Kentucky is the spiritual home of Bourbon, but Pennsylvania and Virginia (the westernmost county of which was broken off to create Kentucky in 1792) actually gave birth to this American whiskey. Both of these states, however, have all but vanished from the contemporary whiskey scene.

Virginia has only one remaining Bourbon-maker - the A. Smith Bowman Distillery in Fredericksburg - and Pennsylvania, once home to thousands of stills, holds on by an even thinner thread. A few stainless steel vats of Bourbon, which had been made at the now-closed Michter's Distillery in Schaefferstown, are all that remain. Today these Pennsylvania vats are almost empty. When they do run dry, a unique and historic whiskey will be lost to the ages.

Many Bourbon aficionados are by now familiar with the Michter's saga. The distillery, which dated back to the mid-eighteenth century, was distilling whiskey long before Kentucky was even settled. As early as 1753 there was a small distillery at this Pennsylvania site. Thirty years later the farm's owner decided to concentrate on whiskey production, making it one of the oldest commercial distilleries in the country.

Passed down in the same family for a number of years, it was finally sold in 1860 to Abe Bomberger, another relative by marriage. He gave the distillery its original name, and made Bomberger's Rye whiskey there until prohibition closed all U.S. distilleries. During prohibition, the plant was sold to a local farmer, who may have fired up the old stills every so often to keep his neighbors happy.

In 1942, Louis Forman took it over, but he left to join the Army almost immediately. When he returned in 1950, Forman discovered records from Abe Bomberger's time of ownership. As a result, he began researching the history of the distillery and the methods once used to make the whiskey. When he decided to install a pot still, he hired Charles Everett Beam as master distiller.