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I visited Brown-Forman's cooperage on the outskirts of Louisville, right near Churchill Downs, where the 135th Kentucky Derby will be run this weekend. Inside the cooperage, 2,000 barrels a day are built by hand from new oak, lightly toasted, then charred on the inside. I was allowed to see every step of the barrel process except the toasting. "That's proprietary," Morris said.

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Buffalo Trace's distiller, Harlen Wheatley, at 39, is one of the youngest, and his apprenticeship lasted a number of years. "I'm only the sixth guy since the Civil War," he says. "The master distiller I replaced worked for a guy that dated back to Prohibition."

Beyond the obvious issues of trade secrets and loyalty, Wheatley said, the continuity of the master distiller is important because bourbon takes so long to make.