Whenever I talk about bourbon, the first thing I say is that it’s got one unfair reputation in the spirits world. Some people associate it with old grandpas. Some think of it as a means to party inexpensively in some rural part of the United States. Others think of the more affordable brands and associate it with mixers* for cheap club drinks. In fact, some people fail to realise that bourbon is technically a type of whisky, and old school action films (and the characters in it) gave it a strange reputation as “stronger than whisky”.

Maybe it’s partly due to its sudden presence in contemporary media (top of mind for me is Ian Somerhalder and Paul Wesley’s characters having Civil War era bottles stashed away in their mansion in Vampire Diaries), or maybe it’s the tireless work of men and women in the industry, but finally (finally!), bourbon is starting to get the reputation it deserves: A damn good spirit, well worth sipping and savouring (and talking about).