Author name: Chuck Cowdery

Prohibition Killed More Than Just the Liquor Industry

Chicago’s Chapin & Gore in its heyday.When beverage alcohol was outlawed in 1920, people lost jobs and businesses closed. Economic disruption was widespread, affecting not just distillers, brewers, and vintners, and their associated distributors an…

Before Johnny and Amber, There Was Hiram and Mollie

 It was a scandal that rocked the bourbon world in 1880, then faded from the headlines and from memory, as the more recent saga already has for many. It is a timeless tale: older man, younger woman, a heady mix of alcohol and sex followed by …

Has Maker’s Mark Jumped the Shark?

 The latest release in the Maker’s Mark Wood Finishing Series: BRT-01 & BRT-02Would you pay $120 to taste Maker’s Mark’s mistakes? That is the proposition underlying these two new releases from Loretto. Mistakes, you say? Back in 2010, Ma…

How To Explore Whiskey Without Doing Homework

 What to drink next?Can you walk into a store, armed with some basic knowledge, and make a good whiskey purchase without doing any homework in advance? You can if you read the new issue of The Bourbon Country Reader (Volume 21, Number 3).Also, dis…

The Eventful Year 2012

Jim Beam’s American Stillhouse opened in 2012.The last two decades have been a whirlwind for fans of American whiskey. As we start to look back on the year now wrapping up, here’s a peak at what seemed exciting ten years ago, at the end of 2012.One of …

The Truth About Moonshine.

The romanticized image of moonshine.Hate sits alone on the hood of his car.Without much regard to the moon or the stars.Lazily killing the last of a jarof the strongest stuff you can drink.From The Ballad Of Love And Hate by the Avett BrothersOkay, cla…

About That Whiskey Warehouse Demolished Yesterday

 The Nelson Distillery Warehouse, Louisville, looking east from Lexington Road. (Demolished 8/31/2022.)As reported by WDRB.com, the Nelson Distillery Warehouse at Louisville’s Distillery Commons complex is being demolished after an emergency order…

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