Innholdsfortegnelse for July 2025 i American Whiskey Magazine

November 7, 1996 was a terrifying day for the residents of Bardstown, Kentucky. Lightning had struck one of the warehouses at Heaven Hill, igniting it in flames, which soon spread to include seven warehouses and the 1935 distillery thanks to 70 mile per hour winds. Nearly 100,000 barrels of whiskey went up in flames, creating a river of flaming bourbon that scorched its way through the distillery grounds. Miraculously, no one was hurt or killed in the fire, but Heaven Hill found itself without a distillery. As is completely unique to the Kentucky bourbon industry, several other distilleries agreed to make barrels for Heaven Hill for a while, including Jim Beam and Brown-Forman. In 1999, Heaven Hill bought the Bernheim II plant in Louisville, Kentucky and continued production there. On…

When I first began writing about whiskey nearly 12 years ago, I kept noticing that whiskey writers tended to shy away from writing about cigar pairings and cigar writers didn’t quite get the nuance of whiskey pairings. I began developing my own methodology on pairing whiskey and cigars and have been teaching classes at festivals and writing about whiskey and cigar pairings for a decade now. Whiskey makers are finally starting to catch on to the value of offering cigars and cigar experiences, although there is still room for improvement in the area of getting the whiskey infusions and flavorings out of the picture. In Kentucky, there still are not a lot of places to smoke cigars along the bourbon trail, but all that is finally changing. In Louisville, a…

Gary Hinegardner’s first career was in the Peace Corps, helping farmers in India. He went on to earn a Master’s degree in Agronomy, and his second career was working for Independent Stave Company in Missouri. He wasn’t building barrels, though — his primary focus was what to do with the leftovers after the barrels were built. He came up with several uses for the scrap, including burning it for energy. He rolled that knowledge into his third career: Wood Hat Distillery in New Florence, Missouri, where the primary source of energy used comes from burning that same scrap wood from Independent Stave. “It was in the Peace Corps when I understood the importance of taste,” Hinegardner recalls. “We could take a farmer in India that grew, say, X amount of…

Statesville, North Carolina, located 900 feet above sea level in the Piedmont region, is a plateau region in the Eastern United States, situated between the Atlantic Plain and the Blue Ridge Mountains, stretching from New York in the north to central Alabama in the south. Before Prohibition, the town of Statesville, North Carolina, was known as the “Liquor Capital of the World”. This reputation stemmed from the city’s location along major railroad lines, facilitating spirits’ production and distribution. It was easy to move goods up and down the eastern seaboard and out west from Statesville, so the region was home to hundreds of federally licensed farm distilleries that brought their spirits into the Statesville city center to the six rectification houses, which then distributed the spirits nationwide. The demise of…

Ouita Michel is speaking to me from her cabin that dates back 200 years, on a parcel of land in Woodford County, Kentucky. I caught her early, before she started a busy day. A founder of a bakery, a bar, an events business, a cooking studio, and no fewer than seven restaurants, she has become a local culinary icon and passionate ambassador for Kentucky’s fabulous food and drink. Ouita grew up in Kentucky and studied at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, before following her dreams to the bright lights of New York City as a young woman. There she met her husband, a ninth-generation New Yorker who was firm in his belief that the big city was the center of the world. After years working in kitchens, the couple…

Viewed from Kentucky Highway 245, the vast complex of dark buildings comprising the James B Beam Distilling Co harken to the giant factories of mid-20th century America or even the “dark Satanic mills” of Charles Dickens’ Victorian novels. Steam rises from a steel chimney and buildings are variously made of brick, concrete, metal painted black, or a combination thereof. A railroad line crosses the property which is strung with a complex of electrical lines beneath which tractor trailers stacked with whiskey barrels lumber. In short, the sort of place where one would expect to find the largest-selling bourbon in the world, Jim Beam, being made as it has been since the 1930s. But tucked away among the hilly terrain is a very modern glass fronted building that houses the Fred…

This issue’s Whiskey Shelf features a trio of books that recount tall tales and true histories, often far more remarkable that what has been made up, about American whiskey. BOURBON LORE LEGENDS OF AMERICAN WHISKEY by Mason Walker & Clay Risen 2024, Scott & Nix, Inc, $79.95 There are legions of enthusiastic whiskey collectors. You may be one yourself, one of those people who is willing to stand in line outside a distillery before dawn in order to purchase the latest limited-release bottle or willing to pay over retail price for a rare expression. But few collectors will delve as deeply into the stories behind each bottle in their collections as Walker and Risen have done here. They’ve recounted the fascinating, and sometimes very unlikely, details about 100 individual bottles,…

Woody Creek, Colorado is probably best known, at least in my circles, as being the place where Hunter S Thompson lived out the end of his life. It is a small former mining town adjacent to Aspen nestled into the Roaring Fork Valley that is bursting with rustic mountain charm. It’s also home to Woody Creek Distillers, a craft distillery specializing in potato vodka and whiskeys all made from Colorado-sourced raw materials with a major celebrity “spokesdude” — William H Macy. I arrived in Aspen on a Monday afternoon and checked into the Mollie Hotel. After a walk through town, I freshened up and joined a group of journalists from all over the country for a short drive to the Hobbit House on Aspen’s Two Mile Ranch. Upon entering the…

Greater Los Angeles, with more than 18,000,000 population and total land area of nearly 34,000 square miles (87,945 km2), is one of the most diverse regions on earth, earning the term “urban sprawl” above most. It’s a street food capital offering no end to legit food representing its dense populations of every culture. While its most famed industry is Hollywood and entertainment, influencing the globe for over a century, LA is also a leader in technology, innovation, aerospace, defence, tourism, international trade, fashion, and design. TOP FIVE RESTAURANTS MÉLISSE 1104 Wilshire Blvd. Santa Monica, CA 90401 www.citrinandmelisse.com Melissé, a two-Michelin-star icon in Santa Monica, is a fine dining pioneer since 1999 from hometown legend Josiah Citrin. But this is upscale LA-style: that is to say, hip, relaxed, fun, and funky…

Peggy Noe Stevens is a master taster, whiskey reviewer, and competition judge. She is known for her super palate in the industry, as well as her founding innovations connecting whiskey and food pairing styles and methods. This month we feature the following brands and the inspiration for creating unique profiles and food pairings. The following is a guideline to discovering the ultimate food pairings for your guests: How to pair Balance is when you complement a predominant note in the whiskey and balance the flavors so one does not dominate over the other. It creates harmony. Counterbalance is when opposites attract and you fire up a food flavor, only to have the flavors of the whiskey tame and neutralize any spikes of difference. Explosion is almost too much of a good thing, when…