N2 · terroir / geographical indication
Bourbon — Distinctive product
- Location
- Kentucky and other states, United States38.00 / -85.00
- Protection
- Distinctive product recognised under a bilateral agreement
- Validation
- Seed entryawaiting the scholarly board
Not a geographical indication. Bourbon is recognised as a distinctive product of the United States under a bilateral agreement: the name is reserved for American production, with no delimited area and no specification of origin in the European sense. It may be produced outside Kentucky.
Amber from the cask alone — new charred oak, no adjustment. See the six regimes of colouring
Not every well-known name is a geographical indication. Some are protected by an agreement between states, others by a national appellation that the European register does not carry over, others still describe only a method of production with no link to a place. The difference is not cosmetic: only a geographical indication delimits an area, imposes a product specification and is subject to control. The Atlas keeps these entries, because a museum cannot ignore bourbon or mezcal, but it says what they are.
No official delimitation being published as open data for this entry, the point placed on the map is an indicative marker — a town or a territory — and not the outline of the area. It situates; it does not delimit.
The distilleries of this area
A survey of the producers in this area is under way. This level of the corpus — the distillery, its history, its equipment, its archives — is the Atlas's next documentary undertaking. You can help with it.
Sources and validation
- Sources of the corpus
- Names and statuses: eAmbrosia, the official register of geographical indications of the European Union. Geometries: INAO, Délimitation des aires géographiques des SIQO (27/07/2026), Licence Ouverte v2.0, reprojected to WGS84.
- Corpus updated on
- 1 August 2026
- Validation
- Seed entry Corpus under construction. Each entry is checked and sourced before validation by the future scholarly board. Protection status and mode of location are carried by each entry: an area delimited by a product specification and a reference-town point do not carry the same weight.