we are as a state.</i> <i> And that's mainly because of
the people in the industry</i> <i> and the people who have
come up and helped</i> make bourbon what it is
since our inception. A lot of people
that are here have <i> moms that have worked here,
dads that have worked here,</i> <i> grandfathers that
have worked here.</i> <i> And are just, kind of,
carrying on their tradition.</i> <i> And I think people feel that
when they're here</i> <i> and they understand
the kind of weight,</i> <i> the fact that the things
that you're doing today</i> are for products from
10, 12, 15 years from now. It's something that withstood
the test of time. It'll be here. <i> Been here forever
since the United States,</i> and it's gonna be here,
it's not going anywhere. You enjoy your bourbon.
You eat and you relax. You know, it's many things
to many different people. Bourbon is a...
bourbon adds grace
to your life. <i> I don't understand
people who drink...</i> vodka or the neutral spirits.
I don't want the neutral. I want the spirit
to have some character that I get to borrow
for a little bit. There is no bad bourbon,
you know, there's just
a difference of opinion. There's so much to learn
and so much to find out. <i> And I think we're actually
in the frontier</i> <i> of what bourbon is
and what it can be.</i> It's a proud time
to be a Kentuckian. There's nothing quite like
Kentucky bourbon. <i>Kentucky bourbon built Kentucky
and Kentucky built bourbon.</i> Bourbon is for all seasons
and for all the people. To me, bourbon can be
described in two words. Uniquely Kentucky. Bourbon's American. <i> And I think it's something
that's been there forever</i> <i> but people are re-discovering
how great it is.</i> <i> I'm glad we didn't cave.</i> The mountain came to Muhammad,
they all came to us. Welcome. [COUNTRY MUSIC PLAYING] <i> ♪ Brent Pappy made whisky</i> <i> ♪ Way out on the hue
with corn mash and sugar</i> <i> ♪ In an old copper steal</i> <i> ♪ He made his living
outside the law</i> <i> ♪ Only three days
Man, that stuff was raw</i> <i> ♪ Times have changed
and the old stillers gone</i> <i> ♪ We're still making whisky
but it's bottled and bought</i> <i> ♪ Now it's much smoother
and no longer wrong</i> <i> ♪ Aged in on barrels
and the price is really low</i> <i> ♪ It's a family tradition
200 years old</i> <i> ♪ You call it whisky
we call it gold</i> <i> ♪ It's always been good
but it's finer each year</i> <i> ♪ Good ol' Kentucky bourbon
sweet angel tears</i> <i> ♪ Good ol' Kentucky bourbon
sweet angel tears</i> <i> ♪ Sweet angel tears
like cold walking high</i> <i> ♪ Drink pappy's whisky
from days gone by</i> <i> ♪ It's covered in taxes
but still made for you</i> <i> ♪ Call it what you like
it's good ol mountain dew</i> <i> ♪ It's a family tradition
200 years old</i> <i> ♪ You call it whisky
we call it gold</i> <i> ♪ It's always been good
but it's finer each year</i> <i> ♪ Good ol' Kentucky bourbon
sweet angel tears</i> <i> ♪ Good ol' Kentucky bourbon
sweet angel tears ♪</i>
Watched this while enjoying some Wild Turkey. Cheers y'all on this Friday from Dallas.😉👍🥃