Most products can be sold pretty much as soon as they're made.

And that's important if you are in the business of making things because you can start

earning back your investment right away.

But some products require a further investment of time after they've been manufactured. It could be years worth of time. Certain cheeses

come to mind, wine occasionally, but especially spirits. The most famous example is Scotch

whiskey, the older, the barrel, the dearer, the bottle. And the most famous American example is bourbon. I don't happen to

drink much bourbon, but the bourbon industry started to sound interesting when we did a three-part

series on the horse industry. That series is called The Horse Is Us, if you'd like to listen.

One interesting feature of the thoroughbred horse market is how

concentrated it is in one relatively small area, the bluegrass region surrounding Lexington,

Kentucky. Can you guess another industry that is concentrated in one small part of Kentucky? Correct.

Bourbon. So we thought we'd poke around that industry to see what we can learn. Just one episode, though, not three. We will look at how time functions as an investment input. And along the way, we will ask a lot of questions, like why is bourbon manufacturing so concentrated in Kentucky?

They talk about the limestone, the same thing that makes fast racehorses.

But do we also detect a note of protectionism?

You do have to admit, it's a bit convenient.

That said, the industry has a problem.

We don't have a quality problem.

We have a quantity problem.

Demand for bourbon is shrinking.

New tariffs are scrambling global trade.

And bourbon is getting a little bit glutty.

Currently, there are 16 million barrels of bourbon aging in the state of Kentucky.

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