Old Pogue is a brand of

Kentucky Kentucky (, ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north, West Virginia to the ...

straight Straight may refer to: Slang * Straight, slang for heterosexual ** Straight-acting, normal person * Straight, a member of the straight edge subculture Sport and games * Straight, an alternative name for the cross, a type of punch in boxing * Str ...

bourbon whiskey Bourbon whiskey (; also simply bourbon) is a Aging (food), barrel-aged American whiskey made primarily from corn (maize). The name derives from the Kingdom of France, French House of Bourbon, although the precise source of inspiration is uncerta ...

. Located in

Maysville, Kentucky Maysville is a "Home rule in the United States, home rule" class city in Mason County, Kentucky, Mason County, Kentucky, United States, and is the county seat of Mason County. The population was 8,873 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 ...

, 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

.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 b ...

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 (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. 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 descendant 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.Bourbon Trail launches new tour of artisan distilleries
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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 larg ...

'', 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 the Willett Distillery of

Bardstown, Kentucky Bardstown is a list of Kentucky cities, home rule-class city in Nelson County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 13,567 in the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It is the list of counties in Kentucky, county seat of Nelson Count ...

, which has used spirits distilled at the nearby

Heaven Hill Heaven Hill Distilleries, Inc. is a private family-owned and -operated American distillery, founded in 1935 and headquartered in Bardstown, Kentucky, that produces and markets the Heaven Hill brand of Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey and a vari ...

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 Alcohol by volume (abbreviated as alc/vol or ABV) is a common measure of the amount of alcohol contained in a given alcoholic beverage. It is defined as the volume the ethanol in the liquid would take if separated from the rest of the solution, ...

(91 U.S. proof), 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