We were happy (and fortunate) to attend an event at the Pendennis Club, a lush private gentleman's club which is apparently the birthplace of the Old Fashioned. I also had a bourbon based slushy at a fantastic barbeque joint downtown. I drank a variety of bourbon infused drinks at the trendy 8UP restaurant overlooking the city late one night. Okay, maybe two nights.
We were intrigued by tales of the elusive Pappy Van Winkle Family Reserve 23 year-old bourbon that sells for a small fortune, if you can find it. It's all very hush hush and on the down-low, a brilliant marketing strategy. The distillery making Pappy Van Winkle only releases stock once a year. Small-batch, indeed! In fact, this is what they say on their web site about finding it:
"We know our whiskey can be difficult to find, so our advice is to ask retailers in your area if they expect to receive stock, and if so, how they plan to sell it. Many retailers use a lottery or a waiting list to sell our stock. We recommend you get on as many waiting lists and enter as many lotteries as you can.
We visited a candy store (Art Edibles) featuring small-batch bourbon truffles made by the first and only bourbon-certified chocolatier in the world. The salesperson gave us each a free Old Forester truffle to eat and then talked us through the resulting taste sensations as if we were embarking on a guided imagery meditation. It was transcendent. I may never be the same.Best of luck!"
We went to the Old Forester Distillery one afternoon for a tour. An image now burned into my brain is of a vast vat of fermenting whiskey, steamy hot of its own volition and bubbling away as it worked magic unto itself. It lives.
Good bourbon is a real treat.
ReplyDeleteSuper yummy!
DeleteI only know L'ville as the home of one of the best art shows in the country, St. James Court, and horses. Probably because I've never been attracted to drink.I found navigating all those ante-bellum streets a challenge, too. Maybe I should have sought out bourbon.
ReplyDeleteHa - maybe. It is a very hip place in a conservative part of the country. I found that a joy unto itself.
DeleteAs you say, a brilliant marketing strategy. At present Britain is perturbed by a maelstrom of new artisanal gins, hundreds of them, many at ridiculous prices. I've tasted quite a lot of wine (Once a 1944 burgundy, brewed when the Nazis were still in charge in France. Price to my host, who was paying: £450 if it turned out to be over the hill, £560 if it was OK) and I've backed my judgment with thousands of pounds spent over the decades. But tasting liquor demands iron control. Three tastes (ie, minuscule droplets) and your palate is effectively paralysed; distrust all further decisions. Faced with fifty new gins, as I was a few days ago, to quote Clint Eastwood "I recognised my limitations." and turned away
ReplyDeleteThere is a way round this which I employed for assessing bourbon when I lived in the US. I got the list from the Pennsylvania State Liquor Store, and drank my way through it, one bottle per week. over two or three months. But you're ahead of me. Booze is a source of transcendentalism and yours was the way to go. My way, in retrospect, was that of a CPA.
I'm delighted you still had the ability to distinguish between one and two (nights) at the downtown restaurant. How about a cheroot to go with those "bourbon infused drinks". Is it the first usage this year with "infused". This decade?
BTW the subject of husband/wife telepathy has evolved at Tone Deaf.
Thanks, Robbie - always informative and interesting! Had I smoked I would have thrown up immediately. I never could smoke, as hard as I tried as a teenager. However, I am now wondering about the difference between a cheroot and a tapered cigar.
DeleteCan't wait to hear more about the husband/wife telepathy. Going in now to see if you've written about it.
In an episode of The Ranch this season, they "drink" Pappy Van Winkle! At the time, I had no idea it was such a big deal! What a cool trip!
ReplyDeleteSo fun!
DeleteSince you asked (over in Tone Deaf)...
ReplyDeleteThe Burgundy was a Richebourg from the Cotes de Nuit. It was in remarkably good condition given it was 49 years old. The best Burgundy I've tasted but not the best red wine. My father was a Bordeaux enthusiast and I have routinely drunk great clarets from Bordeaux's "big five" (Ch. Latour, Ch Haut- Brion, Ch Lafite, Ch Margaux, etc) from his cellar.
My host thus had to pay £560 ($709) for his bottle, an impulse buy at a lunch to celebrate my last day in his employment before my retirement. That sounds a lot but in fact he got away with murder. I've just checked the the list of Berry Bros & Rudd, St James St, London (the Queen's wine supplier) where a case of six 1999 Richebourgs can set you back £34,500 - that's £5750 a bottle.
But I didn't want to rain on your parade with all these ridiculous figures. I was charmed with your pursuit of bourbon and I hope very soon you get to taste that 28-year-old Van Winkle, preferably paid for by Donald Trump and with him watching
I like the way you think.
DeleteSuddenly I want a bourbon truffle. It sounds like the kind of transcendent treat I could practice everyday!
ReplyDeleteYou can order them from Art Edibles - the link is above. Wonderful.
DeleteI'm a big fan of bourbon, and drink it neat and I also love distillery tours. They served bourbon truffles at the tasting at the Woodford distillery. The Pappy is out of our reach, but we do have some bottles of two kinds of the Weller (Antique 107 and the Special Reserve). We've not gotten our hands on a bottle of the 12-year, but I had some at my Dad's funeral. Damned good stuff.
ReplyDeleteApparently Weller and Pappy are the same thing. They are both made at Buffalo Trace. The owner and distiller periodically (like after 10 years) taste the Weller from the barrels, and set aside the superior which then gets stored differently and becomes Pappy Van Winkle. So I would like to try some Weller.
DeleteI know precious little about bourbon except that my son loves it and that there is a bourbon and distillery that carries our family name--no relation.
ReplyDeleteI am now hoping to make it to Kentucky. Yum.