Standing next to half a dozen white oak barrels full of aging Kentucky bourbon, on the floor of his small Louisville, Ky., distillery, Victor Yarbrough holds up his laptop and starts reading his emails.
As the co-founder of Brough Brothers Distillery, he’s visibly taken aback by what’s landed in his inbox. And as a polite businessman, there’s some of it he will not say out loud.
There are roughly 50 emails in total, and most of them negative. Some of them are angry; a few are even explicit.
“You are heading for a full recession in the states with these moronic tariffs and talk of the 51st state bullshit,” says one email. “I’m just a farmer here in Canada but even I know this Canadian and probably world boycott could last four years.”
Another reads: “Kentucky’s problem is that people don’t realize that when you vote republican [you] get f—-d again,” which seems to be some sort of play on U.S. President Donald Trump’s slogan to Make America Great Again.
The e-mails started shortly after Yarborough made appearances on both Canadian and American news outlets, talking about how the tariffs have negatively affected his business, Brough Brothers Distillery, the only Black-owned bourbon distillery in Kentucky.
“Ultimately I think from what I’ve seen — it’s not really about tariffs, it’s more about the sovereignty of Canada, I think is what’s really coming through in these emails,” said Yarbrough.
He calls the content shocking and hurtful, especially with years of fond memories of vacations to Toronto before he became a father.
“I love Canada,” he said.
After Trump imposed tariffs on some Canadian goods, Canada retaliated with a tariff package of its own, and some provinces decided to pull American alcohol, including Kentucky bourbon, off of store shelves.
For Victor Yarborough of Louisville’s Brough Brothers Distillery, the raging trade war between Canada and the U.S. is impacting the Kentucky bourbon maker’s bottom line. But it’s also making its way into his inbox in shocking ways.
This happened as Yarbrough was in the process of negotiating a deal with New Brunswick to expand his sales into Canada. The goal was exporting roughly 10,000 bottles of bourbon into the province this year. Yarborough says the province put those negotiations on hold due to the ongoing trade war.
“These are really strong emails that we get and, unfortunately … the negative implication for us is that, hey, we are the bad guys here,” Yarbrough told CBC News during an interview at his distillery.
“We’re just stuck in the middle,” he said. “I think tariffs aren’t good for anyone.”
Canada sours on American whiskey
Kentucky’s alcohol industry was facing some troubles before the trade war officially began. In January, Brown-Forman — which produces well-known bourbon brands such as Jack Daniel’s, Woodford Reserve and Old Forester — announced it would be cutting its global workforce by 12 per cent, which includes about 200 jobs at one of its Louisville plants that constructs barrels.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear says he worries there could be widespread job losses if there is not a resolution to the tariff dispute.
“It’s still early, but what we’re seeing is some layoffs in the bourbon industry, [in] both bottling plants and one of our larger distillers,” he said during an interview with CBC News at the state house in the capital of Frankfort.
He added they’re “also seeing some real concern amongst our farmers about the amount of food that we export throughout the world.”
Kentucky exported more than $47-billion US worth of goods last year, with Canada its largest customer accounting for more than $9 billion of those sales.
While bourbon is not the top export — it’s actually products related to the aerospace industry — the spirit is what the state is best known for. And it’s become a symbolic target for Canadian retaliation.
“The governor of Kentucky said don’t touch our bourbon. I said, ‘Governor that’s the first thing we’re going after,'” said an angry Ontario Premier Doug Ford when announcing his response to U.S. tariffs.
“We’re the largest purchaser of bourbon in the world, for Kentucky bourbon manufacturers, they’re done, they’re gone,” Ford told reporters in early March.
Beshear, a Democrat who is vocally opposed to tariffs, says that’s not how he remembers his conversation with Ford.
“There wasn’t any macho back-and-forth, we were both talking about how tariffs will hurt both of our countries,” he said.
Ontario is pulling 3,600 U.S. products off LCBO shelves in response to Trump’s tariffs, with Premier Doug Ford encouraging people to buy Canadian brands instead.
Canada’s response is understandable, Beshear says, but he suggests targeting Kentucky is unfair because so many of its political leaders are advocating against Trump’s tariff policy.
“I get that you’re going to stand up for yourselves, that’s what we would all do, but be strategic,” he said.
“Having tariffs that just respond to all American products, you know, doesn’t differentiate again between those who are speaking up and out about how tariffs hurt … and those who are blindly supporting the president.”
‘Have to be patient’: Kentucky Trump supporter
Despite consequences for the bourbon industry, there remains plenty of support for Trump in Kentucky. He won the state in all three of his presidential races, earning nearly 65 per cent of the vote in 2024, up from 62 per cent in both 2020 and 2016.
“I love everything he’s doing,” said Ted Jackson, a Louisville-based businessman who sells cigars online and has a website that sells Trump merchandise.
“I trust President Trump and the team. This idea on tariffs is not something that he just dreamed up overnight, there’s been a lot of discussion, a lot of planning, a lot of justification for it.”
Trump has long argued that his trade agenda will help rebuild American manufacturing, and that companies will build new factories in the U.S. in order to avoid paying tariffs. Though he has acknowledged there may be some “disruptions” to the cost of living.
“Ultimately it’ll all work out. There may be some bruises along the way, but he’s trying to do something … he’s trying to fix something,” Jackson said.
“The bourbon industry is not going to go away in Kentucky, and people have to be patient and in time all will right itself.”
Trump voters in rural parts of the state shared similar attitudes. They’re weary about tariffs, but believe the President when he says in the long run this will help the economy.
“I think he is excellent,” said Steve Stinnett, a retiree who spoke with CBC News at a riverside park in Meade County.
Stinnett says he stands by his vote, even though he may get caught in the trade war.
“The tariffs that probably will affect me will be on any future car purchases. I hate the fact it’s going to cause that kind of situation upon the American citizens as well as the Canadian citizens.”
Sue Troutman, a retired bartender, says she’s also willing to give Trump the benefit of the doubt.
“If he thinks it can help, more power to him. But he needs to realize he may be hurting some of the American people and the other countries,” Troutman said.
She says she doesn’t regret her vote for Trump either, though she’s less enthusiastic than some of her fellow Trump supporters.
“When the election came around, he was the better of two evils,” she said.
“He said he was going to help the American people. Let’s hope he does.”
