I wonder if you have watched the TV series " Atlantic Empire ", " Mad Man " and " House of Cards "? Friends who have watched it may have noticed a small detail. The characters in the play like to pour a glass of wine if they have something to do, pour a glass of wine in the office, sit down at home and pour another glass, chat with others, and pour a glass of wine when they think about life alone.
Have you ever been curious about what kind of wine the brown liquid they drink? Maybe you guessed it right, it is whiskey .
Some people will say, I have drunk this wine, what is Jack Danny , there are four roses on the edge, but do you know, they are not ordinary whiskeys, they all belong to bourbon whiskey .
What is this bourbon ? It is generally amber and tastes sweeter than other whiskeys. It can be said to be the "national liquor" of the United States, which is similar to our Moutai.
It is no exaggeration to say that the history of the United States is a history of whiskey.
1. Bourbon originated in Virginia 400 years ago in the fall of Virginia
11 In the autumn of 620, Virginia landlord George Thorpe made the first batch of whiskey with corn. According to current standards, he was the first person to make bourbon.
However, this wine was not called bourbon at that time. The whiskey made with corn in the early days was incomparable to the current taste. It tasted like paint thinner , which was very unpopular. People at that time preferred to drink delicious Caribbean rum.
Rum first appeared in sugarcane plantations in the Caribbean and later spread to British colonies in North America. To meet the rum demand in North America, people have built rum breweries locally. How popular is it? It is estimated that at that time, each person had to drink 14 liters a year. As a result, the demand for raw materials also increased, so more African black slaves were needed to work in the plantation.
As a result, the triangle transactions of slaves, syrup and rum gradually formed, and rum also became a medium of exchange, such as it can be used to purchase slaves. The rum trade brought considerable taxes to the British government, but soon it became the embodiment of the evil rule of the British colonists.
1764, The British Parliament passed the Sugar Act, and any honey that is not imported from the UK was taxed. Later, the Stamp Tax Act, the Tang Zengde Act and the Tea Act were introduced, which led to taxation of many goods in North American colonies, which made North American patriots angry. In 1775, the American War of Independence broke out. Now, the supply of syrup is gone, the production of rum gradually stops, and in the end even the inventory is exhausted.
If you don’t have any alcohol, how can you drink it? So people turned their attention to the large number of corn fields in the United States, and began to brew bourbon with corn, and eventually it became a symbol of American national freedom. Even George Washington built his own brewery, producing more than 40,000 liters of wine per year.
2. Why is bourbon a specialty in the United States?
In essence, bourbon is a whiskey, but not all whiskeys can be called "bourbon". It must meet certain conditions and meet certain standards. This standard is not casually set, and is written into federal laws in black and white.
First, it must be brewed in the United States; second, the grains of brewed wine contain at least 51% corn; third, it must be aged with a new oak barrel ; fourth, the alcohol content of the distilled wine must not be higher than 80%; fifth, the alcohol content of the distilled base wine must be diluted to less than 62.5% before it can be aged; finally, the alcohol content during bottling is about 40%.Why do you have to set so many rules in
? Who came up with it? One person must be mentioned here, Louis Rosensteel, the boss of Xianlei Winery, the largest wine company in the world at that time. This person is very business-minded. In order to make the business bigger, Rosensteel thought one day that if Bourbon became an "authentic American product" in people's minds, that is, let it become a self-contained and an ideal export product, wouldn't it go all over the world?
So he spent millions of dollars to lobby in various countries, and even gave a box of bourbon to embassies of various countries in the United States. Just like that, he ran around and lobbled around. In 1964, the US Congress legislated legislation to recognize that "Borbon is an American specialty." Since then, Bourbon has gradually become popular all over the world.
Indeed, Bourbon has its place today, and political reasons cannot be ignored. However, there is another more important factor, that is, the fueling of the vast number of American drunkards.
As early as the 17th century, there was whiskey in North America. At that time, Americans were fighting against Indian natives. This kind of spirit was for frontline soldiers to drink.
Later, the war ended, but the habit of drinking whiskey did not stop, and, as people immigrated to develop the west, new varieties of corn and grain were discovered and added to the raw materials for brewing. As time goes by, people are constantly exploring winemaking techniques, and the taste of whiskey is getting better and better. It turns out that the spirits that taste like gasoline have evolved into today's Bourbon day by day.
3. Prohibition : The money-making whiskey industry brought crimes
After the United States' independence , the whiskey industry at that time was falling into a difficult period in history. As a type of whiskey, Bourbon naturally could not escape the bad luck.
By 1875, newspapers were filled with scandals, corruption, bribery and tax evasion in the whiskey industry. Among them, the sensational scandal was the "Whiskey Gang". The huge expenses of the Civil War caused the government to impose consumption tax. As the most popular beverage at that time, both whiskey manufacturers and consumers were affected. Regardless of whether the merchants did not take action, they would have to pay taxes as long as the wine was brewed. alcohol tax became a major burden for manufacturers.
At this time, someone began to come up with bad ideas. John MacDonald, who served as the head of the IRS branch in St. Louis, grabbed whiskey manufacturers and asked them to conceal the amount of whiskey . The underreported part only required half of the tax. On the other hand, they threatened and tempted officials to form a whole chain of interests. Many breweries everywhere were involved in it, and finally even involved in the White House . President Ulysses Grant found that his private secretary Orwell Babcock was one of the masterminds.
This major corruption case involving political and business collusion has caused the US government to reduce the whiskey tax of 1.5 million US dollars every year. If it is converted according to today's value, it would be more than 40 billion US dollars! The scandal seriously damaged the reputation of the whiskey industry, and it was not over yet, and by the 20th century, things were getting worse and worse.
On January 17, 1920, the 18th Amendment to the United States Constitution officially came into effect, which is the famous "Prohibition" . This law stipulates that it is illegal to manufacture, sell or even transport beverages with alcohol content exceeding 0.5%. It is not illegal to drink at home, but you cannot drink with friends or hold a banquet.
As soon as the prohibition order came out, people quickly forgot what good wine tasted. In order to relieve alcohol addiction, everyone is rushing to buy illegal private wine. In order to crack down on alcohol dealers, the government thought of starting from raw materials and deliberately added toxic substances to medical alcohol to prevent people from using it to produce whiskey.
Unfortunately, nothing can stop the vendors from continuing to make wine secretly, and it can't stop people's desire for whiskey. By 1925, the number of deaths caused by alcohol consumption increased to 40,000 per year.Thirteen years later, the alcohol ban was abolished. Even so, its impact on the whiskey industry continues.
4. After the abolition of the ban, the "four giants" of the wine industry monopolized the bourbon industry
In February 1933, the national ban in the United States died, and Americans raised their whiskey to celebrate. What they didn't know, however, was that the bourbon industry could no longer return to its former past.
Before the implementation of the Prohibition, breweries of all sizes in the United States were blooming everywhere. However, it was impossible to sell alcohol legally for 13 years, and more than half of the wineries were forced to close. After the ban was repealed, even if companies try to regain their strength, they will be difficult and often fail.
In the end, only the "four giants" of the spirits industry were successful in the market, namely Sigland, National Brewing Company of the United States, Hiram Walker, and Xianlei. These companies are rich and small companies are either acquired or excluded, and they finally control the entire industry.
In order to save Bourbon's reputation, these companies have also made heavy investments and carried out various large-scale marketing. After hard work, Bourbon has also changed its appearance. It is no longer a bad wine related to violence and corruption, but has been made into a luxury drink for elegant connoisseurs.
Interestingly, in the years when the Prohibition was just abolished, there was a shortage of whiskey on the one hand, and on the other hand, it would take several years for new wines to be brewed. Therefore, many wineries took advantage of this period to explore other varieties of wines. For example, brewers like Stize Willer tried to brew light wines from wheat, but instead sold quickly because the brewing time was shortened.
After several years of fierce competition, in the World War II period, the four giants changed from rivals to alliances, jointly producing industrial alcohol , and contributed to the country. Indeed, as soon as the United States participated in the war, many brewers transformed industrial alcohol, and the four giants even carried out cooperation, shared technology, and assisted in the war. However, this new alliance didn't last long. After the war, the four giants became opponents again and began to compete for the position of the leader.
5. Faced with the competition of vodka , Bourbon has opened up the niche market for luxury goods
In the United States, Bourbon has always been the choice of blue-collar workers. Although rich people may occasionally give a drink, they are mainly soldiers and physical workers who like to drink it. However, the arrival of vodka changed everything.
vodka was first imported to the United States in 1964. Vodka is a traditional Russian alcoholic beverage. So at the beginning, it was very popular in communities and cities with a large number of Eastern Europeans. But soon, with the rise of cocktail culture, the consumer base of vodka began to expand, and one of the cocktails called Moscow Mules became a new trend.
For the American baby boomer generation, vodka is the spirit of young people. In their eyes, bourbon is like a scheming father and an upright uncle. Such an old-fashioned image also makes them avoid Bourbon. In contrast, vodka is easier to eat and easier to blend with other beverages into various cocktails. In addition, vodka has basically no smell, and even if you drink, others can't smell it, so it is very popular among alcoholics.
has been sold in the US market for only 30 years, and vodka has begun to catch up with Bourbon. The status of the U.S. National Liquor has been challenged, and the Bourbon industry certainly cannot sit idly by. They came up with a plan: to turn bourbon into a luxury .
Kentucky A small brewery, Mexmark, decided to make a new attempt. It transformed itself into an international brand of bourbon, and was determined to become an expensive and luxurious drink in the upper class of the world.
This has brought about a new trend, and many breweries have followed suit. Many Europeans do not understand Bourbon’s ordinary past and think it is a high-end imported wine, and the sales of Bourbon have also risen sharply.Soon, whiskey manufacturers around the world saw the business opportunities and raised prices one after another.
Nowadays, people of all ages and identities are enjoying the deliciousness of bourbon. Next time you drink Bourbon, don’t forget that behind its mellow taste, there is such a complicated history.
From crude liquor when the United States developed the West to prohibited items during the Prohibition period, this corn-made whiskey was synonymous with corruption, tax evasion, and even murder. As time goes by, Bourbon's image has changed and it has become a popular wine in the world today.
The ups and downs of bourbon can be said to be a microcosm of American history.
is prohibitedEditor: Liangsan
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