Brisket, corned beef, and pastrami aren't three different cuts pretending to be related. They're often the exact same cut, sent down three completely different cultural paths.

Most people assume "straight" means no coloring or flavoring added. That's not it — no bourbon can have additives. Here's what the word is actually doing on the label.

The Old Fashioned isn't just a cocktail — it's the cocktail. Every other mixed drink is, in some sense, a variation on it. Understanding why means going back further than most people expect: not to a fancy private club in the 1880s, but to a barroom definition from 1806.

Bardstown built its name blending sourced whiskey out in the open. The Origin Series finally answers the question hanging over the place: what does Bardstown taste like when it's entirely Bardstown?

Bourbon gets its flavor from charred oak. Barbecue gets its bark from carbon and smoke. They're closer cousins than most pairing guides give them credit for.

Four Roses uncorked the oldest bourbon in its history this week — a 21-year-old at $500 a bottle — while Brown-Forman went hunting for a new CEO. The numbers still say the top shelf is the only shelf growing, and down at the pit, beef keeps climbing as a new Food Network showdown lights the burners.

The whiskey distilleries worth planning a trip around across the Midwest, Kentucky excluded on purpose. Second installment of an annual series — including which states didn't make the cut.

Founded in 1885, gutted by a 1918 fire and then Prohibition, Green River spent most of a century as a footnote. This rye is part of the second act, and it drinks like a distillery with something to prove.

About a year ago I finally made the trip to Denison to visit Ironroot Republic. At the time, all I really knew about them was Harbinger. I'd tried it before and, if I'm being honest, it didn't completely win me over. But after touring the distillery and tasting through the rest of the lineup, I went back to that same bottle with a different perspective. Maybe it was better the second time around, maybe I understood what they were trying to do a little more.

A solo day trip through Nashville with no bourbon agenda ended with the best pour of the trip at Nashville Barrel Company's tasting room — and a Single Barrel Experience flight I didn't see coming.

I haven't had a full pour of Pappy Van Winkle. Almost nobody has, and that hasn't stopped it from becoming the bourbon everyone has an opinion about.

This one just happens to carry the name of the man who started it — the master distiller who selected the barrels that became Blanton's, and later got a bottle carrying his own name.