Bourbon Land by Edward Lee

Author:Edward Lee [Lee, Edward]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Artisan
Published: 2024-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

Which Came First: Bourbon Whiskey or Bourbon Street?

While many assume that New Orleans’s Bourbon Street—famous for its many, many bars—was named after the spirit, the timing doesn’t quite work to support that theory. The French claimed Louisiana in the 1690s, and after Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville founded New Orleans in 1718, a team of royal engineers and architects set about developing the city. They were led by Adrien de Pauger, who designed the city’s layout and was responsible for naming its streets.

De Pauger wanted to honor various sectors of French royalty in his naming of the streets but was cognizant that there were simmering power struggles between many members of the country’s aristocracy, so as a buffer, he separated some of the streets named for French royalty, like Dumaine and Toulouse, with streets named for Catholic saints, like Saint Peter and Saint Ann.

Bourbon Street, which was given its name in 1721, was named for the House of Bourbon, France’s ruling family at the time. It’s likely that bourbon, the spirit, was named after Bourbon Street, rather than the other way around, as it housed a bustling port where the drink sold well.

As historians Michael Veach and Chuck Cowdery have pointed out, that port only solidified the connection between Kentucky and New Orleans. By 1820, steamboat travel up and down the Mississippi River had become well established. These boats carried supplies, including lumber, construction materials, and, of course, Kentucky whiskey. The whiskey aged in barrels on the trip down, which, depending on the speed of the ship and its crew, could take between six and twenty-five days.

Once docked, the whiskey was sold as a kind of inexpensive stand-in for French brandy, which makes sense: Whiskey and brandy have similar notes of caramelized sugar, vanilla, and oak. Folks soon began to request “that Bourbon whiskey,” referring to the street on which it was sold.

Modern-day distilleries still pay homage to the “spiritual” exchange between Kentucky and New Orleans. In 2017, Baton Rouge’s Cane Land Distilling Company partnered with Kentucky’s O. Z. Tyler Distillery (now Green River Distilling Company) to create their OMFW—Original Mississippi Floated Whiskey. The whiskey, which was described in a press release at the time as having a “bourbon mash bill,” was shipped down the river. Once it finished its fourteen-day journey, it was stored in French cognac barrels until it was ready for distribution. A fitting tribute to the Kentucky–New Orleans connection.

Bourbon Street in New Orleans was named for the House of Bourbon, not after the spirit, which came later.

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