Friday, Dec. 5, is a special day in the bourbon world: It’s the 81st anniversary of Repeal Day. On that day, the 21st Amendment was ratified, repealing the 18th Amendment and ending Prohibition. It’s interesting to note that the 18th…
Atherton High School in Louisville is the only high school in Kentucky to be named for a distiller: John McDougal Atherton (1841-1932), whose distillery in his native LaRue County led to the creation of Athertonville, Ky. In Louisville, where he…
We’re coming up on Repeal Day (Dec. 5), one of the greatest days of the year for Bourbon enthusiasts. To demonstrate the fervor with which the temperance movement approached Prohibition, ProhibitionRepeal.com reports that some felt those who drank alcoholic beverages…
During Prohibition, “cruises to nowhere” were a way to circumvent the ban on alcohol. Ships would sail out to international waters and then circle while patrons onboard imbibed (sort of the opposite of today’s casino “boats” that never leave the dock,…
In light of yesterday (Oct. 28) being the 94th anniversary of the day Congress passed the Volstead Act over President Woodrow Wilson’s veto, thus beginning Prohibition, here is an interesting fact from Sam K. Cecil’s book, “The Evolution of the…
The word “speakeasy,” first used to describe an unlicensed saloon around 1890, is the combination of the words speak + easy, from the practice of speaking quietly about such a place in public, or when inside it, so as not…
The Kentucky Distillers’ Association originally formed in 1880, when 32 distillers met at the Galt House in Louisville and organized to protect bourbon from “needless and obstructive laws and regulations.” One pretty big obstructive law, Prohibition, led to the KDA’s…
Established in 2008, Koval Distillery is the first craft distillery within Chicago’s city limits since Prohibition. The name Koval is Yiddish for “blacksmith,” but also refers to a black sheep.
I know lots of people are still celebrating the Ravens, but I have another bird on my mind: Old Crow. More specifically, the 105-year-old bottle of Old Crow that I sampled last week at the Filson Historical Society. This terrific…
Prohibition officially ended at 5:32 p.m. on Dec. 5, 1933. While this was good news for whiskey producers, their happiness was not without qualification. During the long years of the Noble Experiment, many whiskey drinkers had turned to gin, which…
© 2024 The Bourbon Babe
