Neat: The Story of Bourbon (2018) - full transcript

[birds chirping]

[man 1] The soil's made up
of silt, clay and loam.

And what you really want
is the combination of
all three of those components.

But it all goes into
making bourbon.

It starts with the corn
growing in the soil

into barley, into wheat,
into rye.

But also, the oak trees
that we have across the road
here to make barrels.

Really everything
about bourbon

comes from the soil.

[narrator] This is the story
of grains, water, and wood.

It's the story
of immigrants, and farmers,



and businessmen,
and criminals.

The story of cold winters
and hot summers.

It's the story of time.

This is the story
of bourbon.

[man 2]
Two things are important.

The first is, you never
bring out old-aged-bourbons

until you're with
friends and family,

and you're not in any hurry
to go anywhere.

[Marianne] It's all about
the earth and the soil
and the natural ingredients

that go in to make it,
because bourbon
is an all natural product.

There's nothing
synthetic about it.

[man 3]
America's only native spirit
is so big and so beautiful

that it can handle anything
you wanna throw at it

and still give you
the true character
that's in that glass.



[man 4]
Bourbon heritage
is American heritage.

Every phase of
American history is reflected
through bourbon history.

[man 5]
It's not grabbing a bottle
of beer out of a cooler.

It's, let me pour you
a glass of this, let me
tell you where it came from.

Let me tell you
the story on this.

It's history in a glass.

[man 6] I think people
have discovered that bourbon
is not just a shot and a beer.

It's amazing to see it.

'Cause to me it's not just
your granddad's drink,
or your dad's drink,

like it used to be
when I was young.

[man 7] If you like the idea
of going to the horse races

and living kind of
an agrarian type of life,

bourbon sort of gives you a way
to live in central Kentucky

just for a moment
in your life,

whether you're actually
there or not.

[man 8] It's almost
like a legacy that says,

if time was not a factor
in our lives,

bourbon could
transport us back

into some of those
places where

maybe life was a lot
easier going.

That's what bourbon's
all about.

[birds chirping]

[Zoeller] Whoever came over
on the Mayflower

brought a still with them.

And whoever came over
the Appalachian Mountains

to settle at Kentucky first,

brought a still with them.

Whiskey was much, much more
than just a drink.

Distilling was a way of life.

It was what you did
with your surplus corn.

If you stored corn,
it could rot,

it could get eaten by mice
or other vermin.

You turn it into
a bottle of whiskey,

it's gonna stay
the bottle of whiskey.

It's gonna be good then
or forever.

They didn't have refrigeration
like we have it today.

They didn't have
the canning technology
that we have today.

So one of the best ways
to preserve your corn

was to turn it
into whiskey.

In Scotland, in Ireland,
and in England,

if you grew more corn
than you could use
for your family,

it belonged to the king.

But in the new world,

if you grew more corn
than you could use
for your family,

you got to choose
what you did with it.

And what did they do?
They made whiskey.

that was very much
like moonshine.

It was kind of
a rough cut,

not the, you know,
very elegant spirit
that we make today.

It was thought to
be medicinal.

And remember,
you're on the frontier.

There's not a drugstore
to go to.

[Michael] You gotta remember,
these are frontiersmen.

They work from
sun up to sun down.

You get up in the morning,
you're still aching
from the day before,

so you have a little
eye-opener.

A drink of whiskey
to get you going.

Lot of people don't realize
that's where the mint julep
comes from.

It was a breakfast drink.

Whiskey was used
as a medium of exchange.

You would first
grow enough corn

to feed your family
and your livestock.

And whatever you
had leftover,

you either carried around
large bushel baskets of corn,

or you distilled it.

[Michael] Whiskey was just
a very important part
of that life.

So when the frontiersmen
came into the west...

You gotta realize,
Kentucky is the first
American West.

A lot of people
brought stills.

[Freddie]
They weren't whiskey folks.

They were architects,

they were
structural engineers,

they were chemists,
they were bio chemists.

It's not about the whiskey,

it's about the people

that make the product
so cool.

[narrator] Now,
before going any further,

we need to answer
a very simple question.

What does it take
for a spirit

to be able to call itself
a bourbon?

Bourbon is the most
heavily regulated product
in the world.

Our Federal government
tells you how you
have to make bourbon.

[Potter]
I think the first thing
to understand is,

all bourbon is whiskey,
but not all whiskey is bourbon.

By definition, whiskey is
a grain based distillery.

Once you understand that
bourbon is a whiskey,

then it's what
defines a bourbon.

So, the rules of bourbon.
I call it the ABCs.

Start with A,
American made.

Bourbon is uniquely American,

'cause you can only
make in America.

You distill 51% corn,

age it in charred
oak barrels...

You jump through
all those hoops.

But if you do it in Mexico,
you can't use the term
"bourbon".

It does not have to be
made in Kentucky.

A lot of folks
believe that

bourbon can only
be made in Kentucky.

Bourbon, by active Congress,

can be made anywhere
in the United States.

B, barrels.

It must be aged in a brand new
charred white oak barrel,

just like what's behind me.

[Chris] The lead character
of a bourbon whiskey

is the use of a new
charred barrel.

That gives bourbon that
big, rich,
caramel vanilla note.

Yeah, it just makes
bourbon so special.

C is corn.

To be a bourbon, you have
to use at least 51% corn.

There's a very good
reason for that.

Corn imparts
a very unique flavor
to bourbon.

That sweetness.

If you taste a Scotch whiskey
and Irish whiskey,
you get some sweetness.

A lot of it from the wood,
maybe a little bit
from the grain.

But if you taste bourbon,
you can taste that sweetness.

You can almost
taste the corn.

D is distillation proof.

So when you come
off the still,

you cannot be higher
than 160 proof.

The higher the proof,
the less flavor that's
gonna be there.

Think about it.
Vodka is 190 proof,

192 proof when it
comes off those stills.

It has no flavor,
it's just pure alcohol.

You start getting
over 160,

you're stripping out
grain flavor.

You're moving more
into a vodka category.

That's not what
we want with bourbon.

We wanna hold on
to the grain character.

So one of the rules is
you gotta be 160 or less
coming off the still.

E, entry proof
going into the barrel.

You have to be 125 proof
or less.

F, fill proof.

In the bottle, your proof
has to be 80 or above.

G, genuine.

There are no additives allowed.

So, everything is

what Mother Nature provides.

No flavor, or no color,
or nothing should be added
to bourbon.

It's a natural product.

If you add any color
or any flavor, it becomes
a whiskey.

All that color must come from
aging in that new charred
oak barrel.

You're only as good
as what comes off the still

and what comes
out of that barrel

and goes down that
bottling line.

[Steve] Okay, quiz time.

Who was the first person
who took that un-aged
white whiskey

and turned it into
bourbon that
we know today?

In the 1800s,

a Baptist minister
by the name of Elijah Craig

used old barrels previously
containing fish and pickles

to store some of his
newly distilled whiskey.

But in order to get rid
of that nasty fish smell,

he charred the inside
of the barrels,

making a discovery
that would forever change
the history of bourbon.

Or, wait...

Maybe it was the, uh...

The poor farmer from
Bourbon County, Kentucky.

Who after his barn
burned down,

he was forced
to use some surviving
but very charred barrels,

to transport his whiskey

down the Mississippi
to New Orleans.

Sloshing around.

Or wait, maybe it was
the Lexington grocer.

Uh...

Upon seeing the popularity
of cognac,

a spirit aged in
toasted oak casks,

put an order in
for his usual corn whiskey,

but this time however,
he requested

that it be sent in barrels
burnt upon the inside.

That's it.

Or, maybe it doesn't
really matter.

Somehow bourbon
found a way.

[Marianne] We are on our way
to Walnut Grove Farm.

And we're actually headed
to the home farm,

which is where their
family first settled

back in the 1800s.

Which is incredible.

They're gonna be providing
all of the corn for
my bourbon.

[narrator] This is
Marianne Barnes.

And she is the first
female master distiller

since Prohibition.

This is also
the Marianne Barnes

that Forbes magazine named

one of the top 30 business
people under 30-years-old.

In 2015,

Marianne and her
business partners

launched a brand
new distillery

called Castle & Key.

Setting up shop in the long
abandoned Old Taylor Distiller.

Today, she's come to
the Kentucky-Tennessee border

to get some corn for her
first batch of bourbon.

[Marianne] Corn is
a historical ingredient
for bourbon.

It goes back to the roots
of when bourbon started
in Kentucky.

When the settlers
first came out here,

they were still making
rye and barley whiskeys.

When they hit this part
of the United States,

they encountered
the Indians.

The Indians had been
exposed to the Spanish.

The Spanish had introduced
the Indians to corn whiskey,

moonshine.

And what they did is they
started mixing corn whiskey

with the rye
and barley whiskeys

and that's how the taste
of bourbon got started.

[Marianne] By law,
your bourbon has to be
at least 51% corn.

It is the most important
ingredient.

It's the star of the show.

You're getting
a lot of your flavor
from your corn.

Not only just because
it's that percentage,

but it's a very
flavorful grain.

Corn actually
identifies bourbon,

because of the flavor
that it imparts.

If you taste any whiskeys
the world over,

you'll notice that bourbon
is very unique,

especially in its sweetness.

And that is derived
from the corn
that is used to make it.

That corn is what's gonna
give it a lot of sweetness.

A lot of the mouth feel
is gonna come
from the corn.

And so you deliberately bring

bourbon off the still
at a lower proof.

And that retains some of
the natural properties of it.

[Potter] It's just
a very robust flavor.

And what that does is,
it can go through maturation,

it can go to the barrel.

And so
it's gonna come through

whether it's four-years-old,
or 23-years-old.

Corn really does last
over those years.

You can still get it,
you know,
18 or 23 years later.

[Marianne] And a single
bottle of bourbon,
depending on your recipe,

will have somewhere between
two and two-and-a-half
pounds of corn.

It's really important to take
care of the soil and earth.

Soil that's gonna feed
the plants that eventually
go into bourbon.

You know, corn grows
for four months

and it's pulling
from the earth.

The oak trees that eventually
go into the barrels

that are gonna
contain your product
for four years

have been drawn from the earth
for upwards of 40-50 years.

Every season that has
come and gone,

every change
in the environment,

you will eventually taste
in a glass of bourbon.

In a lot of ways
it's like drinking history

and experiencing nature
in a completely
different way.

[Don] There's a lot
of science involved

in anything that you do
in farming.

But once you get
past the science,

there's still an art.

Just like anything else.
Just like fine furniture.

The guy that's
making the furniture

knows he can look
at the grain of the wood

and know which way it needs
to be put together

to make a beautiful piece.

And farming's the same way.

You have the craftsmanship
that really is just...

You just gain over
a lifetime.

There are always an
even number of rows
per ear.

And in this case,
these are 14 a round.

In other ears, sometimes we
see as many as 16 or 18.

And I think it's because
we had an excess of water
this year

that actually has hurt
our yields a little bit.

They'll still be above
average yields.

You can tell how many bushels
you're gonna yield per acre?

-That's fascinating.
-You can make
a pretty good estimate.

We're sitting next to a field
of non-GMO white corn

that has been
grown specifically for

our Bottled in bond
core bourbon brand.

In four years,
this 45 acres of white corn

will be about 250,000
bottles of bourbon.

[Freddie]
We encourage people
to take pictures.

We encourage them
to ask questions.

It's a touchy-feely tour.

We tell 'em to
touch the barrels.

You know,
kind of look at it.

We go into the bottling house.

You get a chance
to hold a bottle

and kind of like
take some special photos.

Come over this way.
Let's head this way.

[narrator] You've already
met Freddie Johnson.

Now, what he hasn't
told you

is that he's a third
generation employee

at the Buffalo
Trace Distillery.

His grandfather worked here,
his father worked here,

and now he works here.

Trust me when I say,
this guy knows bourbon.

And today, he's agreed
to teach us a thing or two

about the art of tasting.

Well, we've had a chance
to look around the distillery,

and now it's the time that
you've really been waiting for,

and that is to see what that
product is gonna taste like

after it's been
in the barrel for a while.

This is your White Dog,
Everclear,

Georgia Moon,
White Lightning.

And this is what goes
into the barrel,

and this is what
the settlers used to drink
back in the day.

Got it?

Word on the street,
if you haven't been dead
more than two weeks,

this'll bring you back.

-[laughter]
-Okay, now.

You're gonna
cup your hand like this.

I want you
to smell off it.

You'll notice it smells
very soft and buttery
to the nose.

Now, I want you to
smack your hands together.

Smack 'em.

Rub 'em real briskly.

Now, cup and smell
them again.

Really strong of alcohol
now, right?

So now the dog is awake.

-Okay?
-[laughter]

All right?

I know the strength
of this whiskey.

Let them breathe.

Let them breathe.
All right?

When I say "You, sir,"
you say "Farm."

[all laughing]

When I say, Bourbon,"
you say, "Corn."

Smack your hands again.

Rub 'em real brisk.

Cup, smell 'em again.

Corn.

How about that?

What's the dominant
ingredient in bourbon?

-Dotty?
-[woman] Corn.

Exactly.

And if this had been
straight rye whiskey,
it would've smelled like rye.

If it had been scotch,
it would've smelled
like barley.

I now know the strength
of your whiskey

and the dominant grain
you've used to make it with.

Let 'em breathe again.

Fly, my friends.
Be free.

Let 'em breathe.

Smack 'em again.

Rub 'em real briskly.

Cup, smell 'em again.

Now they smell like bread,
like yeast.

So now I know the strength,
I know the dominant grain,

and I know the kind of yeast
that you used.

So that's the way the old
moonshiners found out
about whiskey

before they ever let it
touch their lips.

Cool?

[dog barks]

[buzzing]

-[barks]
-We talked about this.

It's gonna hurt you
every time you bark.

I know this hurts you.

[buzzing]

[continues barking]

[sighs]

That last one was,
"Okay, I'm done.
This hurts."

[narrator] That guy
who hates dogs so much

is named Paul Steele.

And he lives in
Nashville, Tennessee.

Paul's into bourbon.

Really into bourbon.

So much so that he
decided to turn his basement
into a speakeasy.

[Paul] It escalated
really quickly.

We moved into the house
about three-and-a-half
years ago.

And this was just
an unfinished basement.

And then,
my wife's father got ill

and he passed away
relatively quickly.

So we acquired a bunch
of family pieces

from my dad
and Paul's grandparents.

As a way to honor them
and kind of hang on
to those memories,

we were able to
keep some stuff,

and that's the only place
we had room for it,
was our basement.

This is his.
This light is his.

He was a metal worker.
He made these.

Most of the stuff
on the walls

are from his barn.

And that made it take shape
really, really quickly.

[narrator] In that first year,

Paul's bourbon collection
went from a single fifth
of Jefferson's,

to 370 unique bottles.

This, along with
regular tastings
that he hosts,

has made Paul
a bit of a folk hero
among aficionados.

So tonight we are
having a little,

more or less party,
get together.

Celebration of life.

That sounds like someone died.
No one died.

We are having, uh...

a little party at
the speakeasy.

We do this probably
three times a year.

They've got a great selection.

I mean, it's not
a huge store, but,

this is the only place
in Nashville that sells

Heaven Hill...

...by like the gallon.

Sometimes they have
stuff in the back.

Might be worth asking about.

Is that all the bourbon
you got,

or you might have one
in the back?

Is this the 22, or the...

Yeah, 22.

I will definitely
be picking this up.

Yeah. So I am very happy.

Picking up
the limited edition.
Four Roses, Elliott's Select.

[woman] We always hire
a bartender to work
all of our parties.

And typically,
it's just kind of
your normal bartender.

But this time really
we want the mixologist
of Nashville.

And so we were just kind of
looking around and researching

and finding out
who that might be.

We found some stuff online
about this guy named
Jonathan Howard.

So I'm following it up,
finding him on Instagram,
I think.

He came up with some
special drinks to make
for us tonight.

[Jonathan]
When I'm making a drink,
especially the bourbon,

I think there's
a lot more that is
to be said of the spirit

than just stirring it
in Old Fashion or
stirring it in Manhattan.

Both beautiful drinks,
but I like to go with,

you know, honey,
which is gonna bring
out some of that...

some of the honey qualities
of the whiskey,
'cause they are there.

And then lemon juice.

Just something that's
really easy and good to drink

and they're just balanced
or really pretty.

You know, I like
drinks like that.

I like taking
sort of the spirit

no matter what it is,

and saying, "Okay, this
is what's always done with it.

I would rather do this."

[Paul]
Bourbon is much needed
in today's climate.

Everyone is always busy.

If you ask how someone
is doing,

good, they're busy.

And because bourbon is not
meant to be shot,

you know, it's meant
to be enjoyed,

I think bourbon is going
against the grain of society

and returning to where
we all come from.

So I just think intrinsically,

bourbon is
a great pause button.

And that to me is

direly needed in
today's current climate.

I'm Elon Musk
and I'm making cocktails

in Enoteca in Lexington,
Kentucky today.

[laughter]

I'm Seth Brewer and I am
making a cocktail for you all

at Enoteca in
Lexington, Kentucky.

Today we are making
the Winner's Circle.

It is a Maker's Mark cocktail.

So what we're gonna do is
we're gonna pour in one jigger

of our Maker's Mark.

We are then gonna use
three quarters

of an ounce of
Gents ginger syrup
from here in Lexington.

Three quarters Jack Rudy
Elderflower Tonic.

And three quarters

Giffard Pamplemousse rose
pink grapefruit liqueur.

Just a little shake.

And we will top with
a bing cherry

that has been marinated in
that same Giffard Pamplemousse
pink grapefruit liqueur.

And there you have
a Winner's Circle.

[Bob] After the Civil War,
bourbon was hot.

The peace dividend
was paying off.

People wanted to enjoy
distilled spirits.

The opportunity was so good
that you had people come
to the table

that wanted to shortcut
the whole system.

They didn't want
to build a distillery

and sit on the stuff
for a couple of years.

They wanted to make
a quick buck.

[Marianne]
You didn't really know where
your whiskey was coming from,

or who made it,
or who might have

tampered with it
before you tasted it.

Before you went to the bar
and got a drink,

or before your doctor
prescribed it to you.

Bourbon was in
such a high demand

that there were these
rectifiers who were making
bourbon overnight.

They'd add either
a neutral spirits,

or they'd add rubbing alcohol
or water.

And since the color
was lighter,

they might put a little
tobacco spit in there

to get the color back up.

Maybe the bite wasn't there,

so they'd add
just acid to it.

They would look the same
to the naked eye.

And the packaging sort of
betrayed that trust, really.

That original social contract,

of what I put on this label
is what is in this bottle,
was being broken.

People were literally dying.

That's where the name
"Death Drink" comes from.

It was that rectifier era.

To the consumer,
they would go in

and they would see
two bottles of bourbon.

One would be
authentically produced,

according to
standards that are

more or less the same
as how we make bourbon today.

The other was bogus.
Hocus pocus.

It could be
neutral grain spirit

with food coloring
and sugar.

That started to tarnish
the reputation of whiskey.

[Zoeller]
Colonel Taylor was a banker
from Frankfurt, Kentucky,

who eventually got
into distilling.

And anything he did,
he did first class.

He was very proud of what
the distillery looked like.

Very proud of
the product he made.

And he wanted to make sure
that that product got
to the consumer.

In 1887, Colonel Taylor
built a limestone castle
to house his distillery.

In a way, it symbolized

protection for his bourbon
from an industry that

people back then
really couldn't trust.

So he worked for ten years

on the Bottled in Bond Act
of 1897.

[Bob] Bottled in Bond Act
was the first

truth in advertising law
in United States.

Now, think about that.

Didn't start with food,
didn't start with medicine,
didn't start with fuel.

It started with whiskey.

He brought trust,
and transparency,

and authenticity,
and that respect

and that relationship
between the consumer
and the distiller.

This was
a revolutionary moment.

After the Bottled in Bond Act
was passed,

consumers could
walk into the store,
pick up a bottle,

see "Bottled in Bond"
on the label,

and they would be assured
of the quality that
they were getting.

And this changed the story
of bourbon forever.

[Steve] What does it take
for a bourbon

to be considered
Bottled in Bond?

Well, a couple of things.
But first,

I want to shout out
to Colonel Taylor.

I love what you did
with the law.

Okay. Um...

Yeah, Bottled in Bond.

Couple of things. First,
the whiskey must be the product

of one distillation season,

one master distiller,

and one distillery.

Second, it must be aged

in a federally
bonded warehouse

under U.S. government
supervision for
at least four years.

And third,
it must be bottled
in glass at 100 proof.

Like you're even gonna put it
in a plastic bottle.

So, next time you're at
the liquor store,

grab yourself a bottle
of bonded bourbon

and rest assured,

you got the real deal.

Like you think is this...

Is this bonded bourbon?

No.

This is in plastic.

Hey, Petey,
you're gonna say hi?

You're not gonna say hi today?
All right.

Petey is a blue-fronted Amazon.

We've just
acquired him recently.

His long time owner
passed away last year.

And birds live to be
about 70-years-old.

So Petey is about 35.

And we'll have him
for the rest of his life.

[narrator]
This is Nick Laracuente,

and he's an archaeologist.

No, he doesn't
have a fedora.

But he does
have a parrot.

And a snake that he's not
crazy about named,

of all things, Gabrielle.

Him and I,
we don't get along too well.

I married into...
Married into him.

[narrator] But he does
love bourbon.

So much so that he and
a team of volunteers

spend their nights
and weekends

scouring the woods
of Kentucky

looking for what remains

of some of the nation's
first distilleries.

And what they found thus far
has been pretty amazing.

In October of 2016,

Nick and his comrades helped
unearth what some have dubbed
the Bourbon Pompeii.

Long forgotten fermenting vats

at the Buffalo Trace
Distillery,

dating back to 1873.

Today they're heading out
to a new site

and they've invited us
to come along.

[Nicholas] Today we're heading
out to the Frazier Distillery.

It's an industrial distillery
in Woodford County

built around 1860-ish,
I believe.

And burnt down
about 1908.

It was rebuilt just in time
for Prohibition.

And around Prohibition
I think it just went
out of business.

Maybe it was
salvaged for parts.

But this is only
our second day out there.

So let's stage the equipment
over in this area.

Put all the tarps and
equipment and stuff in here.

Let me get Carl situated
and we're gonna let him
just run with it.

You're probably gonna hit
a lot of rock right in here.

Because there is remnants
of a stone wall there.

And it looks like it might
have run up even
with this thing.

-And so we are inside?
-Inside.

We're underneath the mashing
floor right now.

Fermenting vats would
have been over there.

Still would have been
over there.

And don't know how it
changed over time.

[beeping]

I'm gonna be down
at the end that way.

This is just another
piece of metal scrap
it looks like here.

Piece of bark.

We found bark. Yes.

A piece of brick.

Oh, look at that.

Coal.

Yeah.

So a piece of coal.

-That's a good thing.
-That's a good thing.

They were using coal
to run the boilers,
which were right back here.

[metal detector whining]

[detector beeping rapidly]

As we went down and we
started examining an area,

we noticed a lot of charcoal.

Likely from the burning
of the distillery.

And then we saw that.

I was like, "That looks odd."

It's a nice rounded shape,
and, uh...

As I looked at it, corn has
that little distinctive dent
in there...

I was like, "Oh, we got corn."

My eyes got wide.

My hair stood up on end
and I yelled, "Nick!"

[man] How old are we talking?

This is from
the distillery fire.

-That was what, um, 19--
-1908.

-1908?
-Mm-hmm.

So just a little over
hundred years.

[narrator]
Okay, so they found
some bricks,

a couple of nails,
and a piece of corn.

Not quite the lost ark
you think of

when you hear
the word "archaeologist."

But maybe the story of
bourbon isn't all glamorous.

Sometimes it's just
regular people

working really hard
on something they
really love.

That's kind of cool.

Every day, thousands upon
thousands of pounds of grain

roll into distilleries
all across Kentucky.

This is Brian. And he
inspects every load of grain

that comes into
the Four Roses distillery
by hand.

Or more accurately
by nose.

[Brian] Every load
that comes in here,

is smelt
before it's loaded.
Always.

That's the very
first thing.

If it doesn't pass that,

then there's no sense
of letting the rest of it.

[narrator]
So here's the question.

After Brian ensures that
the grain are free of
mold and moisture,

how do they become bourbon?

These are the three grains
that we use to produce
Four Roses.

Of course, we have the corn,
rye and the malted barley.

And this is what it looks like
when it's milled down.

We use the corn
for the sweetness.

The rye for nice and spicy
structured flavors.

The malted barley, it imparts
maybe a little bit of flavor.

But we use this primarily
for the enzymes

that are inside
the malted barley.

From here, they go into
the masher.

And the mash begins.

[Potter] A mash bill
is simply a recipe.

What are the ingredients
you're gonna use,

and in what percentage are
you gonna use those

in order to make
your whiskey.

This is our cooker.

This is where the mashing
process takes place.

We're taking all the grains
that are in the process,

we're adding the heat
and the water

to gelatinize all the starches
within the grains,

so that the yeast can come in
and ferment the sugars that
are inside the grains.

This is the fermenter room.

The fermenters, that's where
the magic happens.

After the mashing,
we send that to a drop tub,

it gets cooled,
sent to the fermenters,

and then we inoculate it
with the yeast.

[Potter] The role of yeast in
the bourbon making process

is pretty simple.

We've converted starch to sugar
during the mashing process.

And then the yeast
eats the sugar

and produces alcohol.

[Brent]
We've hand selected five
different strains of yeast

that each creates its
own different flavors.

Some create spicy flavors,

some create fruity,

some create floral,
some herbal.

So each one of these yeasts

creates different flavors
through fermentation

based on its strength.

This is our column still,
it's made of pure copper.

Four feet diameter,
45 feet tall.

This is where the distillation
happens.

[Potter]
We do a double distillation,

which is pretty common
for most people.

And at first distillation
its solid separation.

So you wanna
separate out all the grain

from that alcohol water mix.

[narrator] As you may
or may not know,

Alcohol comes to a boil at
a much lower temperature
than water.

So to separate the alcohol
from the mash,

distillers heat the mash
in the still

and the alcohol is
volatilized,

aka, turned to steam.

As the alcohol vapor rises,
it's captured.

And when it cools,
it condenses back
into a liquid.

It's then distilled
a second time,

purifying it even further.

This is a White Dog.

This is the final product.

This is about 140 proof.

What we'll do now is,
we'll ship this off to
our warehousing facility,

it'll be cut to 120 proof
and put in a barrel.

In five years this will
be bourbon.

[Freddie] If you come to
this whiskey business

in your early 20s,

and with everything you know
about making whiskey,

you make the very best
batch of whiskey you know
how to make.

Everything that
you've learned,

your family has been
able to share...

You make that batch of whiskey,

you're gonna release
expressions of it.

But when your last barrel
from that batch

reaches its maturity,

you're not 45-years-old.

And that was your first batch.

So you make another batch,

based on everything you
learned from your first batch.

By the time you go through
that process again,

and your last barrel
reaches its maturity,

you're about 75-years-old.

In this industry, what most
people don't realize

it is very, very rare

that an old whiskey guy
like us

ever gets to taste
their third batch

to its final maturity.

That's the legacy you leave
for the next generation.

You get to think about that.

You're thinking,

"I'm tasting

what they didn't get
a chance to taste."

So here's the deal.

Water is your friend.

Okay?

Limestone water has
a special property.

It has a lot of calcium,
a lot of minerals in it.

When water passes through
this limestone,

it filters out the iron,

which really gives whiskey
a bad taste.

So it's a little bit
softer and sweeter.

Okay?

You got that in one hand.

And this is
your Buffalo Trace.

Now, here's what
we're gonna do.

So you've had a chance
to play around
with the White Dog.

So you've already gotten
acclimated to

the smell and
what the White Dog
is all about.

So now we're gonna
let our palate

take over after
this White Dog

has been in the barrel
for a while.

So what I want you
to do for me is,

I want you to take a sip
of the water first.

Now take a tiny sip
of your Buffalo Trace.

Just a little tiny sip
of the Buffalo Trace.

Now come right back
with the water again.

But this time, hold a little
bit of the water in
your mouth.

Okay? And with the water
in your mouth,

take another sip of that
same Buffalo Trace.

With the water in your mouth.

And just roll it around on
your tongue for a little bit.

Okay? And all of a sudden
you realize...

Well, I can taste a little
bit if the charr,

little bit of an oaky, woody
kind of a taste profile to it.

And a little bit of
an alcohol burn.

But the finish is
kind of smooth.

And each time you go
back for your next sip,

reduce the amount of water
that you're holding in
your mouth.

And gradually you get
acclimated down to neat.

Straight up.

What that allows you
to understand

how much of a dilution do
I want with this bourbon

to enjoy the flavors
that I enjoy.

So in the industry there is
no right or wrong way
to drink bourbon.

Whether it's
a flick of water,

two flicks of water,

one ice cube,
two ice cubes,

chilled, poured over ice.

Okay? Crushed ice.

All those things
are components
in releasing different flavors

to the bourbon.

Cool?

All right. So, the right way
to drink bourbon

is just the way
you like it.

All right.

My name's Jake Sullic.
I'm a bartender here
at OBC.

Today I'm gonna be making
a smoked Old Fashioned

using two dashes of homemade
Abbott's Bitters,

two dashes of Fee Brothers
Cherry Bitters.

Then we're gonna sweeten this
with what's called

a fall simple syrup.

It's a traditional
simple syrup.

It's infused with cinnamon,

apple peels and all-spice.

Two ounces of your bourbon.

This is a mix of wood chips
and barrel charr.

And we got a smoked
Old Fashioned.

[Jackie]
There is a slaughterhouse
right there.

And when the wind
catches it just right,

it's like a cloud of death
coming over you.

Oh, and at night you drive by,
you can hear 'em squealing.

Yeah, it's like...
[squealing]

[narrator] I'd like to
introduce you to
Jackie Zykan.

Master bourbon specialist
for Old Forester.

Which is a fancy way of saying
she gets paid to enjoy bourbon.

She's agreed to take us out
and show us some of
the sights and sounds

of Louisville, Kentucky.

Our first stop,
a little haunt known as
Old Town Liquors.

-Hey, what's up?
-How are you?

-Good. How are you?
-Nice to see you.

Do you have something new?

I do. We've got this
Maker's barrel pick.

So we tried to
blend some stabes

where we got a whiskey
that was

kind of like
an old style whiskey,

real caramely,
chocolatey.

[Jackie] It's like if you only
ate the outside layers
of a Milky Way.

[laughs]
I'm sorry.

Always a sniff first.
It's not like wine.
You're not like...

Like all up in it.

Your mouth open.

In through your nose
and your mouth.

Set this on
your top lip.

Give yourself a little
tasting glass mustache,
like...

And you breathe it in,

and then you get everything
except the burn.

If you do it straight on,
you're gonna fry your nose out

and you're not gonna
smell anything.

And then you taste,
and you taste again,

'cause the first taste,
no matter how
good the whiskey,

always tastes
like gasoline.

It always does.
It's always intense.

-Hey, Jim.
-Hey.

Let's see.

Stash back here

E.H. Taylor seasoned wood.

I'm gonna invent
the disposable
tasting glass.

-Are you?
-I am.

-Don't.
-[laughs]

Yes, sir.

Man, this is gonna be
a really weird one.

-Hay?
-I'll give you that.

Is there a weird hay
going on?

Hay.

It sounded so bad.

-Thank you.
-Take care.

We're at Butchertown Grocery.

A little neighborhood
called Butchertown.

It's just outside of
downtown Louisville.

We're gonna stop in and
say hi to my friend Kyle.

He's a bartender here.

He's one of the best
in the city.

Kyle Higgins.

-How are you?
-Good. Good to see you.

-Cocktails? Yes.
-Of course.

-Would you like to see
the list?
-Yes.

[Kyle] Well, bourbon is rich.

There's a lot of depth
goes into bourbon cocktails.

And there are so many
different ways that you can
play off that.

[Jackie] Yeah, there's
a whole different complexity,

because you're starting with
something that already has

a diverse flavor
going on,

and you're playing that up.

You're trying to accentuate.

You're trying to wear
a green tie with a pink shirt,

'cause it makes the shirt
look pinker.

You're not trying to put on
a pink shirt on top
of a pink shirt.

You're not trying
to cover it up.

You're saying,
"Oh, it's got vanilla.

What goes with vanilla?"

You're pairing off of flavors
that are already in the glass.

It's perfect.

This is my joyful tiered
spread's garnish.

[narrator] We ended the night
at a place called Meta.

And they're famous
for jello shots.

But not just any
jello shots.

So originally the idea
for doing a fancy jello shot

actually came just as
a pure idea.

At the same time,
I'm like trying to
get my hands on Pappi.

So I was like getting
really angry
and I was like,

I'm tired of people
coming in here

and asking for it.

If I get this stuff,
I'm making jello shots.

And then we got it,
and I was like...

Well, I said I would.

So I did.

You gotta take your...

Yeah, you gotta
do the whole...
pinky's out.

-Ready for this?
-Yeah, I think so.

Here's how you do it.

Tastes great though,
right?

[mouthful]
Yeah, it's so good.

Dude...

I just don't think
that bourbon is about

sitting around like you're
drinking like

really crazy,
over aged stuff

that people sit in a boardroom
and talk about it.

Bourbon really tops out
at its best at around
12-years-old.

Bourbon has always been
about fellowship,

and I feel like not only
when you age it do you

degrade the spirit
in terms of quality,

but I think that you
degrade the fellowship.

Because you lose that
opportunity to
share it with people.

Bourbon is about being with
people that you care about

and having fun.

And it's a little bit
about love.

That's what bourbon is
to me.

[Steve] When you order
a bourbon neat,

you're asking for it
in its purest form.

Room temperature,
no ice, no mixers.

Completely undiluted.

Now, you might like
the thought of this,

but if it's just a little
strong at first,

don't be afraid to add
a few drops of water.

This will help open up
some of the flavors

and smooth out some
of the rough edges.

And don't worry about

ruining anything.

Your bourbon is bold enough to
handle whatever you
throw at it.

[swishing]

[narrator]
So we've already heard

about the Bottled in Bond Act
of 1897.

And for the next 20 years,

bourbon thrived
in America.

But then Prohibition
came along,

and almost killed
the industry.

However,
bourbon is resilient,

and it survived.

In 1933, Prohibition
was repealed,

and for the next 30 years,
the industry rebuilt itself

and once again
boomed in America.

[Marianne]
So let's fast-forward.
It's 1964,

and this is an enormous
year for bourbon.

It's finally recognized by
the federal government

as America's native spirit.

You can only make bourbon
in the United States.

Bourbon now has
an identity.

You know, after 1964,

we know where all
bourbon comes from.

This is a watershed year
for bourbon.

[Zoeller]
There were huge distilleries

pumping out immense
amount of product.

But after the revolution

that the United States had
in the '60s,

the younger generation did not
want to do what their
parents had done.

[Bob]
Amidst the backdrop
of the 1960s,

you had shift in
cultural preferences.

People didn't wanna drink
what their dad drank.

People wanted to do
something different

from what the previous
generation had done.

Bourbon's not cool
anymore.

[Harper] They found vodka
and they found beer.

They found wine.

The bars, they wanna
find what's hot
and what's not.

Ans so you saw
in the big markets

lot of martini bars.

You saw commercials
on TV in the 80s...

I remember two old guys
sitting on a porch
drinking a wine cooler.

There are many ways to
use the bottles in James
Premium Wine Cooler.

One lady in Massachusetts
even uses it to make bread.

Outside of Kentucky,
people didn't know
what bourbon was.

I'd go to New York,
San Fransisco...

You looked on the shelf,
there were no bourbons
on the shelf.

[Bob] The bourbon industry
tried to adapt,

in the sense that they
wanted to make a spirit

that looked more like
that consumers wanted.

A clear spirit.
Tequila, vodka, or gin.

They tried to make
light whiskey.

[Marianne]
So they would take this
beautifully aged

four to six, to eight
year old bourbon

and they wold filter it to
the point it was clear,

because they were trying to
make it more attractive

to this consumer
who wanted
a clear spirit.

But what they did was strip
out everything that was
good about it.

It was a futile effort.

There was nothing that
they could do

to attract the consumer
to bourbon.

So distillery after distillery
started to close.

It was really a sad time
for the industry.

There were a number of
excellent distilleries

that were sold to large
conglomerates

who simply closed
the distillery.

Many, many wonderful brands

disappeared and will
never return.

The bourbon industry
was considered
the old folks' drink.

And clear liquids,
the vodkas and the rums

and the cocktails and
all that had come into vogue.

And what happened was

these old distilleries had

thousands and thousands
of barrels of bourbon

just sitting around.

There was no demand
for them.

So they just sat quietly
aging in warehouses.

When I got out of school
in the '60s,

the bourbon industry
was dead,

so I moved away.

I got recruited
by another company

and that was my life.
Okay?

I was in operations
and engineering

and did a bunch of
pretty cool stuff.

And my dad was so proud,

but he also wished I had
worked this distillery.

He calls me up one day
and he says...

He says,
"I got some good news
and some bad news."

And I said, "Okay, Dad,
what's the good news first?"

He said, "Well, the good news
is I love you."

I said, "All right, Dad,
what's going on?"

He says, "Well,
I'm terminally ill."

And he says, "I'm asking if
you will keep your promise

and take care of me."

And what he was really asking
me to do was come home.

But during that
period of time,

he said he wanted me
to start working down here

and I didn't realize
the significance of it

until he started coming
down here

and he started
talking to me.

And we would do a toast.

Every day I came in
from this distillery

we'd do a toast thanking
the Lord for
another day together.

To share thanks.

And, um...

He would come down here
with me sometimes

and say, "Did I tell
you about this?"

"Don't forget this."

"How about this?"

"Remember this."

And I realized it's more
than me coming back here

and just working
at the distillery.

He was passing

all this information down.

So when you're tasting
really good bourbon,

and you just let it
linger on your palate,

you appreciate
how it got there.

And it's not just grains

and a piece of wood.

It's the care

that make it taste
like it does.

There are 286 barrels
on a truck.

So what we're gonna do is
we're inspecting those barrels.

We're looking for
any defects

in that barrel.

Most people don't realize
the shape of a barrel

has absolutely nothing
at all to do

with the aging of bourbon.

It's just so you can
move it around.

Full of whiskey it weighs
550 pounds.

[Marianne] 50 to 70%
of the taste
of what's in the bottle

comes from the barrel.

That will depend on
how you distill it,

what your barrel
entry proof is,

what your grain recipe is,

how flavorful the distillate is
before it goes in.

So it's somewhere between
50 and 70%.

[Freddie] A newly charred
white oak barrel

traditionally is gonna be
about 70 to 100 years old.

White oak tree is
to bourbon

what a grapevine is to wine.

What peat is to scotch.

It's where your tree grows
for those 70 to 100 years

that the roots have been
busy picking up flavors

from whatever grew around
the base of that tree.

So the soil,

clay, decomposing foliage
and vegetation

are all factors in that

taste profile of the barrel.

When a cooper
builds a barrel,

it's not just a barrel.

There's 30-33 stages
in the making of a barrel.

So theoretically,

you can have
33 different trees

in the making of that barrel.

So it's more than
just a barrel.

Because each one of staves

brings a component
to the taste profile
of that product.

[Chad] We use the best
white oak logs we can find
on the market.

All of those white oak logs

were processed at our
individual state mills.

So we're able to control
the quality of that.

When it gets to our facility,

we raise all the barrels
on our own.

We own our own cooper just
so we can do some
unique things here.

One of those unique things
is we toast
every single barrel.

So every single barrel is put
on a high radiant heat.

Attracts all of those flavors
to the inner part of the barrel

where the whiskey or
bourbon's gonna touch.

From there it's gonna go over
to the charred fire.

And at the charred fire,
that's where it's actually

caramelizing those flavors
that were brought
to the surface.

[Zoeller] The charr allows
the whiskey to get into

the barrel's staves.

And that's where
those flavors are.

The longer
it's in that barrel,

the more of those flavors
it's picking up.

[serene music playing]

[Marianne] I believe
that the maturation is really

the magical part.

It's the one part
that you can't
honestly control.

It just happens
how nature wants it to.

Bourbon takes time.

You don't make it today
and sell it tomorrow.

You know, you gotta
put it in the barrel,

let nature take over,

hot summers,
cold winters.

You need both.

In hot summers,
the whiskey expands,

goes into the wood.

In winter time,
when it gets cold,

it contracts and comes out.

That's where we get
all the color

and a lot of the flavor.

So that's where
you gotta be patient.

You gotta leave it alone,

put it away in a rack house,

and let nature
take over.

You can hold
a 18-16 year old scotch

up against
a 10 year old bourbon
any day of the week,

because of some of
the climate effects
we have here.

Folks have come here
with scotches that may be
30-40 years old,

but there's a huge difference

in aging in Kentucky

versus aging in Scotland.

[Tom] And if you
have ever been
to Scotland,

you will have noticed that
the weather is
uniformly dreadful.

About which "uniform"
is what I wanna emphasize.

Scotland sits in
the middle of the North Sea,

washed by the Gulf Stream.

Weather doesn't move
around a lot.

Here, the jet streams swings
over and above Kentucky,

so we get extreme
weather conditions.

Those weather conditions allow

the shrinkage and expansion
of the liquid

and the barrel,

which marries barrel
to the liquid

and ages the whiskey.

So it's an ideal environment.

These old warehouses are
like golf clubs
or tennis rackets.

They have sweet spots.

And when the settlers
first built

old warehouses like this,

they understood the rotation
of the earth,

they understood basically
temperature variations

and effects that would
have on whiskey.

The effect of sunlight
on the barrels.

Things like that.

And so, when they built
these things,

they knew exactly
what they were doing.

So when you go into
these warehouses,

and you start pulling samples
from the different barrels

in different areas,

you will stumble upon barrels
that produce exceptionally

smooth, sweet flavors.

[Seth]
This is bourbon before
it becomes bourbon.

This is the White Dog

before it is aged
in barrels.

And that is bourbon.

After the aging,
that's what you get.

It's picked up the influence

of those caramelized sugars

and it's picked up all
those beautiful brown colors

from the barrel.

All those flavors that we
associate with bourbon.

You can't control
the seasons.

You can't control how long
the summer is,

or how hot it gets
outside.

The nature, the composition
of the wood

from tree to tree,

it's not gonna
be the same.

From season to season,
it's not gonna be the same.

So each individual barrel

is gonna have
an individual character.

And I think that's
pretty magical.

[Jason] Don't anybody
look into the bright light.

That's all I gotta say.

I don't need a glove.
I'm good.

Oh, man. Oh, sorry!

[narrator]
This is Jason Cohen.

And this is his
father-in-law, Jerry.

Jason's a furniture maker.

And his medium is
used bourbon barrels.

[Jason] White oak is one of
the hardest woods out there.

Every piece of the barrel...

I think there's anywhere
from 34 to seven pieces
in a barrel,

are all gonna be
a different size.

Even though it might
look the same,

you put two pieces
next to each other,

they're gonna have
a different curve,

they're gonna have
a different width.

So trying to make things
with that is
extremely challenging.

Nothing's ever the same.

But it also makes it
extremely exciting.

This is a mannequin
for a liquor company

made out of barrel staves

and metal.

I've always liked
to fix things.

I was broken when I was 15.
I was in a car accident.

Wasn't wearing my seatbelt
with your dad.

Back then, nobody did
in the 80s, really.

We got in a car accident,

and I fell out
of the window

and ruined the use of
my left hand.

This girl I was dating
looked at my hand and said,

"You're never gonna
work with your hands.

You're never gonna
be anybody."

And it just all of a sudden
clicked one day,

I need to do something.

And so, ever since then,

I've always wanted just
to fix things.

So I started fixing chairs,

and bought a lathe
and started turning stuff.

And then I ran into some guy
who made soya sauce
in bourbon barrels.

And that was it.

I had to make stuff out
of these recycled barrels

he kept throwing away.

There's a nice line here.

Another line here.

Here. That's the actual
penetration

of the bourbon
into the wood.

I mean, that's half the way in

to an inch
and an eighth stave.

So it really is taking
what's in the wood

out into the bourbon.

My life needed fixing,

and this is what repaired me

was wood working.

I was broken and these things
were broken, too,

and now I'm
putting them together

and their new form
and now they're
beautiful again.

[Steve] While bourbon
is aging in a barrel,

moving in and out of
the stave

during the different seasons,

distillers lose three percent

of their whiskey to
evaporation each year.

This loss of volume

is known as
the Angel's Share.

So think about it.

After 10 years
in the barrel,

the angels will have taken
about 30% of your bourbon.

Good for them.

Shh.

[speaking Japanese]

[Marianne] In the mid-1980s,
bourbon was at its lowest.

Nobody wants bourbon.

There was a group of guys
in the bourbon industry

and they were looking for
a way to revive bourbon.

And it all started with
a guy named Elmer T. Lee.

Elmer T. Lee was
the Master Distiller of H&H.

[man]
My grandfather was here
for 52 years.

He and Colonel Blanton met
on the riverbank behind
the distillery as kids.

Colonel Blanton started to
work at this distillery

at the age of 16.

And by the time he was 35,

he was the president
of this distillery.

During that period of time,

my grandfather and
Colonel Blanton
had remained friends.

And when Colonel Blanton
started to run the distillery,

he invited my grandfather

to come in
and work the warehouses.

Because of his working
in these old warehouses

Grandad discovered

there were certain areas
of these warehouses

that had
aging characteristics

that produced
exceptionally sweet,

smooth tasting
barrels of bourbon.

The honey barrel.

Colonel Blanton would use
those barrels of bourbon

to sway political favors

with the government.

So Grandad was here
for like 52 years
with Colonel Blanton.

Along comes my dad.

My dad and Elmer were in
the military at the same time.

They became friends.

And Elmer was looking for
something to jumpstart
the industry.

Dad had learned
from my grandfather

where these old honey barrels
were in the warehouses.

And Elmer had Dad go in
and pull
some of those barrels.

That became the taste profile
of Blanton's as we know it
today.

Up until this point,

all bourbon was
batched together.

So you were seeing
100-200 barrels

mingled together to create
a consistent profile.

Elmer T. Lee had this idea
of taking a single barrel,

a honey barrel,

something that
was very special,

had a unique profile,

and showcasing just that.

Bottling it one at a time.

In 1984, he comes out
with a product

that's more expensive than
any other bourbon
in the market.

Blanton's
single-barrel bourbon.

And that's really the shot
that's heard around the world.

[Michael] Jim Bean decided,
you know, "We need
to do something."

But Booker didn't like
single barrel,

because it was inconsistent.

If you're doing
a true single barrel,

it's going to be inconsistent,

because it's hard to get
two barrels that taste
exactly alike.

The way you get consistency
is by mixing the barrels.

So he came up
with this idea

of small batch.

[Zoeller] If you make it
an exclusive product,

such as a small batch,

or a single barrel,

you're creating a category
that's not ordinary.

You create something

that will be sought after.

We got Elmer T. Lee
and Booker Noe

working on their single barrel
and small batch products.

And then we see Bill Samuels
of Maker's Mark

and Jimmy Russel
of Wild Turkey

that were getting out
and spreading the word.

They were going to bars.

They were going into
retail shops

and the restaurants
and talking to people.

They were sharing
the stories of bourbon

and their family history

and making people
fall in love with it.

It was a slow process,

but eventually,
other distilleries decided

they'd do a small batch,
or a single barrel,

or a special bottling.

And the product just
started its rise.

So we started getting
aficionados

and old bourbon drinkers
returning...

all about flavor.

But then we see that leap

from the old guard
into the new consumer.

And that happens
with the bartenders.

[Potter] People started
playing around with how they
make an Old Fashioned.

They weren't just pulling
out the old bartender's Bible

and making that
exact recipe.

They were mixing it up
a little bit.

And I think it was
very well-received.

And so when you start playing
with some of these
classic cocktail recipes,

kind of opens the door
to do different things.

When I started bartending,

clear spirits, you know,

dominated the back bar.

Vodkas, gins...

Um, more vodkas
and couple more vodkas.

That has changed a lot
over the years.

Kentucky State
Bourbon Whiskey
is where it's at.

It's where the excitement is.

Authentic is cool
once again.

And that's come back around
we want to know where
our product came from.

And anything around
a product's specificity

does add a gravitas

towards a spirit
like bourbon whiskey.

I hope this industry grows,

'cause if it doesn't,
we're gonna have a lot
of bourbon on our hands

aged 10-12 years now,

'cause we're making
a lot of bourbon.

There's four million people
in Kentucky,

and the bourbon distillery
people has got

over six million bourbon
barrels stored right now.

So we got a barrel and a half
for everybody that lives in
Kentucky stored right now.

We cannot turn
the spigot on overnight

and put out a product.

We gotta wait
seven to twelve years here

before we get the product
to the market.

[Potter] The hardest thing
for any distiller

is creating a new product

and, you know,
mashing it,

and then distilling it
three-four days later

and then going in
in the barrel,

and then all of
a sudden just...

Oh, I guess we'll
wait and see what happens.

You have to have patience.

What we're producing today

it's not available till roughly
six and a half, seven
years later.

We're looking long range.

We don't look at
anything near term,

because one thing we
cannot do is buy time.

[Zoeller]
Bourbon cannot be rushed.

It has to go
in the warehouse.

It has to age.

People have tried
to rush that process

and it just can't be done.

I think there's a lot
of parallels with
how bourbon is made,

how it's drank,
how it's enjoyed,

with maybe a lifestyle

that we should be
more pursuant of.

[Bob]
Bourbon will continue
to evolve.

Just like bourbon ages
in the barrel,

it's going to continue
to improve and refine
over time.

Bourbon is eternal.

Bourbon will always be
in the state of Kentucky.

But what bourbon looks
like tomorrow

will be different than
what it looks like today.

It's up to us
to embrace that.

[Marianne] I'm currently
putting my first batch
of bourbon

into these barrels.

And to know that

we trust the cooper
that put 'em together,

I trust the farmer
that supplied our grain,

I have to trust what
we've done in the distillery

is enough to pull
all of that together

and create something beautiful
at the end of the time

that it takes to mature.

So to think about all
that it's gone through

and all that we go through,

there's some
correlations there.

You know, the sunny days
and the snowy days,

they all add up
to be something that

hopefully at
the end of the road
is really beautiful.

[Frankie] When Dad rolled up
the six millionth barrel,

June Van Winkle gave me

as a gift to my dad,

this bottle of
20-year-old Pappy.

So I take the bottle
and I open it up,

and I pour a little bit
in his glass,

pour a little bit
in my brother's glass.

pour some in my glass,

and I go to put the stopper
back in the bottle,

and he looks at me and
he gives me this weird look
and he says,

"What on earth
are you doing?"

I said, "Dad,
I don't understand."

I said, "This is a really,
really good bottle of bourbon.

It's really
being sought after."

He said, "I'm aware of that."

I said...

I said, "So what
I'm thinking is,

I'm just saving it so that
we can do some more toasts
later on."

He says,
"Never ever do that

with friends and family.

There will always be
more old barrels of bourbon
being made."

He says, "Look at me
and look at your brother."

He says, "We're the fragile
part of this whole thing."

He said, "So never ever save
old bottles of bourbon.

They're meant to
be enjoyed

with friends and family
at the moment."

It was the first time that
my father and my brother
and I

had spent three hours
together,

just us.

Talking, laughing,

discussing things
that we had done

that we didn't think
he knew we had done.

And then we started
telling him about things
that he had done

that he didn't know that
we knew he had done.

We had the best time.
We finished the bottle.

Nine months later,
they were both gone.

It's not about the whiskey.

It's about the lives you touch
and the people you meet.

And the whiskey is
a by-product

of a good relationship.

[instrumental music playing]

Hi, I'm Steve,
and this is my version
of an Old Fashioned,

which I call, um...

Tuesday of Fashion Week.

We need a little
bit of corn.

I like, um...

Not much at all.

Yellow corn, or white,

but I prefer that.

Just a little silk.

That...

Some mint.

Ice.

Some bitters.

And bourbon,
of course.

And a little bit of red now.

There.

Also, Swedish fish,
like it's swimming.

Garnished with sour worm.

Or don't garnish it
with the worm.

These are just snacks
while you make drinks.

The Old Fashioned,
or Tuesday at Fashion Week.