Читать книгу Barrel Strength Bourbon - Carla Harris Carlton - Страница 11

THIS BOOK IS the culmination of years of study—and I’m not just referring to research done while sitting at a bar.

I owe a debt of gratitude to the many folks in the Kentucky bourbon industry who let me tag along while they did their work and answered dozens of questions, among them Master Distillers Jim Rutledge, Jimmy and Eddie Russell, Chris Morris, Harlen Wheatley, Fred Noe, Charlie Downs, Parker and Craig Beam, Denny Potter, Wes Henderson, Steve Beam, John Pogue, and Paul Tomaszewski; Maker’s Mark’s Bill Samuels Jr. and Rob Samuels; Heaven Hill’s Larry Kass and Josh Hafer; Sazerac’s Amy Preske; and Four Roses’ Karen Kushner.

The Kentucky Distillers’ Association (KDA), particularly president Eric Gregory and Adam Johnson, manager of the Kentucky Bourbon Trail program, provided invaluable data and insight. The Kentucky Bourbon Timeline commissioned by the KDA (tinyurl.com/kybourbontimeline) was also a great resource, as was Kentucky Bourbon Whiskey: An American Heritage, by my friend Michael Veach.

Some quotes in this book were taken from Kentucky Bourbon Tales, an oral history project produced by the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History at the University of Kentucky Libraries and the KDA, for which I interviewed Four Roses’ Jim Rutledge and Al Young. For more information, visit nunncenter.org/bourbon.

The KDA also provided photographs for this book, as did a number of individual distilleries (as noted on page) and the Kentucky Department of Travel. (See the copyright page for additional credits.)

Thank you to Jerry Rogers, whose invitation to join the Bourbon Board of Directors at Party Mart has given me many wonderful bourbon-education opportunities.

Thanks also to Stacey Yates for making the introduction that led to this book, and to Tim W. Jackson, senior acquisitions editor at AdventureKEEN, for his patience, his kindness, and his skill in fending off the production team.

Thank you to all of the teachers who honed my use of language, including, but not limited to, Nancy Basham, Pauline Weis, Brenda “The Grammar Goddess” Martin, and James D. Ausenbaugh.

Thank you to my mother, Joyce J. Harris, who read to me every day when I was little, and to my father, Carl Harris, who demonstrated that anything worth doing is worth doing right. Their love and belief in me taught me to believe in myself. I wish my father had lived to see this book, but his delight that I was writing it is enough.

Finally, thank you to my two bright and beautiful children, Harper and Clay, who inspire me to be a better person (and who shot some of the photos in this book), and to my wonderfully supportive husband, Chad, who is a better person but puts up with me anyway. I love you all more than I can say. Cheers!

Interior of Brown-Forman’s office on Louisville’s Whiskey Row, circa 1890 (Photo courtesy of Brown-Forman)