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A Tale of Two Families from Kentucky and the Bourbon that brought them TogetherBy Madelyn Miller, the TravelLady
I grew up drinking Shirley Temples. I loved the sweetness and the cherries. When I reached drinking age I asked my mother what drink I would like. She did not hesitate before recommending a whiskey sour. From my first taste, I knew it was a drink I would enjoy many times in my life.
I am older and smarter now, and I understand how much of a difference a great bourbon can make in a Whiskey Sour. But the best Whiskey Sour I ever tasted was at the Lever House in New York City. The bartender told me they only use Bulleit Bourbon. I got interested in finding out more and soon discovered that the roots of Bulleit Bourbon are intertwined with my heritage. I’ll drink a Whiskey Sour to that any time. A SCION OF KENTUCKY BOURBON MAKING REVIVES A FAMILY LEGACYTom Bulleit Evokes the Spirit of Great-Great-Grandfather Augustus, Poised to Join the Ranks of Bourbon’s Legendary Masters
Bulleit's great-great-grandfather Augustus emigrated from France to New Orleans around 1800, eventually following the commerce of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers to Louisville, Ky., where he became a tavern keeper. In keeping with his French heritage, he relied on his knowledge of brandy making to create small batches of Kentucky bourbon that found favor among the settlers of the region in the mid-1800s. Soon his product was traveling with the tide of pioneers headed westward. Business was good, but in 1860, Augustus disappeared while transporting barrels of whiskey to New Orleans, and with him died the making of his legendary bourbon. Until Tom Bulleit came along.
The Bulleit Bourbon recipe calls for less corn and more rye than typical bourbons, and a distillation process that removes the hotter-tasting phenol alcohol in favor of ethyl alcohols, yielding a dry, clean taste. The unique, smooth flavor of Bulleit Bourbon has won over the whiskey world’s most discriminating palates, taking the Brown Spirits Gold Medal at the 2004 San Francisco World Spirits Competition. “What we are creating with Bulleit Bourbon is one of the definitive styles of bourbon currently distilled in this country,” said Tom Bulleit. “It is one of the most distinctive mash bills out there. The high rye content, absence of phenol alcohol and at least six years of aging produces something really special.”
Whiskey Sours are not the only thing I think about when you mention Bourbon. I think of the wonderful Salmon recipe my mother has that uses Bourbon and Brown Sugar. And then I remember her brisket baked in Bourbon. But that is another story. Bulleit Bourbon www.bulleitbourbon.com is proudly owned by Diageo www.diageo.com. The Lever House is located at 390 Park Avenue, New York 10022 Madelyn Miller is a writer and web entrepreneur who writes for www.travellady.com, www.carladynews.com, www.chocolateatlas.com, www.cocktailatlas.com and is working on developing several others. |
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My mother grew up in Louisville, Kentucky. She wasn’t from
a famous family, but she was a real Southern lady. To this day, she loves all
things Southern and her best recipes all have that taste of the South..JPG)
I flirted with Harvey Walbangers when I was in college and
drank some nameless things at fraternity parties. But I always seemed to come
back to Whiskey Sours. 
Tom Bulleit is a Southern gentleman in the truest sense of
the word, but his considerable charm and family pedigree are only part of the
story. Bulleit is a former Marine, a combat veteran of the Vietnam War, a
successful Lexington attorney and the founder of Bulleit Bourbon, a brand he
created based on a family recipe dating back nearly 200 years. He’s married to
the former Elizabeth Callaway Brooks, a descendent of frontier explorer Daniel
Boone. And like any upright Southerner worth his salt, Bulleit has a true tale
of adventure and mystery that comes with the family name..JPG)
Tom Bulleit was raised in Louisville, an area recognized by
many as the “Bourbon Capital of the World.” He worked in distilleries before
joining the Marine Corps in 1968. Bulleit served for two years with the 1st
Marine Division as a medical corpsman in I Corps north of DaNang. He returned
to the U.S., went to law school on the G.I. Bill, and got married. During his
law career, Bulleit became actively involved in the campaign for a Vietnam
veteran’s memorial in Washington, D.C. Since the memorial’s dedication in 1982,
he has twice delivered speeches there..JPG)
But Tom Bulleit couldn’t get bourbon out of his blood. His
knew of the mysterious demise of Augustus from his grandfather’s storytelling,
but the question lingered – what really happened? Some say he was murdered by
his partner, others contend that he quietly vanished into the sumptuous life of
the French Quarter. In 1987, Tom Bulleit decided to venture into a new frontier
of his own. He successfully created Bulleit Bourbon from the original recipe
that made his great-great-grandfather's whiskey so exceptional..JPG)
“I always loved the business,” Bulleit said. “My father
couldn’t understand why I would leave a successful law practice, but I was
attracted to the creative and entrepreneurial challenges of making this brand of
bourbon, and doing it right. I guess you could say it became a passion of mine,
and it still is.”
The Bulleit legacy is a compelling chapter in the story of
Kentucky bourbon making, the most American of spirits. Tom Bulleit resurrected
a whiskey that was not only a lost piece of one family’s history, but the
history of an American era. He now stands as one of the few remaining scions of
a Kentucky bourbon making family whose name is on the bottle. As Bulleit
Bourbon expanded its distribution to all 50 U.S. states and across three
continents, the family legacy and the pleasure of enjoying this splendid spirit
will soon be known the world over.