For a country not known for being short on confidence and self-belief, the US has spent much of the past century on the back foot when it comes to its whiskey. Blame Prohibition, which lasted from 1920 until 1933, decimated domestic whiskey production, and turned the drinking population on to the joys of illicit Scotch and Canadian hooch instead.
Blame vodka too. Smirnoff famously rose to prominence on the back of advertising that proclaimed: ‘Smirnoff White Whiskey – No Smell, No Taste’. In a new world in love with the light and the neutral, the ripe, rich
