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One of the great women in the bourbon industry, Margie Mattingly Samuels, will be inducted into the Kentucky Bourbon Hall of Fame during the Kentucky Bourbon Festival in Bardstown next week. Her induction on Sept. 17 will make her the…

Many amusing stories were shared at the Filson’s Historical Society’s recent Bourbon Salon at Oxmoor Farm, “Bourbon Families,” but one of the most amusing involved the grooming habits of Lincoln Henderson, the longtime master distiller of Brown-Forman who came out…

In announcing the inaugural Kentucky Bourbon Affair, which is going on this week, the Kentucky Distillers’ Association promised opportunities to “mix with world-famous master distillers” in unique and intimate settings. They were true to their word. Last night, 20 bourbon…

As part of a plan to embrace Kentucky bourbon as well as thoroughbred horse racing, the Kentucky Derby Museum kicked off a new Legends Series on Jan. 9. Author Fred Minnick (right), hired in October by the Museum as its…

That’s bourbon royalty you’re looking at there, y’all. You might recognize Jimmy Russell, longtime master distiller at Wild Turkey. You might not know his wife, Joretta. She tends to stay in the background when he is holding forth at a…

“If you like bourbon, this will be fun,” Four Roses master distiller Jim Rutledge told Secretariat owner Penny Chenery as he escorted her into the brand’s bottling facility in Cox’s Creek, Ky., where she was to select two single-barrel bourbons…

Making bourbon was once largely a skill that was handed down from generation to generation. But only a few distilleries today carry on that family tradition. One of them is Wild Turkey, where master distiller Jimmy Russell (above) and his…

Jim Beam master distiller Fred Noe began a private tasting for members of the Bourbon Women Association (and a couple of spouses) by sharing the four-step bourbon-tasting process he learned from his father, Booker Noe: 1. Observe the color. Generally, the…

That was the simple-but-profound goal that led to his father’s development of Maker’s Mark, Bill Samuels Jr. said Tuesday night during a tasting at Westport Whiskey & Wine in Louisville (below). Most bourbons in the old days were fiery and…