Innholdsfortegnelse for March 2020 i American Whiskey Magazine

Imagine standing in a river in the Rocky Mountains, wearing chest waders and fly fishing with your friends. You’ve just returned from Scotland and the memories of distilleries are still fresh in your mind. The reality of returning to your job is setting in, even as hard as you are trying to stave off reality for just another day. Then suddenly off in the distance, an opera singer begins a melody, her voice echoing off the hard surfaces of the quiet mountain peaks, perfectly audible over the sound of the babbling snow melt in which you are standing. Suddenly it hits you: this is the spot where you should open a whiskey distillery. These stories are in abundance in the craft industry these days and it’s just that sort of…

Up Down Cigar was started by a woman in 1962. Manager Phil Ledbetter says: “It was given its name because it was across three different floors. It was a hodge-podge art gallery on one floor, a bunch of hippie stuff from the 60s including paper dresses on one floor, then in the basement was a lot of roll-your-own tobacco, cigarette papers, pipe tobacco and pipes. She really got into the tobacco side of things and wanted to learn more. “Her name was Diana Silvius. She was really a pioneer in her retail method and was one of the first retailers to ask to go to the cigar factories in the Dominican [Republic] and see them. No one could question her knowledge and ability in what she was doing. She really…

In the 19th century, thanks to a concentration of Bourbon-related businesses including distillery offices, warehouses and shipping companies, a multi-block stretch of Louisville’s Main Street was known as Whiskey Row. Commercially devastated by Prohibition, today the street has made a comeback as a corridor of museums, Bourbon distilleries, hotels and restaurants. The 21c Museum Hotel on Main Street is both a contemporary art museum and a boutique hotel. Its tagline is “Sleep with art”. While virtually every hotel in the city has a bar with a great Bourbon list, visitors to the city can also “sleep with Bourbon” in accommodations specially targeted to their whiskey enthusiasm. Here are five places we recommend. LOUISVILLE MARRIOTT EAST 1903 Embassy Square Blvd. Louisville, KY 40299 502-491-1184 www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/sdfl-louisville-marriott-east/ The Louisville Marriott East is the…

With Scotch, Irish, other European, Japanese, and Indian spirits, the world’s whiskey mash bills are dominated by barley. In North America corn and rye have major, indeed starring roles with barley as a supporting player. But American distilleries great and small have, in recent years, branched out botanically and started to produce whiskeys that utilize other, less traditional fermented grains. Among these grains are oats, millet, spelt, rice and sorghum. There’s also a grain that attentive fans of the original Star Trek television series might remember being mentioned decades before its discovery by our distillers. In the 1967 episode The Trouble with Tribbles, the Starship Enterprise and crew are called upon to escort a cargo vessel carrying a vital grain supply. The official in charge of the cargo wants Captain…

Daniel Callaway has successfully combined his love of culinary and cocktail creation, with an artistic flair. The assistant vice president, customer relations at Bardstown Bourbon Company was introduced to Louisville through his love of music, the city in which he decided to settle and jumpstart his career in spirits. In the present day, Dan is a certified sommelier and cultivates a world-class bar program that focuses on balanced yet thoughtful hand-crafted cocktails using fresh ingredients. With his renowned and transparent approach to the industry, looking to represent everyone from the casual consumer to the spirits connoisseur, we can’t wait to see what he’ll take to our island. WHISKEY #1 Old Overholt Distilled in 1909, bottled 1919 This rare vintage, from the estate of Andrew Mellon Scaife, is a holy grail…

Bourbon and Blues both originated in an agricultural environment as a by-product of corn and cotton. The two resisted authority. They both went into steep declines, but managed to resurface time and again. Neither Prohibition nor Depression nor Segregation could kill them. They left their birth grounds to settle elsewhere. Today only a few whiskey distilleries can be found in Bourbon County, Kentucky and the Blues music industry is far removed from the Mississippi Delta. However, both icons toured the world and took center stage, not ever to be thrown off. I think they do well together. Time to do a sound-check. Where Jim Beam might be called the King of Bourbon, Koko Taylor certainly earned her nickname as Queen of the Blues. There are more comparisons to be made…

The Windy City is serious about cocktails, particularly when they involve whiskey. There’s a great deal of pride that comes with all things Chicago; people really love to support local distilleries and cocktail bars that highlight and support whiskey culture. Chicago is a melting pot city, which is evident in the various ways that people enjoy their cocktails and overall drinking culture. But with that also comes a great deal of tourism and the bars and restaurants are ready for that, too. CHICAGO, BOURBON AND COCKTAILS, OH MY! It gets cold in Chicago, but other than that the weather is pretty similar to other places in the midwest. Does that influence the drinking culture in the Windy City? “People in Chicago love whiskey, especially in winter,” says Flora Fauna co-owner…

Arecent online Tennesseetraveller’s review, signed Becky W. Louisville, reads: “Just outside Franklin, Leiper’s Fork Distillery has a terrific tour. Our guide, Pops, made each of us feel like family. While he had a whole routine of jokes, he also had a wealth of knowledge about Tennessee whiskey. Not generally being a whiskey drinker, Pops made me appreciate the taste. Informative, yet hilarious… oh, and he taught us to speak Tennessee.” Happily, I am a whiskey drinker. Back in 2006 I explored Leiper’s Fork Distillery [LFD] just a few short weeks before this rustically impressive distillery’s official opening. I remember that trip well, admiring proprietor Lee Kennedy’s impressive frontier-style wooden buildings, soon-to-be visitor centre and expansive mash room. We sampled young Old Natchez Trace White Rye, labelled Batch 070116125, 110 proof,…

As is to be expected with the incredible growth we have been witnessing in the American whiskey industry, across the full spectrum from craft to conglomerate, it has been yet another great year for the World Whiskies Awards. We are thrilled to announce the winner results, including the World's Best Bourbon, World's Best Single Barrel Bourbon and World's Best Tennessee whiskey and the Best winner results from the US. Ironroot Republic Harbinger 115 PROOF | 57.5% ABV A punch of alcohol on the nose, kettle corn, salted caramel and vanilla. Full-bodied and strong with a caramel sweetness, liquorice and dried fruits. Rounding out with a long finish of oak and spice. Rebel Yell Single Barrel 10 Years Old 100 PROOF | 50% ABV A sweet nose with salted caramel, vanilla…

KOVAL DISTILLERY In 2008, Dr. Robert Birnecker and Dr. Sonat Birnecker Hart chose to leave academia and move from Washington, DC to Chicago in order to open the Windy City’s first distillery since the mid-1800s. Robert’s Austrian family had distilling roots and the pair wanted to make organic, Kosher-certified spirits. Since then Koval Distillery, the name of which means ‘black sheep’ in Yiddish, has won awards for spirits and bottle design while producing some genuinely out-of-the-box spirits such as four grain whiskey made of oat, malted barley, rye and wheat and a Bourbon with millet as the flavoring grain. “We were house hunting in DC, and after realizing that we didn’t really like any of the homes we could afford (and couldn’t afford any that we liked), we decided that…

Jeff Baker wants to taste the terroir in his whiskey. “Why aren’t more people making estate whiskey like wine?” says the former farmer turned whiskey maker. A native New Yorker, Baker grew up working on farms as a kid and in 1986 took his turn in agriculture, first jumping into the dairy business before moving on to beef. Nearly 30 years later, Baker, along with wife Cathy Franklin, found a renewed passion in farming and distil one of the cleanest, field-to-glass expressions of New York State whiskey at Hillrock Estate Distillery. Moment to moment, Baker is like a walking encyclopedia of American distilling, quipping about a time when there were 1,000 farm distilleries flourishing in the region. In the 19th century, New York State was the top producer of barley…

Sometimes it’s all in the name. After my years of working in spirits’ corporate America, you learn the importance of a title. Blasphemy in our industry is not having an enduring respect for the title of master distiller. We color outside the lines with the title(s) of ambassador, or steward, as they tend to evolve to someone who has a mix of production knowledge and brand and sales savvy. Qualifications for such a position vary between experience, technical and academic skills, yet sometimes it is purely on-the-job training. Possibly I’m jaded, but no matter the title, we as consumers need to understand and appreciate the important role of the ambassadors and stewards behind the brand. No disrespect to the famous rock star master distillers – these spirit warriors are boots…