You would think the folks at the Courier-Journal, Louisville's daily newspaper, would know something about bourbon making. Apparently not, because they keep running this picture with the caption, "Whiskey warehouse owned by Diageo Americas Supply, Inc. Air district went after a whiskey maker for causing a fungus to grow on Louisville homes. Sept. 11th, 2012/ Kylene White/ The Courier-Journal."
Sorry, Kylene, but that is not a whiskey warehouse.
This is what the whiskey warehouses at Diageo Americas Supply Inc. (aka, the historic Stitzel-Weller Distillery) actually look like. Note the similarity.
There isn't any.
I've told them about this, but the first picture ran again yesterday.
If this sort of thing makes you wonder about how reliable other things the paper prints are, well, there you have it.
The Courier-Journal is playing the whiskey fungus story as poor little home owners against uncaring corporate titans, and bashing the mayor for being pro-bourbon, which should be a pretty safe policy in Louisville, Kentucky. In big ways and small, the CJ is also showing its ignorance about a signature Kentucky industry and one of the few bright spots in Kentucky's current economy.
The C-J has been owned by the Gannett Company since 1986. It was locally-owned before that. The difference shows.
What they don't seem to get is that the whiskey fungus (Baudoinia compniacensis) has been hanging around those warehouses for close to 80 years, ever since they were built. It has been on and around other whiskey warehouses in Kentucky for about 150 years. That's about when bourbon started to be aged on a large scale. That doesn't mean there is nothing to talk about. Both sides deserve the right to make their respective cases in the appropriate forum.
Which is not the clueless Courier-Journal.
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