Old Pogue is a brand of

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...

straight

bourbon whiskey Bourbon () is a type of barrel-aged American whiskey made primarily from corn. The name derives from the French Bourbon dynasty, although the precise source of inspiration is uncertain; contenders include Bourbon County in Kentucky and Bourbo ...

. Located in Maysville, Kentucky, the Old Pogue Distillery carries strong family ties dating back to the 1870s, and is privately owned by members of the Pogue family.

History

The Pogues created the bourbon Old Pogue in 1876. Its original distillery was Kentucky registered distillery number 3, in Maysville, Kentucky.History
page on official web site. However, the brand's distillery was shut down by

Prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic ...

in 1920, making the distribution and distilling of alcohol illegal. Shortly after this, many distillers including the Pogues were finding other ways up distribute their alcohol. The only exception to the prohibition was the case of medicinal purposes, because distillation was not allowed they sold a restricted amount of the whisky for medicine. When times became harder and alcohol was at a higher demand than ever, with the help of George Remus, they sold their whisky through bootlegging. It was revived after 18 years and then shut down again during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. The brand was then off the market for about 60 years. The brand name was revived around 2005 by descendants of the Pogue family, who re-launched the brand using whiskey purchased from another company before opening their own new distillery. This bourbon has been passed down through six generations of Henry Edgar Pogues (I-VI), and is still owned by a descendent of the first Henry Pogue. The family established a new distillery in Maysville in 2012. That year, the company joined the Kentucky Distillers Association and the distillery became part of the newly launched "Craft Tour" of the

Kentucky Bourbon Trail The Kentucky Bourbon Trail (sometimes informally shortened to "the Bourbon Trail") is the name of a program sponsored by the Kentucky Distillers' Association (KDA) to promote the Bourbon whiskey industry in Kentucky. The KDA has registered the ...

.Bourbon Trail launches new tour of artisan distilleries
''

Lexington Herald-Leader The ''Lexington Herald-Leader'' is a newspaper owned by the McClatchy Company and based in Lexington, Kentucky. According to the ''1999 Editor & Publisher International Yearbook'', the paid circulation of the ''Herald-Leader'' is the second large ...

'', October 12, 2012. The distillery produces roughly 200 barrels of bourbon, rye, and wheat whiskey each year. Although the company has established a new distillery, it has not yet been in operation long enough to produce bourbon aged as long as what is used for the brand. The actual production of the brand has been contracted out to Kentucky Bourbon Distillers of Bardstown, Kentucky, which has used spirits distilled at the nearby Heaven Hill distillery for the product.Charles K. Cowdery
Non-Distiller Producers; Make The Brands, But Buy The Whiskey
, ''American Distiller #89'', Reprinted with permission from ''The Bourbon Country Reader'', Volume 10 Number 5 (September 2007). (Access date December 13, 2010.) Thus, the bottles for the modern (post-2010) brand identify Bardstown rather than Maysville on the label as the origin of the product.

Spirits

Old Pogue is bottled at 45.5% abv (91

U.S. proof Alcohol proof (usually termed simply "proof" in relation to a beverage) is a measure of the content of ethanol (alcohol) in an alcoholic beverage. The term was originally used in England and was equal to about 1.8 times the percentage of alcohol ...

), and is created from a rye mash bill with nine-year aging. The modern day Old Pogue is considered a close rendition of the original. Like most bourbons, Old Pogue is typically consumed neat. One expression of the brand is a "Master's Select" bottling.

References

{{KYBourbonTrail Bourbon whiskey Distilleries in Kentucky Maysville, Kentucky