Think of Kentucky and several images come quickly to mind: horse racing, coal, bluegrass, and yes, bourbon. Number one in the nation in the production of bourbon, Kentucky distilleries came to be distinguished for their secret family recipes, limestone-filtered water, and generations of family expertise reaching all the way back to the 1700s. In Bourbon: The Evolution of Kentucky Whiskey, industry veteran and native Kentuckian Sam K. Cecil catalogs a wealth of the lore and the lineages surrounding bourbon, along with an authoritative listing of distilleries in operation from the nineteenth century forward. Whether you are an industry insider seeking facts and figures or you are simply curious about bourbon while sipping, dipping, cooking, or curing, this book distills all the mash into an absorbing look at the history of Kentucky bourbon. Book jacket.

Sam K. Cecil began his career in the whiskey business in 1937 at T. W. Samuels distillery in Deatsville, Kentucky. He then set up a laboratory at Heaven Hill Distillery before moving to J. W. Dant Distillery, where he later set up a laboratory and established their quality control program. In 1954, he joined Bill Samuels at the old Samuels Distillers, later Maker's Mark, at Loretto, Kentucky. He retired from there in 1980 as Vice President of Production and Plant Manager. Since then, he has spent his time traveling with his wife, including visits to distilleries far and wide.