Clay would select several barrels of whiskey to take with him, “to help lubricate the wheels of government”, as he put it.After Crow’s death in 1856, the running of the distillery passed to James E Pepper, Oscar’s son. Henry Clay, the great American statesman, lived several miles from the distillery and would stop by the still before heading off to politics in Washington. The two brands produced at the distillery, Old Crow and Old Pepper, were enjoyed by such luminaries as Mark Twain and Walt Whitman. Crow is also credited with developing several measuring instruments still in use by the industry.James Crow’s expertise at what was then called the Old Oscar Pepper Distillery attracted many prominent admirers of the time. His scientific training helped him understand the sour mash process used by all bourbon distillers today and the benefits of charred oak barrels for maturation. Dr Crow recognised the importance of producing a consistent and reliable product from batch to batch. Elijah Pepper’s son, Oscar, hired Crow as head distiller in the 1830s, and he spent most of his career perfecting the craft of bourbon distillation at the distillery. Labrot & Graham has been called ‘the cradle of bourbon’ due in large part to the pioneering scientific achievements of James Christopher Crow, a Scottish physician and chemist. In need of abundant, pure limestone water for a growing business, he moved the operation and built his cabin on the nearby Glenn’s Creek site. Elijah brought his distilling skills from Virginia in 1797, settled in Versailles (pronounced ‘Versales’), the Woodford County seat, and began making corn whiskey behind the county courthouse. The state of Virginia established Kentucky as a county in 1776, offering the new settlers 400 acres of land to build a cabin and plant a field of corn. Elijah’s story belongs to an earlier, turbulent period in American history, a time of hardy pioneers and frontier migrations. Both traditional and innovative, Labrot & Graham is a reflective journey to the origins of bourbon and a confident glimpse into the future of American whiskey making.Elijah Pepper, whose hilltop home overlooks the distillery, began making whiskey on the Glenn’s Creek site in 1812. Crafted in Scotland, the pot stills are just one of several historic links between the spirits of Kentucky and Scotland at this unique distillery, where Scottish and Scotch-Irish roots run deep. It is the only bourbon distillery to use copper pot stills exclusively, and employs the rare method of triple distillation to do so. touring the distillery and warehouses and walking around these beautiful grounds should be like stepping back to a time when Kentucky and bourbon whiskey were in their youth, when making and enjoying whiskey were as much a part of daily life as growing corn.”Labrot & Graham is the smallest distillery in Kentucky and creates ‘small batch’ whiskey from start to finish, producing 45-50 barrels a day.
Refurbished and reborn on 17 October, 1996, Labrot & Graham was conceived by its owner, the Louisville based Brown-Forman Company, as a tribute to the history and tradition of handcrafted bourbon whisky distillation in Kentucky.Owsley Brown II, chairman of Brown-Forman, pledged the company’s commitment to honouring these past traditions in a speech which he gave on the day the distillery reopened, “We believe this distillery has a story to tell, about bourbon’s special place in Kentucky’s history, and that the telling will be good for Kentucky and good for the industry. Thoroughbred racehorses graze on the fertile Kentucky bluegrass, shaded by white oak, maple and dogwood trees.Nestled in this horse-country heartland, straddling the banks of Glenn’s Creek, are the limestone buildings of the Labrot & Graham Distillery. The landscape is dotted with farmhouses and corrals enclosed by white wooden fences.
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The distilleries are in full swing after a summer hiatus the warm days and cool nights being ideal conditions for the white oak casks to nurse along the slumbering spirit.About an hour’s drive from Louisville is Labrot & Graham, Kentucky’s oldest operating distillery. Autumn is a special time to visit the rolling hills and tree-lined hollows of central Kentucky.