Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History conducts project on Kentucky Bourbon Barons

The “Kentucky Bourbon Tales,” a collaborative effort by the Kentucky Distillers’ Association and the University of Kentucky’s Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, sits down Kentucky’s bourbon barons to tell the stories about themselves, their age-old craft and their products that are in global demand.

The project’s first interviews were done late last month with the father-and-son team of Parker and Craig Beam. They are master distillers at Heaven Hill Distilleries Inc., the Bardstown-based maker of Evan Williams bourbon — the world’s No. 2-selling bourbon. The Beam family traces its whiskey-making roots in Kentucky to 1795, when Jacob Beam set up his first still.

Other bourbon makers to be featured include Brown-Forman Corp., Diageo North America, Four Roses, Jim Beam, Maker’s Mark and Wild Turkey.

The bourbon interviews will eventually be accessible athttps://www.kentuckyoralhistory.org

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