Business View Magazine | February 2018

238 239 T he Scots have their Scotch, the French and Italians, their wine, the Russians, their Vodka, the Greeks have Ouzo, and we Americans have Bourbon. So important is this corn-based, alcohol product to our nation’s cultural past that Congress actually recognized Bour- bon’s distinctive place in our history by declaring it “America’s Official Native Spirit” in 1964.And 95 percent of the world’s Bourbon is distilled, aged, and bottled in Kentucky. It began in the 1700s with the Blue- grass State’s first settlers. Like most farmers and frontiersmen, they found that getting their crops to market over narrow trails and steep mountains was a daunting task, and they soon learned that converting corn and other grains to whiskeymade them easily transport- able, prevented the excess grain from simply rotting, and, as an added benefit, gave them some welcome diversion from the rough life of the frontier. Farm- ers shipped their whiskey in oak barrels, RADCLIFF, KENTUCKY Radcliff Kentucky BOURBON TOURISM