What Started It All. "Made and Bottled in Kentucky"

In his new book Bourbon, the Rise and Fall, and Rebirth of an American Whiskey, Fred Minnick generously credits some of my early bourbon work for ushering in the new era. For me, it all began with my independent production of the documentary, "Made and Bottled in Kentucky." The 25th anniversary of its premiere on Kentucky Educational Television arrives in June. What a long, strange trip it's been.

The one-hour documentary is still available on DVD, either directly from me or from Amazon.

"Made and Bottled in Kentucky" began in 1991 as a book idea. I had yet to write my first book at that point and I didn't know where to start. Most of my experience was in writing and producing videos. When the Kentucky Educational Television Network announced that it had money to fund independent productions on Kentucky subjects, in advance of the bicentennial of Kentucky statehood in 1992, I applied and received one of the first grants awarded. Additional support came from the Kentucky Distillers Association, from a grant it had received from the U. S. Department of Commerce for export promotion.

I began the project with visits to most of the working distilleries in Kentucky, strictly as a research phase. Principal photography took place in the second half of 1991 and first half of 1992. The deadline was June 20 and we were shooting until practically the last minute because we wanted to capture the exteriors in mid to late spring. The first exteriors at Maker's Mark in mid-April had to be carefully framed. The dogwoods were in bloom and the grass was green but the rest of the trees still looked pretty bare.

Our last shot was at the grave of Dr. James C. Crow in Versailles Cemetery. Earlier in the day we had picked up some Elijah Craig 12-year-old, which we passed around and drank straight from the bottle.

Obviously, the documentary looks dated after 25 years, but now that is part of its charm. A lot has happened since. With "Made and Bottled in Kentucky," you can see what bourbon-making looked and felt like in 1991-92, when we had no idea what was to come.

Many of the interview subjects are no longer with us: Booker Noe, Owsley Brown, Ova Haney, Elmer T. Lee, Walter Doerting, and Sam Cecil. Also featured (and still living): Bill Samuels Jr., Max Shapira, Jerry Dalton, Jimmy Russell, Flaget Nally, Dixie Hibbs, Ed Foote and others. All of the interview segments are longer than what you usually see in documentaries today. I was strongly influenced in my style by Donna Lawrence, a Louisville-based producer who didn't like narrators and wanted interview subjects to tell the story in their own words. For that reason, I didn't write the script until after everything was shot. I built the story from the interviews and augmented it with narration.

Making "Made and Bottled in Kentucky" was a great experience and it inspired me to keep studying Kentucky's bourbon culture. The rest, as they say, is history.