Houston-based craft whiskey producer Yellow Rose Distilling Co. plans to double its distribution and expand to nine states beginning this month. The company has partnered with Atlanta-based Blue Ridge Spirits Co. and plans to roll out its product in Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, South Carolina and Tennessee. Yellow Rose was Houston's first commercial whiskey distillery.

Beam Suntory posted a North American sales increase in its first half ended in June, as double-digit gains across its Bourbon portfolio—including Maker’s Mark, Knob Creek and Basil Hayden’s—propelled growth. A focus on premiumization across the brand stable led to a favorable price mix in North America, the company said. In the 52 weeks through July 12, nearly all of Beam Suntory’s key brands posted value progress well ahead of...

Speaking to journalists following the announcement of Diageo’s full year 2014/15 financial results, Ivan Menezes, CEO of the UK drinks giant, said most consumers are not aware of the specific origins of the spirits they buy. “For the most part consumers do not know who owns Bulleit or Talisker, and we do not market our products in this way [as craft],” he said. This thought was reiterated by John Kennedy, president of Diageo...

Kentucky’s Buffalo Trace distillery, in its quest to produce ever more interesting bourbon, announced today some experimental results from the first round of barrels which have been resting for a year inside its Warehouse X. This facility is used by the brand to test out different outside of the box bourbon ideas. Along with this news is the latest word on a small batch, farm to table bourbon being developed from on-site crops...

All bourbons are whiskies, but not all whiskies are bourbons. This is the first commandment drilled into visitors at the distilleries that pepper the state of Kentucky, USA. Now, I’m a walking Wikipedia entry, espousing facts about bourbon to anyone who will listen; for instance, did you know that bourbon has to be made from at least 51 per cent corn and aged in charred, white oak barrels? But chief among these facts is the...

Shortly after the United States was born, Western Pennsylvania became infamous as the center of the 1794 Whiskey Rebellion against federal taxes on distilled spirits to pay for Revolutionary War debt. The region was home to more than a quarter of the young country’s distilleries. More than two centuries later, as the U.S. enjoys a resurgence of small “craft” distilleries, the Pittsburgh area once again is an important player....

During the Colonial Era, rum and applejack were America's best-loved spirits. During the Prohibition years, gin was the bee's knees. But now, we're waving the flag for the red, white, and bourbon. Why is bourbon the quintessential American spirit?

At a recent lunch at Brown-Forman, counselors from the Morton Center leading a discussion on addiction asked how many people in attendance knew anyone — family, friends — who had been affected by alcoholism. The response, by a group of about 120 employees at one of the world’s top 10 spirits companies, was fascinating, said Rob Fredrick, vice president and director of corporate responsibility. “Almost every hand went up,” he...

Greetings from the Bluegrass State, gentle cabrones! My wife and I are in the midst of our annual sojourn to the South for the 127 Yard Sale, which is like the Rose Bowl Flea Market spread over 700 miles and three times cheaper. We've also hit up the Kentucky Bourbon Trail, and there's a lot of great things happening in the booze world here that'll hit us in a couple of years. You can special order some from Hi-Time, I'm sure...

Claiming to be “the only farm fresh New York State Bourbon cream around”, the new product is said to be similar in concept to an Irish Cream, but with a “richer feel” and “bolder vanilla and caramel flavours”. The distillery suggests drinking the liqueur neat, adding it to coffee or incorporating into a cocktail. Jason Barrett, owner and head distiller of Black Button Distilling, said: “We can’t wait for our friends and fans...

Whiskey Whiskey My Old Friend, I've Come To Talk With You Again. Milk Of Mercy, Please Be Kind. Bushwick bons vivants will be humming that old Kris Kristofferson tune when Kings County Distillery opens its second location two months from now. The city's oldest whiskey producer is expanding beyond its original 15,000-square-foot home at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, Eye on Real Estate has learned.

LAWRENCEBURG, Ky.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--They say the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, and never was this more the case than in the legendary Bourbon-making Kentucky clan – the Russells. Marking his first release since being appointed to Master Distiller in January 2015 alongside his father, Eddie Russell and his Wild Turkey family announce the release of Wild Turkey® Master’s Keep.

Japanese distillery Suntory is set to blast some of its world-renowned beverages into space to create ‘space-aged’ whiskey. The company will be sending samples of whiskey to the International Space Station (ISS) in order to study the ‘development of mellowness in alcoholic beverage through the use of a microgravity environment’. The collaboration between Suntory’s Global Innovation Centre and Japanese space agency JAXA will...

Bourbon drinkers are getting another option this weekend. Mill St. Distillery is releasing its first round of Mill Street Bourbon at a Saturday event at its Utica operation with distribution to 50 Central Ohio state liquor stores expected in the following weeks. The microdistillery has been operating for around two years and bourbon was one of the first spirits it made, but since the alcohol needs to age in barrels...

September is National Bourbon Heritage Month, so honor America's native spirit at one of these six standouts The Bar at Husk Nashville, Tennessee Just a few blocks south of Broadway, Sean Brock’s Nashville outpost is lauded for its locally sourced interpretations of Lowcountry standards. But the bourbon-soaked bar downstairs is equally buzzworthy. It has more than a hundred options, including....

Claims that Maker’s Mark misled consumers by labelling its whiskey “handmade” have been dismissed by a judge, who ruled that no “reasonable consumer” could be misguided by the claim. US District Judge, John A. Houston ruled in favour of the brand’s parent company Beam Suntory in a California class action lawsuit, launched last year. Judge Houston disagreed with plaintiffs Safora Nowrouzi and Travis Williams’...

It seems like just yesterday British distilling giant Diageo PLC (NYSE: DEO) broke ground on a $115 million distillery in Shelby County. But it wasn't yesterday. It was actually last August. And now, less than a year since that groundbreaking, some warehousing operations at the facility already are up and running. A news release from Diageo said...

Indiana-based distillery MGP has unveiled Metze’s Select, a new limited edition Indiana straight Bourbon whiskey. MGP’s Lawrenceburg distillery has been producing whiskey for almost 170 years, and its latest release, Metze’s Select, is a combination of three of MGP’s “favourite” straight Bourbon whiskeys. The new expression offers a “Lawrenceburg-style high

A couple of years back while skiing at my beloved Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, I tried the local whiskey in one of the many area bars that serve it from tiny casks. It’s a great marketing concept, as the spirit continues to age in each bar, giving it a tiny amount of uniqueness from place to place. But the problem was the whiskey wasn’t anything special: I wanted to like it, I tried it, it was just okay, and I moved on.

Bourbon is more than just a drink in Kentucky. It’s our culture and our heritage. It’s our state’s most formidable industry. Whether we know it or not, bourbon plays a role in our daily lives in ways we can’t even imagine. That’s why there are so many different ways to learn about bourbon in Louisville. You can find a new class or lecture every week, sometimes multiple times a week. The Filson Historical Society is at the...

Matt Jager, who helped to start the Albany, New York area's first distilling company in 80 years, is opening a distillery in Saratoga County today. Jager, who amicably parted ways with Albany Distilling Co., is opening Yankee Distillers in Clifton Park this afternoon. He co-owns the business with Walter Kleemeier and Scott Luning. At Yankee, they'll produce whiskey, rum and vodka in a 2,000 liter still and operate a tasting...

Frankfort, Ky. – Buffalo Trace Distillery has completed the construction of its 83,000 s.f. revolutionary new distribution center, which uses satellite technology to store and retrieve pallets of finished goods. Buffalo Trace Distillery is believed to be the first spirits supplier to use this system, called an automated storage and retrieval system (AS/RS).

Maker's Mark and the Breeders' Cup are teaming up on a series of limited edition bottles honoring some of Thoroughbred racing's most popular recent champions, officials announced Wednesday at Keeneland. Zenyatta, Cigar, A.P. Indy, Personal Ensign and Lure will be honored on special bottles of the premium bourbon, featuring their silks colors with signature wax in silver, over the next three years.

LOUISVILLE, Ky (WDRB) -- Construction will start Wednesday on new the Old Forester Distillery on historic Whiskey Row in downtown Louisville. Governor Steve Beshear, Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer and Brown-Forman Master Distiller Chris Morris will be among those in attendance. The event is expected to start at 11 a.m. Wednesday in the parking lot next to Manny & Merle's.

In 1919, the year before the Noble Experiment was enacted nationwide, Bourbon County, Kentucky, was home to 26 distilleries. After Prohibition ended, none of them reopened and bourbon distilled in the county hasn’t been available for purchase there since. However, this September, The Gentleman Distillery will produce and sell the first bottle of true Kentucky bourbon in over a century. On the history side of things, Maggie...

Bourbon: it always conjures up balmy southern nights, the air wafting the scents of jasmine and the sounds of jazz. Rain not withstanding, it tastes just as good on a south London terrace, too. Dare I say it, I think I prefer it to Scotch… The Old Fashioned Pretty much ground zero for cocktails, this dates back to at least 1806. And the recipe has hardly changed.

Perhaps more than any other product, bourbon whiskey is sold on the process. It's all filtering through charcoal for several epochs and wizened old men gently tapping gnarled barrels on verandas. Seeing these kind of advertisements plastered on billboards all the time it's hard not to be cynical and imagine, given the major brands' ubiquity in bars, that in reality their liquors are produced in steel monstrosities staffed by...

It is with a sad heart we report on the passing of a 20+ year old bourbon from Buffalo Trace which easily could have joined the list of uber-aged mythical American whiskies we recently wrote about. This unnamed expression is simply known by the distillery as “failed experiment.” The 26 year old bourbon, according to Buffalo Trace master distiller Harlan Wheatly, had been put to barrel “in 1988 and the rivets bore the letters...

Produced in Napa Valley, the new expression is named after the two barrel-aging techniques employed in California and Kentucky, and will stand alongside Amador Whiskey Company’s Ten Barrels – a limited edition whiskey with only 10 barrels produced every year. Dave Derby, senior vice president of marketing for Trinchero Family Estates, said: “To make the new Double Barrel Bourbon, we acquired 280 barrels of exceptional Kentucky...

The owners of McClintock Distilling plan to open the craft distillery in Frederick this autumn, launching with a craft gin using “Appalachian-inspired” botanicals as well as a “sustainably sourced” white whiskey. McClintock will also produce a Bourbon and Irish-style whiskey to age in barrels on site for future sale.

Whether or not Little Rock's Rock Town Distillery was the state's first distilling operation since Prohibition when it opened in 2010 depends on how you look at it. Ed Ward was in his 80s when he obtained a license to produce his Uncle Ed's Arkansas Moonshine in Newport in 2010. And his Uncle Ed's Arkansas Moonshine may have beat Rock Town's first batch to market. It might have obtained permits from the state first.

It should be pretty apparent by now that Texas is a mecca of great craft beer, but as amazing as Saint Arnold and Real Ale are, no man can live by beer alone. That’s where Texas distilleries come in. Texans love to drink and we have a drinking culture all our own, from Mexican martinis to Dos-a-ritas to absolutely ridiculous bloody marys, Texans love liquor. So if you want to drink like a Texan, but aren’t into beer, here is a...

Louisville, Ky. – Old Forester Bourbon Whisky has hired expert bartender Jacquelyn Zykan to represent the brand globally as the Master Bourbon Specialist.

Mexico has mezcal, France has Cognac and, in America, we have bourbon. Declared a distinctive product of the United States by Congress, this sweet-and-smooth national treasure traces its history back hundreds of years to homegrown distilling operations around Bourbon County, Kentucky. Today, the whiskey can be produced anywhere in America, so long as it’s made with at least 51 percent corn and aged in charred oak barrels.

Bourbon is All-American Whiskey may be made everywhere from Brooklyn to Scotland but in 1964, Congress declared bourbon “America’s Native Spirit.” That means to be called bourbon, it must be made in the U.S. George Washington helped invent it In 1789, frontier farmers violently rebelled against their new American government for trying to tax their whiskey, something they used for currency, trading and drinking. Because George...

A decade ago, in these parts, whiskey was often kept down near the back of the liquor cabinet, maybe for a visit from Uncle Ned or something. Women were drinking rita-tinis, vodka crans, and cloyingly sweet concoctions from menus cluttered with trademark symbols. Men were just beginning to discover craft beer.

Woodford Reserve bourbon is only two decades old, but it was developed at parent company Brown-Forman, which has been in the bourbon business since 1870. When this pre-prohibition era company began looking for a home for their new bourbon brand, they settled on the old Oscar Pepper distillery in Woodford County, Kentucky.

Five glasses held the future. Five bourbons waited. Only one would emerge with the coveted title of the Holy Grail. Buffalo Trace's Single Oak Project began more than 12 years ago when warehouse legend Ronnie Eddins led an expedition deep into the woods to hand-select 96 trees. While there were no attendants shuffling coconut shells, this folly did take on Arthurian tones, beginning with the first question, "What if?"

n 2010, the bourbon whiskey producer Maker’s Mark encountered a strange business problem. For the first ti­­­me, the company had just sold a million cases in one year, a benchmark making it one of America’s biggest whiskey brands. Its rise, however, happened because it wasn’t big, because it had been able to create that intimate sense of small craftiness craved by modern foodies. Was the brand’s success becoming a liability now...

At no point in recent memory have consumers been as excited about bourbon as they are today. "We are in the middle of a global whiskey renaissance," Lisa Hawkins, vice president of the Distilled Spirits Council, said. "There is a fascination with bourbon in the U.S. and abroad, with demand booming and no end in sight." Demand for what Congress designated "America's Native Spirit" has grown so fast...

Many a book, blog and news article has been devoted to the topic of whiskey: the way it's aged, where to drink it, how to store it and serve it or pair it with food. But comparatively little attention has been paid to how whiskey is packaged. Which is a shame, really, when you think about how a beautiful, funny or fancy-looking label can influence which bottles we buy – and which we ignore – when shopping the whiskey aisle...

When Vietnamese people open a bottle of liquor or soda, they expect to hear a popping sound—like a slightly muted version of a champagne bottle opening. The noise tells them that the liquid is good, and listening for it is part of Vietnamese drinking culture. “The ‘pop’ is important,” a scientist in a white lab coat explains to me while holding a can of Jim Beam Cola, a product that the bourbon whiskey maker has developed for...

NELSON COUNTY, Ky. (WKYT) - Around 3:45 Tuesday afternoon, a storm rolled through Nelson County. Heaven Hill Distilleries, Inc. was hit by the storm. “It kind of came out of nowhere and within a matter of minutes, you know I was inside the building here, and the guards ran in and said we actually lost the roof off one of the warehouses,” Heaven Hill Master Distiller Denny Potter said.

There was a time not so long ago when the words "New York whiskey" would raise eyebrows, or even elicit laughter. That time was as recent as 2005, when there was nary a commercial producer to be found in the Empire State. My, what a difference a decade makes.

Call it a distillery dream or just a lift to whiskey lovers’ spirits: Kentucky’s bourbon production is now the highest it’s been in the last 40 years. The Associated Press’ Bruce Schreiner reports that the state is in the midst of a bona fide “bourbon boom” — a production surge that isn’t expected to end any time soon. That’s good news for whiskey lovers and Kentucky residents alike, writes Schreiner. He reports that the state...

LOUISVILLE, KY (WAVE) - For historians and preservationists excited about the revitalization of historic Whiskey Row, Monday's fire in three buildings of the 100 block of Main Street came as a devastating blow. Despite that, they have found a silver lining in the block's history of survival. There's a reason people say they just don't build them like they used to. Preservation Louisville, the group that fought so hard for...

The Kentucky Distillers’ Association revealed that a total of 5,669,682 charred oak casks were ageing in Kentucky warehouses in 2014 – the highest recorded figure since 1975 when the state’s distilleries reported 5.8 million barrels. Kentucky Bourbon is one of the country’s most historic industries, and generates more than US$3 billion for the economy as well as 15,400 jobs every year. Eric Gregory, president of The Kentucky...

SOUTHERN PINES, N.C. (WNCN) – A Southern Pines company is putting a unique twist on the way they make American flags, they make their flags from scratch out of bourbon barrels. The Heritage Flag Company makes dozens of different flags and presents them to veterans, wounded warriors and families of fallen soldiers.

The is only one way to celebrate the 4th of July. The American Way. Brits may outperform most nationalities for perfect cups of tea, gin and sarcasm, but when it comes to over-the-top parties in honour of independence, we have got nothing on our cousins across the pond.

Bourbon Country is expanding at a rate quite possibly faster than the universe itself. Last night Buffalo Trace held Grand Opening ceremonies for not one but TWO recently renovated spaces on its grounds. When Buffalo Trace first opened up tours, there were 5913 visitors in the first year. Last year there were over 128k, and that number continues to grow.