Fun at the Whiskey Academy

Fred Noe, Jim Beam's Master Distiller has given a presentation of the finest bourbon whiskey within the compass of the first Whiskey Academy in Budapest.

Actually, the ubiquitous use of the word “bourbon” to describe the dominant style of U.S. straight whiskey is a fairly recent phenomenon, owing in no small part to the rivalry between the two largest producers, Jim Beam and Brown- Forman.

Jim Beam, on the other hand, does not have a distillery in Tennessee. All of the U.S. straight whiskey it sells is bourbon and it invests considerable resources in promoting “bourbon” as synonymous with quality and authenticity, tweaking their rivals in the process.

Since Jim Beam and Jack Daniel's are consistently the two top selling U.S. straight whiskies, talking about “bourbons” can be a problem since the term technically excludes two of the industry's top brands. (both Jack Daniels and United's George Dickel, the other Tennessee Whiskey.)
Jim Beam is an example of a bourbon that uses rye, but not very much (only about 13% of the mash).