It drawls into a glass, an elixir seared with the amber hue of the dwindling sun swaddling the twin spires of Churchill Downs. These days, it has hitched a ride on the uptown express. Think swimming pools, movie stars. Moonshine with bouquet. This is bourbon's high season, Kentucky Derby week, when the eyes of the sporting world fall upon an oval dirt track where hooves thunder for two minutes and captivate an entire athletic endeavor.
Bourbon is history in a shot glass, liquor with a legend.
I think it's the emphasis on better quality, the taste experience that people are looking for now,'' said Ed O'Daniel, president of the Kentucky Distillers' Association, the trade group for nine major distillers, all of which have an old Kentucky home. That character has attracted an international audience. In fact, bourbon is riding a tsunami of popularity spawned in spots like Japan and Australia. By the 1990s, the overseas market had grown so robust that it was single-handedly keeping some distilleries alive. Thus, the arrival of a brand such as Booker's.