Bourbon Whiskey is coming to the Whisky Boys

Buy Bourbon Whiskey below

As all our readers know the Whisky Boys have visited distilleries in Scotland and in Ireland, and tasted Whiskies from Scotland, Canada, Ireland, Wales, Thailand (tasting review pending) India and Japan. It’s now the time for us to head across the pond and taste the USA’s Bourbon Whiskey.

Way back in day’s gone by Scottish and Irish immigrants who moved to the USA and especially those who settled in and around Appalachia had with them their knowledge of whisky and potcheen distillation, and as corn was readily available they soon started to use this rather than some of the hard-to-find grains they used in their homelands, hence Bourbon was born.

What is Bourbon Whiskey ?

In 1964 the US congress acknowledged Bourbon Whiskey as a distinct product of the United States of America and as such, to be called Bourbon Whiskey it had to follow a set of standards and requirements. Some of these are:-

Made from a grain mixture which has at least 51% corn.
Distilled to no more than 80% Alc/vol.
No flavouring or colouring to be added.
The spirit must be aged in new, charred oak barrels.
The spirit must be placed in barrels at no more than 62.5% Alc/vol.
Like other Whiskies, Bourbon cannot be bottled at less than 40% Alc/vol.
Like Scotch, if an age is declared on the label or bottle then it has to be the youngest whiskey within, and that is the age statement.

The bottles of Bourbon Whiskey you get at the supermarkets are few, maybe 2/3 different producers at the most, but if you go onto The Whiskey Exchange website then they have at any one time in excess of 80 Bourbons together with Rye Whiskey and American Malt Whiskey etc.

So the Whisky Boys next adventure is to journey into the world of American Bourbon’s, and as you would expect the Boys will do it with vigour and our usual honest opinions, so look out for our tastings that will be coming your way shortly.

HELP   –  if anyone out there can give us some suggestions on what drams to tackle first then that would be a great help, Jim, Dougie and Nicola will spend the next few days researching Bourbon and purchasing a bottle or two for the tasting table.