A Bourbon Story
Rogues & Renegades
by Donna Hecker
drawing by cookbook illustrator Brenna Flannery
There’s something about bourbon that attracts rogues and renegades. Ever since Kentucky’s first white settlers figured out how to convert their excess corn crop into whiskey, folks have been looking for ways to leave their mark.
Back in the 1800s on land that is now Woodford Reserve, Dr. James Crow was working at the Oscar Pepper Distillery when he perfected techniques for refining the spirit, even lending his name to the finished product.
Dr. Crow was the first to measure the sugar content of mash (the base of every whiskey) with a saccharimeter instead of just sticking his finger in and giving it a lick. He was the first to use a thermometer to regulate mash temperature and the first to monitor its acidity levels. But perhaps most importantly, he was the first to start each batch with a bit of sour mash from the previous one, ensuring a consistent product each time.
His application of scientific technique revolutionized bourbon distilling, and after his death and that of Oscar Pepper’s, Old Crow continued to be the gold standard of bourbon whiskey.
Unfortunately, the deaths of Oscar Pepper and James Crow caused a flush of litigation over who could use the Oscar Pepper name; or the Old Crow recipe; or even the Old Crow name; and Oscar Pepper’s son James eventually lost all rights to his family legacy. (Fun feminist fact- James Pepper went on to marry Mrs. Ella Offut Kean of Shelby County, Kentucky, who rescued him from financial ruin, bought back the family distillery, and established a successful horse-racing operation.)
photo by Talitha Schroeder
Loosely connected to the Pepper/Old Crow saga was another bourbon pioneer named Colonel E.H. Taylor who would become a legend in his own right. But he was also a rogue who once sold the same lot of whiskey twice and fled to Europe barely ahead of the law. After getting bailed out by George T. Stagg, Col. Taylor went on to redeem himself by championing truth-in-labeling laws to distinguish the purity of his bourbon from cheap, often dangerous imitations.
Keep in mind that until the late 1800s nearly all bourbon was sold by the barrel and what happened after the barrel left the distillery was anybody’s guess. Some popular if unsavory “enhancements” included sulphuric acid, cream of tartar, even ammonia. And of course, there was always water, frequently added to boost profit margins. All perfectly legal until Col. Taylor persuaded Treasury Secretary John G. Carlisle, a former congressman and senator from northern Kentucky, to help enact the Bottled-in-Bond Act of 1897.
Not too long before that, a young pharmacist named George Garvin Brown had the idea to package his Old Forrester bourbon (the second “r” was later dropped) by the bottle to make it more conducive for sale with a doctor’s prescription. These two developments together ensured that pure Kentucky bourbon whiskey was now a protected product and consumers were ensured of getting what they paid for. Cue the birth of both consumer protection and bourbon stewardship.
Bourbon tourism? We can thank Col. Taylor for that, too. He was an early adopter, building a showplace distillery with sunken gardens and castle-like walls and turrets. After extensive renovations, his old Glenn’s Creek property is today the home of Castle & Key, where Marianne Barnes made headlines in 2016 as the first female master distiller in Kentucky since Prohibition.
Our story skips over Prohibition (naturally) and fast-forwards to a young soldier home from WWII, itching to take over the family bourbon business. By putting a match to the only copy of his family’s mash bill recipe, Bill Samuels, Jr. blazed his way into a new one, softened with wheat and perfected by baking dozens of loaves of bread to get the grain combination just right. And his wife Margie made her mark by adding the distinctive red wax seal that tops every bottle of Maker’s Mark.
an old-fashioned at The Thirsty Fox, downtown Lexington, KY. Photo by Talitha Schroeder
Bourbon was nearly overtaken by the so-called white spirits in the second half of the twentieth century. That is, until Elmer T. Lee tapped a barrel at Buffalo Trace in 1984 and filled a bottle with Blanton’s, the world’s first single barrel bourbon. Other single barrel and small batch bourbons followed; the news spread quickly and pretty soon serious tasters everywhere had a newfound thirst for Kentucky’s native spirit.
Curious to find out who’s making waves in the bourbon world today, we sat down with John Coffee over a couple of old-fashioneds. John, who hosts our Bourbon Club at The Thirsty Fox, told us about Wilderness Trail, a small distillery in Danville founded by former bandmates Pat Heist and Shane Baker. He’s impressed by how Pat and Shane use their technical expertise with fermentation to incorporate old yeast strains into batches of sweet mash, which they substitute for traditional sour mash.
Josh Ott, Thirsty Fox manager. photo by Talitha Schroeder
Josh Ott manages our bar at The Thirsty Fox and loves to craft custom flights for his guests, many of them out-of-towners who wander over from the VisitLex visitors center next door. He’ll often surprise them with something unexpected like the new Kentucky Senator bourbon, available only in Kentucky and nowhere else.
We’re excited for one of the latest bottles to hit the bourbon scene- Fresh Bourbon- created by Tia and Sean Edwards and unabashedly presented with an exhortation to enjoy it in any form. Their slogan is “Start Fresh, Finish wherever you like.” They’ve proudly established Lexington’s first African American-owned distillery, adding their story to that of Tennessee’s Uncle Nearest Distillery, named for a once enslaved African American who is believed to have created the unique charcoal-filtered flavor of Jack Daniels.
Ouita’s Old Forester barrel pick, Honeywood Spring Blossom Bitters & Old Fashion. Photo by Jared Mouton
And did you know we have our own proprietary bourbon? Ouita’s First Edition Old Forester barrel pick was the culmination of blind-tasting several samples sent to The Thirsty Fox when Covid restrictions prevented visiting the distillery in person. Ouita Michel and her husband Chris teamed up with chef Tyler McNabb, company chief operating officer Doug Mullins; John Coffee and Leslee Macpherson to make the selection. Ask Josh for a taste the next time you’re in The Thirsty Fox!
Leslee Macpherson’s day job is overseeing operations for our restaurant family but her superpower is creating exciting and unexpected flavor combinations in cocktails, often with plants and blooms plucked from our tea and herb gardens. She even prepares her own bitters, bottling them under the Honeywood label.
Leslee’s bourbon sour is a great example of a drink that starts out with a familiar base but lends itself to infinite variations. We’re pretty sure that after making and drinking a couple of them, you’ll be inspired to add your own twist to the story of bourbon.
And wherever this finds you, we hope you’ll raise a glass of Kentucky bourbon and join us in a toast to the renegades of yesterday and the innovators of today; may their spirit always be with us!
© 2021, Holly Hill Inn/Ilex Summit, LLC and its affiliates, All Rights Reserved
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