If it was served in a saloon, it probably wasn’t bottled at all, but served out of a pitcher or other vessel.

Not only that, but until the 20th Century, most whiskey in America was shipped in barrels and then bottled by middlemen (if at all). Glass bottles were too rare and expensive for mass use until the late 1870s, Mitenbuler points out. Want to learn some interesting history that most of the country has forgotten? Well, for one thing, back to that cowboy in the bar. The mythification of bourbon continued through its first golden age when its manufacture became industrialized, was renewed as it made is comeback following the disastrous Prohibition era, and is once again in full swing as bourbon enjoys a renaissance in the 21st Century.

was still a collection of colonies, been rife with mythology, skullduggery and outright fabrication. The bourbon business has, apparently from its beginnings back when the U.S.A. Which makes his clear-headed approach to the somewhat fabulous topic of bourbon all the more impressive. Mitenbuler has done his research – both historical and apparently copious amounts of tasting. Which isn’t all that conducive to serious reading.īut I learned a lot from this book. It took me a little longer to get through than it should’ve, because after a while of reading about bourbon, I’d find myself thinking, “That sounds good,” and have myself a tipple. It’s seriously well written, well organized, thorough, readable and entertaining. This is his first book, but it doesn’t show. Mitenbuler is a journalist and whiskey expert who has written about whiskey and “drinking culture” for The Atlantic, Slate, and Saveur, and writes a “Drinking in History” column for Serious Eats.

Like so many other historical details, the makers of Westerns probably got that one wrong, or so implies Reid Mitenbuler in his lucid book Bourbon Empire. Sorry, but it probably didn’t happen that way. Maybe the cowboy even says “I’ll take the bottle” and heads for a table.

I realize that movie Westerns are no longer the cultural touchstone they were for my generation, but I’m sure many of you have no trouble remembering a movie scene in which a cowboy walks into a saloon, orders a whiskey and the barkeep pours him one from a clear glass quart-size bottle.

Bourbon Empire by Reid Mitenbuler