All-American spirit takes flight(1)
The new hipness of whiskey cocktails has proved a boon to bourbon. Bourbon oak barrels are charred in Kentucky. Photographs by Luke Sharrett for The New York Times
LOUISVILLE, Kentucky - Bourbon, a singularly American spirit, is undergoing a boom. At a time when many American industries are struggling, distillers here are cashing in on an American renaissance in whiskey-based cocktails, as well as a growing thirst for bourbon around the world.
"Bourbon and rye are now hip among young American trend-setters like we've never seen before," said Charles K. Cowdery, author of "Bourbon, Straight: The Uncut and Unfiltered Story of American Whiskey."
Bourbon is a product America still makes better than anyone else - and, in a way, it always will be. That is because the U.S. Congress decreed in 1964 that "bourbon whiskey is a distinctive product of the United States."
Three elements make bourbon unique: American corn, pure limestone water and new, charred oak barrels.
"It is the people's drink," said Fred Sarkis, a bartender at the Sable Kitchen and Bar in Chicago. "It doesn't get more American than whiskey."
And people not only in the United States but abroad are drinking more of it. Global supplier sales of bourbon and Tennessee whiskey reached $3.8 billion in 2011, versus $3.7 billion in 2010, according to Euromonitor International. (Bourbon is a type of whiskey.)
