GOD HELP ME, I’m a bourbon nerd. Not by choice, believe me. I was once like you. I used to walk into my local packy, find the bottle I wanted on the shelf, go home and drink it while I watched the Sox, and I was happy. Now I lurk in subreddits and drive twisting back roads through neighboring states, hunting down out-of-the-way places that might have a few dusties or maybe, just maybe, an elusive unicorn.

Good bourbon used to be cheap and easy to find, snubbed by critics and connoisseurs in favor of single-malt Scotch, with...