Category: Spirits, Wine & Cider

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Bourbon & Kentucky Report # 2

Tuesday was no reservation day. We picked three distilleries and walked in to see what they had to offer. First up was Heaven Hill and their stable of brands. I picked….

…the Heaven Hill Family Flight with the Evan Williams coming out the winner. The bar was cool as was the history exhibit of the five brothers that have run the distillery.

Stops two and three were Preservation and Makers Mark. Both had great grounds but S IV was more my style. Even on a Tuesday, it was a real cool spot down in a hollow with a creek running through it and bourbon slushies. And black and red coordinated buildings.

Back in the town, we made several visits to the oldest bourbon bar at the Old Talbott Tavern which is where we were staying. It doesn’t really play up the historical aspect as much as I expected and the drinks were fine but I had classier presented drinks. I had more beers there than bourbon.

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Bourbon & Kentucky Report # 1

Travel Day Sunday went smoothly from LAX to Muhammad Ali Airport. Once settling in near the Ohio River, it was time to find some bourbon. And find a flight of rye we did at Doc Crow’s on Main Street with Michters coming out on top of the four.

With the New Riff, second. The middle pair were too hot on the palate for me. Then to finish off the night, my first ever Mint Julep…

Monday brought rain and the Frazier Museum to get some Bourbon history. There was a really well done interactive portion as well including a put the barrel back together section. Plus the gift store has a great selection of Kentucky gifts.

After a horsey detour to the famous Churchill Downs, we headed down to the bourbon capital, Bardstown. Where we are staying at the oldest hotel in the area plus it has the oldest bourbon bar. More on that later. The first distillery stop and only one open in our Monday time frame was Boundary Oak near Fort Knox.

I would avoid the lavender and cinnamon versions and stick to the classic named My Old Kentucky Home which had a nice kick and a really nice corn taste to it. The cask strength Lincoln was nice too.

More bourbon to come!

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McMinnville in Dec/Jan

My alma mater, Linfield is is going to wine (no dine) visitors to McMinnville as they are set to take over a former wine bar space on Third Street in downtown McMinnville. It will reopen in December or January as a wine bar and learning lab for the university interdisciplinary wine studies program.

All the details can be found HERE.

Once that is up and running maybe they can branch out into craft beer.

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Bourbon Nerd

Education is often cited with craft beer. Education about styles. Education about hops and malts. And in my bourbon learning, I have found a tutorial 101 series of video lessons from The Bourbon Nerd.

Now if we can get videos from the IPA Nerd or Lager Nerd for beer learning.

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Spirited Brewery # 1 – Fermentery Form

This month I am going to highlight breweries in towns rich in distilled history as well as breweries, we start in Pennsylvania where Rye is king at Fermentery Form.

Slo Mo 2020 – “blended from 2 year old barrels from our Solera, and aged on cherry and blackberry purée. It tastes of bright, lush cherries, with just a touch of blackberry jam, finishing light and refreshing.”

Carménère – “a blend of 5 barrels that refermented on whole Carménère wine grapes for around 3 months. The resulting beer has a beautiful purple color, a lovely barrel aroma, and drinks like a wonderful marriage of the grape and the selected beer.”

Vieux Selection – “culmination of 3 years of careful beer preservation and maturation in oak barrels. We’ve been inspired to do much of what we do, but the tradition of Belgian Lambic. Our favorite being Geuze, the blend of 1, 2 and 3 year old barrel aged beers. While our process differs from traditional Lambic in significant ways, the inspiration still comes through in the bottle. This beer has complex layers of flavor that come from the careful selection of barrels to blend. The aroma is earthy, minerally and spicy, the taste is a balance of tart fruits, woody resinous sweetness, and pithy bitterness. While being one of the most complex beers we have ever made, it’s still easy to drink.”

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No Blazer Digits

Since I am in Portland, thoughts turn to my beloved Blazers and former player who almost got us a second ‘ship. Scottie Pippen.

Pippen has teamed with Dave Phinney to create a new bourbon, Digits with a ring absent hand on the label

Here are the details from the distillery.

Barrels
“Each barrel is hand-selected for it’s unique attributes by Dave & Scottie. The youngest Bourbon in the blend is five years old. The barrels were sourced from Indiana and Tennessee and aged at Savage & Cooke on historic Mare Island.”

Mash Bill
75% Corn, 21% Rye, 4% Malted Barley

Profile
“In a true reflection of Scottie, the mature Bourbon is lush, velvety and a pleasure to drink with no hard edges.  DIGITS is packed with flavors of vanilla bean, caramel, buttered toast and maple.  Enjoy neat or on the rocks.”

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Lolo Yolo

There is a new non-alcoholic hopped seltzer based in Oregon called Lolo Hops.

The drinks are hoppee with Pacific Northwest-grown hops, and come in three flavors (two of which are non hoppy flavors) Pomelo Sage, Yuzu Orange Blossom, and Cascadia Field Blend.

Hopefully more “just the hops please” flavors will be added. Aurora Elixirs which is the company making these also do CBD drinks as well. That is a negative to me but to others it is a good sign.

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Raise the Flag

Staying on the topic of Gin. Here is a bit of history from the fine folks at 33 Books…

“While researching 33 Jiggers of Gin, I became fascinated with a historical tradition of the British Navy based around a triangular piece of fabric known as a “Gin Pennant.” As the story goes, officers of one ship would raise it to invite officers of nearby ships for cocktails (usually gin-based, because England).”

Now I just need flags for beer, cider and bourbon.

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Time for Old Tom

I am an inveterate gin dabbler but I have two glaring historical holes in my learning, Genever and Old Tom. Finally, thanks to Barkeeper in Virgil Village in L.A., I have ticked the latter from my to-do list.

I picked up the beautifully attired Hayman’s Old Tom.

As the English distillery describes it, “Today it’s a less familiar style of gin, but it is still a bartender’s favourite when making cocktails such as the Martinez, Tom Collins and Ramos Gin Fizz. The generous quantities of botanicals used in our family recipe create a bold citrus and juniper pine character that is smooth and beautifully delicate with a subtle underlying sweetness.”

The nose of this is quite hot. Clears the mind and the sinus for sure. Once past that, this is a delightful gin. Super smooth and quite perfumey. Not getting citrus but there is a slight bit of lavender that is great. For me, this is one of the very few gins that I could drink straight. But I think it would make a really nice martini.