Where has the time gone? It has taken me five months to get this issue of The Bourbon Country Reader out. Sorry about that.
I hope the wait will be worth it. I'm doing something different with this issue, devoting the entire thing to a single subject: whiskey maturation.
In my many years of writing about American whiskey, it has struck me that maturation is often short-changed. Perhaps that's because so much of what is going on is invisible and quiet, with no moving parts. Fermentation and distillation are much more dramatic, with myriad sights, sounds, and smells. In contrast, a bunch of wooden barrels sitting in a nondescript building is a snooze.
But you only have to compare 'white dog' to well-aged bourbon to know something akin to magic is going on inside those white oak cocoons.
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Founded in 1994, The Bourbon Country Reader is the oldest publication devoted entirely to American whiskey. It is a charming mix of news, history, analysis, and product reviews. Do you worry that advertising spending influences coverage in other publications? No chance of that here since The Bourbon Country Reader is 100 percent reader-supported. It accepts no advertising.
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