We tend to see the newest bourbon boom as being this unique phenomenon, and that all the experts and notable critics of whiskey are a modern invention. I assure you, they are NOT.
American whiskey is, and has almost always been, a popular part of the American zeitgeist. Men and women have been crafting their own personal fame upon whiskey’s cultural status for a very long time. Master distillers have long been held up as heroes, and acclaimed whiskey salesmen and critics have been made the toast of the town and the topic of popular news stories since at least the late 1800s. My favorite historic brand rep was Mr. Patrick Joseph Lamphear of Lexington, Kentucky. He became the jet-set (or rail/ship-set, I suppose, in his case) brand representative for Greenbrier Distilling Company in Louisville. His exploits are well documented, and his influence on the industry was such that the straight whiskey interests used his fame at the turn of the century to promote bourbon whiskey- which had begun to decline in popularity at that time.
New York’s “Leslie Weekly,” a weekly American illustrated literary and news publication, featured him (and his photo, see above) among other famed businessmen and women. Lamphear was 6 ft. 3 in. tall and very sleek and handsome- as representatives for whiskey companies tend to be- and his nickname was “The Golden Nose.” He could blindly identify any brand or age of any whiskey as long as it was “made in Kentucky,” it was said. Today, scotch whiskey’s Richard Paterson with The Dalmore is known as “The Nose,” but he may not be as well-known among American whiskey drinkers as he is among scotch drinkers.
Do you think there’s a brand representative in the United States today that might be considered as world renowned as Mr. Lamphear had been in the early 1900s? Perhaps not, but the whiskey renaissance of the 21st century is still young😊 You never know…
