Think swimming pools, movie stars. Moonshine with bouquet. Today, people sip rather than swill, letting bourbon settle upon the palate like aged wine, which is not such a preposterous proposition, for there are bourbons on the market so old they could drink. This is bourbon high season, the 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. That most famous of bourbon concoctions, the mint julep, sweats in silver cups at Kentucky Derby soirees around the globe, because bourbon has found a high-proof embrace the world over.
Fans savor a liquor alternatingly sweet and woody but never dull.
In other words, this ain't some cheap buzz anymore. Five or six years ago, when the Kentucky Bourbon Circle, a fan club that's part of the Jim Beam marketing operation, threw a tasting, sometimes only a dozen people would show up. Earlier this year, a tasting in Tampa, Fla., drew more than 250 bourbon partisans. I think marketers would like to take all the credit, but I think it was also the mood of the moment in America. We saw an obsession with single-malt scotches.