Bourbon has had its share of ups and downs over the last couple of hundred years, and it isn’t going anywhere soon. Here are some of its key developments and most memorable moments:
1821–1960s
• 1821: A newspaper in Bourbon County, Kentucky, runs an advertisement for “Bourbon Whiskey” by the barrel or keg, the first known appearance of that phrase in print.
• 1826: A Kentucky grocer sends a letter to distiller John Corlis placing an order and recommending that “if our barrels should be burnt upon the inside” it would much improve the whiskey.
• 1830s: Bourbon makers begin branding their distillery’s name onto barrel heads, giving rise to the term “brand name.”
• 1870: George Garvin Brown introduces Old Forester, the first bourbon exclusively sold in a sealed glass bottle.
• 1880s: Displeased with the flavor a ryegrass straw imparted to his mint julep, Marvin Chester Stone invents the first modern drinking straw by spiraling a piece of paper around a pencil and gluing the ends.
• 1897: The Bottled in Bond Act, often considered the country’s first consumer protection law, establishes a federal stamp on bourbons and other aged spirits that adhere to a set of quality standards
• January 17, 1920: The Volstead Act takes effect. More than two hundred distilleries close due to federal Prohibition. Six receive licenses to sell “medicinal” alcohol.
• December 5, 1933: Repeal of federal Prohibition. President Franklin D. Roosevelt states, “I trust in the good sense of the American people.”
• 1938: The government mandates that bourbon must be aged in new, charred oak containers.
• September 10, 1954: Nineteen-year-old Jimmy Russell starts work at what is now Wild Turkey. Today he is the world’s longest-tenured master distiller.
• May 4, 1964: A congressional resolution formally establishes bourbon as a “distinctive product of the United States.”
• 1960s–80s: A growing preference for unaged spirits like vodka and gin leads to declining bourbon sales. Distillers bottle surplus stocks in decorative decanters to entice buyers.
1969–2000s
• 1969: Jack Nicholson, as lawyer George Hanson, introduces the world to a morning tipple of Jim Beam in Easy Rider.
• 1984: Blanton’s, the first commercially available single-barrel bourbon, debuts from Ancient Age Distillery (now Buffalo Trace) to honor former distillery president Albert B. Blanton, who was known for giving friends and VIPs bottles from an exceptional barrel.
• 1988: Frederick Booker Noe II, a grandson of Jim Beam’s, releases his Booker’s Bourbon, the first “small-batch” bourbon.
• 1999: The Kentucky Distillers’ Association, founded in 1880, introduces the Kentucky Bourbon Trail.
• 2000s: A rise in craft distillers, renewed interest in classic cocktails, and increasing global popularity help fuel bourbon’s resurgence.
2007–26
• 2007: The U.S. Senate designates September of that year as National Bourbon Heritage Month. People have been celebrating unofficially every September since.
• 2012: Anthony Bourdain drinks Pappy Van Winkle on an episode of The Layover and proclaims, “If God made bourbon, this is what he’d make.”
• 2015: Distillery worker Gilbert “Toby” Curtsinger and eight others are indicted on charges related to the theft and distribution of some twenty cases of Pappy, in addition to other prized bourbons, in an incident known as “Pappygate.”
• 2018: Bob Dylan launches a line of whiskey and bourbon, Heaven’s Door.
• 2023: The Distilled Spirits Council reports American whiskey revenues reached $5.1 billion domestically in 2022, nearly quadrupling since 2003.
• 2024: The Kentucky Bourbon Trail celebrates its twenty-fifth anniversary, growing from seven original member distilleries to more than sixty total destinations across twenty-seven counties, and attracting more than 2.5 million visitors annually.
• 2025: The Kentucky Distillers’ Association reports a new record of 16.1 million barrels of bourbon now aging in warehouses across the state.
• 2025: Ongoing economic headwinds, oversupply, and changing consumer tastes continue to impact the bourbon industry. Jim Beam, the world’s top-selling bourbon brand, announces in December that it will pause production for 2026 at its primary distillery in Clermont, Kentucky, citing its constant “assessment of production levels to best meet consumer demand.”
• 2026: A private-selection Old Rip Van Winkle twenty-year-old bourbon, bottled in 2003 for Sam’s Wines & Spirits, sells for $162,500 at Sotheby’s Great American Whiskey Collection sale, setting a new record for the most valuable bottle of American whiskey sold at auction.
• September 10–13, 2026: The Kentucky Bourbon Festival, held in Bardstown, will mark its thirty-fifth anniversary. The 2025 event drew more than sixty distilleries and attendees from nearly every state and more than a dozen countries to the “Bourbon Capital of the World.”
