[2] Bourbon County is part of the Lexington-Fayette, KY Metropolitan Statistical Area.

It is one of Kentucky's nine original counties, and is best known for its historical association with bourbon whiskey.

Bourbon County was established in 1785 from a portion of Fayette County, Virginia,[3][4] and named after the French House of Bourbon,[5] in gratitude for Louis XVI of France's assistance during the American Revolutionary War.

[8][9] As it was made mostly from corn (maize), it had a distinctive flavor, and the name bourbon came to be used to distinguish it from other regional whiskey styles, such as Monongahela, a product of western Pennsylvania, which may have generally been a rye whiskey.

The use of the term Old in the phrase Old Bourbon, was likely misconstrued as a reference to the aging of the whiskey rather than part of the name of the geographic area.

[7] Except for a few distilleries that were authorized to produce it for medicinal purposes, the bourbon industry was wiped out in 1919 when Prohibition took effect.

[10] Within the boundaries of Bourbon County as it stands today there were, by some counts, 26 distilleries.

This large stream is a principal tributary of the South Fork of the Licking River.

Due to agricultural development, very little of the county's land area can be characterized as forested, though deciduous trees are a common feature of the landscape.