NEW ORLEANS – On Bourbon Street, at Bourbon House, every day is National Bourbon Day.

WGNO News with a Twist features guy Wild Bill Wood says the celebration is especially spirited on the day that’s really the one and only National Bourbon Day, that’s June 14.

There’s just something about bourbon that gets people going. Sales are soaring across America.  Maybe because bourbon is truly an all-American whiskey.

It’s made from corn and aged in barrels.  The name comes from Bourbon County, Kentucky.  But some people who call Bourbon Street in New Orleans home, say the name comes from their corner of the world.

When people think about bourbon, they usually think about the American South. Bourbon goes back to Kentucky and the 1870s.

On May 4, 1964, the US Congress recognized bourbon whiskey as a “distinctive product of the United States”.  You can make bourbon anywhere in the United States, but most brands are still brewed right in Kentucky.

By the late 1800s, there were hundreds of bourbon distilleries across Kentucky.

President Lyndon B. Johnson gave bourbon the official presidential seal of approval in 1964. He signed an Act of Congress that makes bourbon the official Spirit of America.

Raise your glasses and say cheers to the drink that’s a recipe of corn, limestone, white oak, fire and time.  That’s lots and lots of time.

People like bourbon because it goes with everything. It’s authentically American.  It’s a decidedly grown-up kind of drink.

When you think of bourbon, think Manhattans or Sazeracs or even with a splash of ginger ale.