EMERGING STYLES

For many decades, bourbon and Tennessee whiskey were the only styles made in the United States that had any sort of known regional tie. But to say those were the only two types of American whiskey easily recognisable to consumers isn’t an easy argument to make. Pennsylvania rye whiskey was once better known than either, and, before that, corn whiskey was king. But now, new regional whiskey styles are emerging thanks to the proliferation of craft distilleries in all corners of the union, built on decades-old whiskey-distilling traditions.

“A lot of regional areas, in the South in particular, still prefer the unaged corn whiskey,” says bourbon historian Michael Veach. “You get a lot of styles of corn whiskey – you have the unaged corn whiskey and the aged corn whiskey. That’s why you still have Georgia Moon and other unaged corn whiskeys on the market, but then you get the aged corn whiskeys like the Mellow Corn or the Balcones Baby Blue.”

Many bourbon and Tennessee whiskey lovers don’t realise the common ancestor to both styles is corn whiskey, which came not only from the fact that corn has always grown really well in the American