The Whiskey Lore® Podcast

What does a microscopic North American aphid have to do with scotch and Texas whisk(e)y? Quite it bit it seems. And a man name T.V. Munson is the common denominator.

From his home in Denison, Texas, Thomas Volney Munson was summoned to save the Cognac region of France from a vine damaging insect called Phylloxera.

And his work would inspire two brothers who would build their distillery and name it in honor of their local hero - a hero that the Cognac region still reveres today.

Take a journey on the Helena Sloman, a ship en-route from Hamburg, Germany to New York City, carrying the hopes and dreams of John Phillip Nelson, a candle and soap maker who sold everything to give his family a wonderful new life in America.

Join me to hear an immigrant's story and how it lead to the most successful Tennessee Sour Mash Whiskey of the 19th Century. I'm joined by John Phillip's 4 times great grandson Andy Nelson, of Nelson's Green Brier Distillery and producer of Belle Meade.

It is amazing how much the real estate market of 2008 and the scotch whisky industry of the 1890s have in common. Rampant speculation, inflated prices, and so many people caught up in the action that they couldn't see the coming disaster.

And at the center of the whole affair were two brothers who had taken over their father's dairy business, turning it into a whisky blending house and then getting caught up in greed, success, and incredibly bad business practices.  This is the story of the great Pattison Crash.

Whiskey loves its firsts. From the first person to char a barrel for aging, to the first mention of whisky in the exchequer rolls, there seems an obsession with finding out where things started. And they are usually positive subjects.

But what about something like Prohibition? Which was the first state to go dry? That question raised its head when I heard about a famous shootout that led one state to jump to prohibition a full eleven years before the Volstead Act. Were they the first?

I'll investigate, in this week's episode.

Have you ever had an occasion not to order or talk about a particular whisky, simply because you were a little concerned about your ability to pronounce it?

In this episode, I'll help you get over your fear of mispronouncing scotch whisky names by showing you some simple examples and helping you understand the origins of these names.

It will all lead to a fable about a whirlpool, a knight and a maiden performed by actor Tom Wylde. Charles MacKay's "The Kelpie of Corryvreckan."

During my interview with Lori Carcich, the founder of Country Smooth whiskey, she brought to my attention a detail about women in the whiskey industry that took me totally by surprise.

In this episode, I'll look at some of the pioneering women of whiskey like Helen and Elisabeth Cumming, Catherine Carpenter, Dr. Rachel Barrie, and I'll begin my search for the first female whiskey founders.

After Dr. Crow and Oscar Pepper passed away, the history of Old Crow would take a dramatic turn. James E. Pepper would be the new generation taking over the old distillery, but Old Crow would move on, with a little help from Colonel E.H. Taylor.

In this episode, I'll take a look at 130 legendary years that followed this tumultuous period. And I'll talk with David Meier of Glenn's Creek Distilling, the current owner of the Old Crow Distillery ruins, about what he is doing to preserve the legacy of Dr. James C. Crow.

Amazing, for all of the people who talk about him in the bourbon industry, Dr. James C. Crow's life is somewhat of a mystery. Born in Inverness, Scotland in 1789, he moved to America and landed in Kentucky. When people say his name, they usually talk about two things, his work with the sour mash process and his Old Crow whiskey. But his influence on the bourbon industry can't be understated.

Yet there are no biographies about his life. In fact, there is little written about him at all.

In the season 3 premiere episode, I'll talk about how Dr. Crow made his way to Kentucky and what happened when he got here. I'll also set up a discussion about the brand and whiskey he was instrumental in creating - a whisky that was considered one of the greatest and then suddenly lost its place among America's great bourbons. Find out on this week's episode.