Monday, June 14, 2010

Kentucky Bourbon

Today's entry represents a corollary to an important Scottish product; scotch.  Kentucky Bourbon was officially invented in the United States on June 14, 1789.  Credit for this invention is currently bestowed on Rev. Elijah Craig, from Bourbon County, Kentucky.

Craig was the son of Tolliver Craig, who settled in Lexington, KY, and fought in the Revolutionary War, defending Bryan's Station against the British and Shawnee (1782).  The Craig family name was taken from Tolliver's mother, a Scottish woman, who bore Tolliver after his father had left the scene.

Walter Scott was known to enjoy a good belt during his early years, but he was not a bourbon drinker.  The Glenlivet website boasts that when King George IV visited Edinburgh in 1822, Scott, who organized the event, procured Glenlivet for the king to drink.

Bourbon today has at least one important connection to its more more pedigreed cousin in the whisky craft.  Scotch today is often aged in barrels that have been used to age bourbon.

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